Welcome to Gaia! ::

he he he...
nice ending!

looking forward to the next chapter!! * you only post when people review, right?*

i LOVED it!!!!!!1 especially the ending! it was awesome....very creative and thoughtful!!!!!!!!!

oh wow!! thats great i hope you have fun!

that would be nice.. double..*drools*

you are such a good writer ^ ^

Title: For the Love of My Friends
Chapter 11: Physical and Mental Wounds
Rating: Mature

[I promised a double Chapter, so the next will be posted rather quickly, tomorrow morning is the best guess. Enjoy this chapter]

The other four ninjas were quiet for a moment, trying to digest that little tidbit of information. Gai recovered first, and naturally assumed the wrong thing.

"Ha! The Hokage realized you didn't have it in you to train the easily impressionable youths of Kohona, so he decided you should train the village's summon animals!" he laughed in an annoying way, greatly satisfied. "That is one more win I have over you, my greatly esteemed rival!"

Both Kakashi and Tenten sweat dropped. The Hyuuga rolled his eyes, and Lee held on to the squirrel for dear life, nodding enthusiastically with Gai. Oh brother.. the squirrel thought, half of her face smashed against Lee's cheek.

Kakashi looked over at Neji, hoping that the 'Gai-ness' disease hadn't corrupted him. All he saw was a mixture of cold amusement and annoyance. "Hyuuga. Let go of the bird." he said. Neji was only too happy to, the raven having pecked his way through most of the bandages on his hands and leaving scratches. He gently disengaged the raven's claws from his hands and let him go.

The raven cawed in triumph, and exploded into smoke. Then there was a pale skinned, dark haired boy staring at them from a slightly crouched position several meters ahead of them. His equally dark eyes watched their every movement, not even blinking when a gust of air made his long bangs dance along his jaw.

Wow.. he's hot. was Tenten's first thought. The fox in her grasp yawned and stopped struggling, deciding that her shoulder was as good as place as any to take a nap. And poke fun at his team mates. Tenten watched him warily, but when he merely settled down to hang off of her shoulder, she relaxed, the slight weight on her shoulder oddly comforting.

Hmph. An Uchiha. Neji thought. I wonder how the power of the last of that tragic genius clan would match up to a Hyuuga's.

What a pretty squirrel! Lee hadn't noticed, or rather didn't care that one of the 'possessed' animals had reverted into a human state, his short attention span that came with anything that did not regard fighting in any way glued on the struggling rodent in his hand. I shall name her Squee!

"You see, Gai, my students are very tricky indeed." Kakashi said in a bored tone. "Gai clone. Let the squirrel go."

Lee hugged the squirrel to his chest, appalled at being ordered to let his new friend go. She turned almost as green as his jumpsuit. "Never! Squee is mine!" Passionate tears shimmered in his eyes. "It was fate that brought us here together, and destiny that will keep us toget- Squee! Where are you going?!" the squirrel had wiggled out of his grasp, and with speed and agility born of terror, she made it to Sasuke's side unscathed.

Tenten and Neji watched with no little amusement as Lee mourned over the loss of his new friend. The tan fox jumped down from his perch, careful not to hurt Tenten with his claws. He spat out his reward for being such a good 'search and rescuer' and sat on his haunches, scratching at his imaginary fleas.

A cloud of smoke covered the squirrel's small form. Sliding to a crouched position beside Sasuke, Sakura watched the new team with wary eyes. Who are these guys? she wondered, shivering at the Hyuuga's cold pupil less eyes. And.. Lee winked at her, his eyes in the shape of hearts. She reeled back, her left eyebrow twitching. Inner Sakura screamed in horror, the kind that only a girl like her, someone who had the sense not to put green and orange together and parade around in, could feel.

Gai, a little off to the side, watched them with pride, enjoying the clash between his team and Kakashi's. "Isn't youth such an inspirational and lovely thing?" Gai murmured dreamily.

"Hm? What did you say?" Kakashi's nose was buried deep in his book. Gai turned red with anger at the sight of such an inappropriate book within such close range of easily corrupted minds, but composed himself.

"That was a good one, rival Kakashi! It's somewhat modern and it pisses me off.."

Lee was in love. Imagine, such a beautiful squirrel was also such a beautiful woman! He blew her a kiss.

"Eeep!" Sakura dodged the strange projectile. Breathing in and out, she tried to calm herself, tried to convince herself this was just a horrible, horrible nightmare. After all, what could possibly possess not one, but two people to run around in what looked like green and orange leotards.

"You know, Lee... Some girls shy away from such up front tactics..." a voice drawled from behind them, lacking the seriousness of Sasuke and Sakura. Tenten felt a cold chill run down her spine. The fox..!

Gai's team turned around to see a blonde haired ninja calmly sitting on the ground. He had three faint whisker marks on each side of his face and the brightest blue eyes any of them had ever seen. He kicked his feet a little like a child, making dust fly around. He grinned at Lee.

"Although I warn you.. You have very major competition in that area, by the name of Uchiha Sasuke." he said helpfully, nodding in the Uchiha's direction and ignoring Sakura's glares and the mouthed 'Are you trying to make me have a heart attack?!'

Lee nodded seriously. "I'll take that into account. Thank you.." he trailed off, not knowing the boy's name.

"Naruto." the blonde said, a smile tugging the corners of his lips up.

"Right. Thank you, Naruto-kun." he turned back to Sasuke, the fires of passion burning in his eyes. "Rival!" he shouted, shaking a fist at the dark haired boy.

Sasuke, deciding that things had gone far enough and quietly diagnosing Lee as legally insane, pushed Sakura behind him. A strange feeling, like how he felt when his father acknowledged Itachi as his son but not Sasuke, like how he felt when Naruto easily wielded his chakra like a master swordsmen with a katana after years of being the dead last of their group, directed his actions. He could not put a name on what he felt, but hell was going to freeze over before this weird thick browed guy did anything with..

Sasuke realized what he was feeling with a jolt. He was jealous.

Shaking his head, he laughed at himself. Him? Uchiha Sasuke, jealous? And all over Sakura? Either someone was smoking magic mushrooms, or.. maybe he did have a heart lying underneath all that ice. Not liking either prospect, he stared Lee down, ready to attack if the guy did anything weird.

Sasuke blinked and the eyebrowed menace was no longer in front of him.

"My lovely angel! I ask but one thing of you, before I set out into the cruel world of the ninja." A dramatic voice said behind him. Sasuke whipped around. That speed..! Lee held Sakura's hands in his, tears running down his cheeks. "What is the name, dare I ask, of such a lovely piece of art?"

Tenten backed up, a sweat drop forming. Laaame.. She looked to Neji, hoping for some relief out of this madness, to find the Hyuuga meditating with his back to a tree. Unflappable, that one.. she thought fondly, taking a seat next to him, careful not to invade his bubble.

Naruto popped up at Lee's elbow. "Her name is Haruno Sakura! She's twelve years old, graduated at the top of our class, lives at 564 Lotu-" Sakura started to wring his neck.

"Whose side are you on!? Stop giving out my personal information!" she cried out. Naruto turned blue.

"B-but, S-Sakura-chan.. I'm t-trying to help you get a b-boyfriend!" he gasped out. She dropped him when his face started to resemble a purple grape, a vein twitching in her -charmingly- wide forehead.

Was her love life so horrible that Naruto- of all people- was trying to help her out of it? She shivered and turned away from them, never mind that she was a twelve year old girl who was far too young to have anything resembling a love life.

The clock, balanced so precariously on one of the logs, rang. Naruto and Sakura jumped in surprise.

"Well.." Kakashi murmured lazily. "Looks like this practice is over. Since you let them distract you, you all fail."

A dead silence met that simple declaration.

Neji let out a small 'hn', his eyes still closed. Tenten gave them sympathetic looks.

Naruto felt a cold stab of panic. No.. This.. This isn't supposed to happen! What did I do wrong?!

Sasuke paled, then straightened, his eyes focused on the ground. In his mind, Itachi looked coldly at him. 'Weak'. His inner Itachi spat, and walked away. Will I.. ever become strong enough to defeat him..?

"B-but Kakashi-sensei.. We got both bells from you.." Sakura said in a quivering tone. Lee nodded, not quite understanding, but still wanting to help his crush out in anyway possible. Kakashi struggled.

"Too bad. I make the rules." his eye shifted from Sakura to Naruto, a hidden meaning trying to be expressed. Naruto blinked and then Kakashi was reading his book. What..? "In the ninja world, a ninja cannot be distracted from his or her goal. Not by his enemies, not by his friends. Not ever." Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets, clenching his teeth together. Damn.. Dammit to hell! His fingers closed over a squarish item in his pocket. Huh..?

"Rival! I must question your tactics.." Gai said, breaking the longest period of time he had ever been quiet and somewhat still.

"Don't. This is my exam. My rules. My choice. Back off." Kakashi said in a monotone. He couldn't help but feel disappointed. He thought for sure that this team was going to be the one.

They were okay with team work but.. there was so much more to being a team than just tolerating each other. So much more than three people who had conflicting feelings for each other uniting together for a common goal.

His exam had everything to do with sacrifice, and nearly nothing to do with team work. A harsh lesson he had learned at the end of his boyhood, a lesson he refused to let happen to anyone else.

"Kakashi.." he heard his voice whispered in an ominous tone. He blinked and looked up. Naruto had a wicked look on his face.

"You.. You are going to let.." Naruto murmured in that same calm and eerie tone. "Sakura-chan and Sasuke-b*****d pass." Kakashi arched an eyebrow in amusement.

"What makes you think I'm going to do that?" he asked, genuinely curious. Naruto grinned in a parody of a feral smile.

"'Cause I have a hostage.." Cold terror gripped Kakashi for the briefest of moments. His thoughts were jumbled up and incomplete. Kyuubi....village.. Hokage.. Naruto! He mentally shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts. Naruto's not the Kyuubi.. he told himself firmly.

Outwardly, he was calm. "Oh, really? Everyone I have ever cared about is dead. Who could you possibly have that I'd care about their life?" He nearly flinched when he saw the sadness engulf those bright blue eyes for a moment, only to be chased away by hard headed mischievousness.

"Not who, what.." Naruto said with a grin. "I'll give you a hint.. the temperature at which books burn is 451 degrees Fahrenheit.." Kakashi let out a pained gasp slip out of his covered mouth.

"You wouldn't..! You.. couldn't!" the jonin said, holding his hand over his heart like he had received a mortal wound. Nearly all of the seriousness had been sapped out of the atmosphere.

"I can, and I will. If you ever want to read it, you better pass them.. or else..." Sasuke, Lee, and Sakura looked back and forth like spectators at a ping pong match.

Tenten frowned. What were they talking about? Neji scoffed. He had one good idea about what it was the blond was threatening Kakashi with. And because he was a genius, he was right.

Naruto whipped out the thing in his pocket, which was, low and behold, Icha Icha Paradise, Volume IV- Rainy Day Special! He cackled evilly. "Hm.. the summary.." Naruto opened the book. Gai started to stutter.

"Boy, don't read that! It'll corrupt your mind!" he said passionately, the self proclaimed protector of the innocent. Naruto scoffed.

"Hey, I'm the infamous creator of the Sexy no Jutsu, defeater of both Iruka-sensei in his scary mode and the Hokage. There no way I can be corrupted any further." And to prove his point, he flipped to a random page, and started to read out loud.

"'Rumiko leaned backward, a slight blush on her face. "Are you sure we should be doing this?" she asked in her sweet siren tone. "I mean.. my sister wake up at any moment.." Taka smirked and leaned his face in. "I actually surprised that she didn't wake up the last four times...'" Naruto looked up, a naughty look on his face. "Do you think Jiraiya is angling for a threesome?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes, annoyed at the fictional character's boast. "Taka so couldn't last four times.." the copy cat nin said, shaking his head. Naruto shrugged, flipping through a couple of pages. They both ignored the glowing faces of their companions.

"Maybe.." Naruto scrunched up his nose, quietly proud of himself for not blushing. But Volume IV is nothing like Volume X.. he told himself firmly. "Two for her, two for him?" Thinking for a moment, Kakashi nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds a bit more like it.." Sakura clamped her hands over her ears. I.. am not.. hearing this! Sasuke and Neji had faint pink blushes, both showing their annoyance and embarrassment in their own quiet ways.

Tenten, having a perverted brother herself, rolled her eyes, trying to distract herself with happy thoughts.

Bunnies.. and that new set of kunai at the weapons' shop... Neji shirtless... she nearly blushed at the last image. It had been a accident, she was sure of it. The Hyuuga had been cleaning off mud from his shirt in a river during a C class mission. She had happened to be assigned to collect water from that very river. Of course, she had turned around and waited for him to redress, but those five seconds she glimpsed him...

My my my.. It wasn't a rumor after all. Hyuugas are really well built. She glanced at Neji through her bangs. Tenten decided that he was cuter in a way because of that faint pink hue that had rested on his cheeks. Too bad he's a stiffer stiff than Uchiha.

Lee walked over and tugged on Kakashi's sleeve.

"Hey, what's a threesome?" the boy asked curiously. Kakashi looked delighted, clapping his hands together.

"Well, Lee, its when.." Gai had enough. He slung Lee over his shoulders, grabbed both Neji and Tenten each with one arm, bellowing, "Retreat!!" Kakashi snickered at the thick cloud of dust that was Gai running for his life and for his students' innocence.

"Point for me.." he said gleefully. Someone cleared their throat.

"The threat still stands.." Naruto said, an amused smirk on his face. "Pass them or else." Kakashi sighed in defeat.

"What else can I do? Those books are my life.." Naruto rolled his eyes. Pervert.. Wait a second... His eyes fixed on Kakashi's feet. He's giving up way too easily.. And.. why.. he's not casting a shadow!

Sensing someone behind him, he started to jump away, only to be halted by a firm grip on his arm. His arm was twisted and brought behind his back, the book easily taken from his grasp. Naruto felt a foot plant itself in the middle of his back, making him face fault into the ground.

"Naruto!" Sakura gasped out. Damn.. he did Bunshin no Jutsu when we were watching Gai! Sneaky b*****d! Sasuke thought angrily.

"My my my.. Naruto, you are an interesting guy.." Kakashi murmured, reading his new book. Naruto muttered a few curses into the ground, many of them muffled by the grass and dirt. "Hey, you're too young to cuss."

Naruto managed to pull his torso off the ground by a few inches. "Kiss.. my.. a**." he grounded out. Kakashi chuckled and patted his head.

"One question and I'll allow you three to go." Naruto reluctantly nodded. "You could have factored yourself in to that hostage plan, instead of just Sakura and Sasuke. Why didn't you?" Sasuke perked up. He was also curious why Naruto would do such a thing as well. The idiot was the one always bouncing around, yelling 'Hokage this' and 'Hokage that'. Why would he give up such a powerful dream?

Naruto sighed and turned his head so he wasn't eating grass. "I.. I wasn't really thinking about myself. All that mattered.. was getting Sasuke and Sakura past this test." he said softly. Then scoffed. "Besides, your rules were dumb. The ninja who'd rather follow rules to save their own a** and all that crap, instead of caring about what happens to their team mates.. is a lowly ninja indeed."

Kakashi was quiet, taking his foot off of the blond's back. Naruto pulled himself up, refusing to look at his two team mates. "Sorry you guys.." he whispered, walking away.

Naruto.. Sakura thought, humbled by Naruto's simple words. Sasuke suddenly smiled.

It make take a year or more to become a genin.. but with people like Naruto around.. it might not be so bad. They both pivoted and followed after Naruto, their heads held high.

A silly smile, hidden by his mask, engulfed Kakashi's face. Finally.. he thought, poofing away.

Naruto jumped back a few feet, startling Sasuke and Sakura, an instant before Kakashi appeared in front of them. His one visible eye was curved, his mask creased in what they could only guess to be a smile.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura.." he dragged it out a little longer, enjoying the surprise and annoyance on their faces. "You three pass the Genin Exam."


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"Haha! We passed! I'm the best!" The raucous voice yelled out, higher pitched yips joining it. Shikamaru rolled his eyes, tapping his fingers on the wooden counter, ignoring the bowl of ramen in front of him.

"Stop being such a troublesome guy, Kiba." he muttered. The dog boy rounded on him.

"Yeah, like you losers passed! You're just jealous!" Kiba laughed, his fangs flashing. Ino punched him in the head. He slumped over his chair, cradling his abused head. "Ow.. what a violent b***h.."

"We did pass, you arrogant a*****e! We've told you three times!" she nearly screeched, her face turning red. Kiba waved a hand carelessly.

"Yeah, sure..." he said condescendingly. Team Ten and Team Eight had met in front of Ichiraku Ramen, tired and spent, but still proud that they had become genins. Kiba seemed to get his second wind, and started questioning Shikamaru's team to see how they had passed. He couldn't believe that a Sasuke obsessed girl, a cloud obsessed guy, and a food obsessed boy could have possibly become genin. Kurenai was a prime example how tough the jonins of Kohona really were.

But the exam she had given, for an Aburame, an Inuzuka, and a Hyuuga, had been frightfully easy.

Gathering information, analyzing it, and using it to it's fullest potential was their clans' speciality, after all.

"K-Kiba-kun.." Hinata's soft voice broke in. "I don't think they'd lie.." Ino brightened up.

"That's right! Thanks Hinata-san!" the girl said sweetly. Shino muttered something under his breath, then busied himself with some ramen when Kiba looked at him suspiciously.

Chouji's mouth was too full to comment on Kiba, but that didn't stop Shikamaru. "Hmph. You may have become genin, but I bet Hinata and Shino did all of the work." Kiba flailed his arms, nearly knocking Akamaru from his perch.

"What did you say, you lazy b*****d?!" Ino put a hand over his mouth, her eyes wide. She leaned back in her seat, looking for something. She slide off of her stool and started to look left and right.

"Ino, what's wrong?" Chouji asked between mouthfuls. The blond had a sharp glint in her eyes, a predator gleaming within.

"My Sasuke senses are tingling." The five other genins face faulted. Shikamaru sighed, and lifted a bite of ramen to his mouth. He should have known.

They heard Naruto way before they saw Team Seven, as was to be expected. "Come on, you two! Let's celebrate! Ramen on me!" Ino reapplied her makeup.

Team Seven rounded the corner. Naruto walked with his arms folded behind his head, a sunny smile on his face. To his left Sasuke had his hands in his pockets, a smirk on his face and to his left, Sakura walked with a little skip in her step, her eyes straying once or twice to look at Sasuke.

They were tired looking, bruised, and cut up, Sakura bearing the worst cut on her right cheek, but they were happy. They were the first time that the jonin had ever passed. Kakashi had told them himself. They had every right to be on cloud nine.

Na-Naruto-kun! Hinata thought, her fingers nervously poking each other. She could imagine how he'd greet her. He'd run up with that infamous grin of his, grab her hands, and look deep into her eyes. He'd say, "Did you pass Hinata-chan?" She'd nod, and then he'd say "I knew you could do it!" And then they talk and talk until everyone in the background would disappear, and then he walk her home, kiss her on the cheek...

Yeah right.. she thought glumly, turning back around in her stool. Like he'd notice me when Sakura-san is around..

"Hinata-chan!" she heard someone cry out joyously. Two strong arms hugged her from behind. N-Naruto-kun?! "Did you pass Hinata-chan?" he asked, affectionately rubbing his cheek against hers. She turned a deep red, but nodded. The rest of the genins were either too busy watching Ino glomp Sasuke and Sakura yell at Ino for touching him, to notice Naruto and Hinata.

But Kiba did. "Hey, stop molesting Hinata-chan, you blond a*****e!" he hissed. Naruto stuck out his tongue at the irate dog boy.

"Go fetch, dog breath." he turned back to the girl he had attached himself to so eagerly. "I knew you could do it!" Shikamaru gave them a sidelong glance. Troublesome guy.. too affectionate... and in public too. It'll be a blood bath if Kiba decides he likes Hinata as well.

"Hey, dobe." Naruto turned his head, not letting go of Hinata. He scowled at the nickname. Sasuke had shaken off Ino. "You said ramen was on you, right?" Naruto pouted at him for a moment, then smiled, thinking he had just about enough money to treat Sakura and Sasuke after all.

"Yep yep! Oi, old man!" he yelled. The chef looked up a little disgruntled, but face brightening up when he saw his most frequent customer. "Can you make some ramen for my team mates, the new genin of Kohona?!" At the end of the sentence, he raised his voice like a DJ trying to rally up a crowd. The chef rolled his eyes but smiled.

Hinata blushed when Naruto plopped in the vacant seat next to her. Forget her daydream, this was even better. He turned, gave her that irresistible smile, and then started to chow down on his miso ramen.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow, amused at the two. One would have to be blind to not see how much the two liked each other. I thought Naruto liked Sakura? Not anymore, I guess.. He watched with his dark eyes when Naruto started to engage Hinata in a conversation. He frowned, knowing how hard it was to make the shy girl talk. However, Naruto was showing an uncharacteristic amount of patience and Hinata was trying her very best not to clam up. With such need and effort on both sides, the conversation wasn't constantly halted by stammers and Naruto's potty mouth. Kiba interrupted with a 'hey, dumb a**, where's your forehead protector?' Naruto patted his forehead and his pockets.

"Damn it! I knew there was something I forgot this morning!" Hinata shyly laughed. His irritation gone, the blonde smiled goofily at the Hyuuga girl.

Sasuke sighed, turning back to his ramen. How he wished he had a girl like that who had a crush on him, instead of the screeching banshees that stalked him constantly..

In a huff, Kiba left, throwing a goodbye over his shoulder to his two team mates. Shino left not long after, murmuring something to Hinata about going to sleep. Chouji was ready for his second lunch- "I have to build up my chakra, Shika!"-, but Shikamaru managed to drag him away.

Ino hung on to Sasuke's arm, ignoring Sakura's complaints, and trying to engage the dark haired rookie into a conversation.

"So you passed! Of course you would! You're an Uchiha!" Sasuke flinched. "I bet you carried big forehead girl and the idiot to victory!" Hinata and Naruto stopped talking, a frown on each of their faces. Sakura busied herself with creasing her napkin.

"Ino.." he muttered. He stood up, pulling his arm out of her grip. "You're.. really annoying." Ino felt as if a thousand ton rock had been dropped on her.

"W-what..?" she said quietly, watching as the Uchiha walked away. Sakura fiddled with her chopsticks, feeling sorry for her rival and once best friend.

Naruto rested a hand on Ino's shoulder. "Bend something too much, and it will break.." he murmured, his normally bright eyes serious. She looked back at him for a moment, then brushed his hand off of her shoulder.

"Yeah, maybe..." she whispered, tossing money for the ramen on the counter, leaving the opposite way the Uchiha had.

"Poor Ino-san.." Hinata said quietly. Naruto 'hmph'ed.

"She should stop going after something that will never be hers." he said, drawing the attention of both the girls left. "She's too headstrong. He's too headstrong. They'd end up trying to make the other submit. They'd never work out." Sakura stood up.

"I have to make sure she's.." she started to explain. The blond shook his head.

"She won't appreciate your concern." Naruto murmured. "You'd have a better chance with Sasuke." Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she gave a desperate look toward the direction Ino went.

"But Ino much easier to talk to than Sasuke! He'd bite my head off!" she burst out truthfully. His eyes closing, Naruto waved a hand at her.

"Do whatever. But Sasuke needs you to talk to him more than she does." Eyes opening, he gazed at her in such a serious way that she almost wanted to ask where the idiot who had painted the Hokage monument had gone, and who this strange, serious person in front of her was. "She has been rejected before, she'll get over it. But Sasuke's not exactly.. sound of mind. Putting it delicately. He needs someone to talk to more than her. He won't turn you away.. if you watch what you say." He looked away. Sakura let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. "He's like a bomb ready to blow. Be careful." Just like that, he dismissed her.

Dazed, Sakura walked out of the stand, stopping when the screen fell back down. Before her stood a choice. A choice to go with something safe- although with Ino, it was hard to tell what was safe or not-, something she could not be looked down upon for. A choice to throw all caution to the wind, and see what was wrong with that quiet brooding team mate, whom she loved with all of her heart. A gamble that was 80-20, in favor of him forever hating her for being nosy.

Sakura looked left and right. Right was safety. Left was uncertainty. 'He's like a bomb ready to blow..' she heard Naruto murmur in her mind. 'She's been rejected before. She'll get over it.' She remembered Sasuke's cold voice. 'Ino.. You're really annoying..' She'd hate for that same sentence to be directed at her but...

Sakura turned left and ran. I'm coming Sasuke-kun!

Naruto smiled, knowing which direction she took. Hinata watched him with her pale silver eyes. He saw her watching, and with a smile, took her hands in his.

"May I walk you home?" he asked quietly. She blushed, a habit she seemed to be fond of doing in his presence, and nodded.


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"Sasuke! Sasuke-kun!" The dark haired boy stiffened when he heard his name. He turned slightly to see his pink haired team mate running after him, relaxing when he saw it wasn't Ino. He stopped and waited for her to catch up with him.

Sakura smiled gratefully. "Thank you." Sasuke shrugged.

"What do you want?" he asked bluntly. She nervously fiddled with a lock of hair.

"Can I.. walk with you?" Sasuke stared at her hard, trying to figure out her motive. After a tense moment of her trying to keep her eyes locked with his instead of backing down, he shrugged again.

"Suit yourself." he started to walk again. Sakura beamed, and with a little hop in her step, walked with him, only a pace behind.

"I...um.." Sakura stammered. "Well.. I'm sorry!" Sasuke gave her a bewildered look. "For Ino. For whatever she did. To you." He arched an eyebrow.

"Why are apologizing for what you clearly have no control over?" He scoffed and turned his head. "You know what, just never mind. It's not like you understand why she even pissed me off.." He walked a little faster.

Sakura had the mental image of her standing in front of a bomb labeled 'SASUKE.',two wires held in each hand. Hm. What wire was I supposed to cut? The red one, or the blue one? Inner Sakura had to ask.

"Sasuke-kun I.. I'd like to think that, well, maybe not now, but later, you can view me as a friend, instead of well.." She twisted her hands together. "An annoying fan girl."

Sasuke's eyes flickered toward her. He himself wasn't even sure he wanted a friend. Friends were weaknesses. Friends were people Itachi targeted to make his already horrible life worse. But at her hopeful gaze he sighed and said, "You'll have to try hard to become my friend." When she nodded cheerfully, he frowned even more. "Not just with you, but with me. I'm not exactly A class friend material." Sakura beamed. Sasuke was never the one to make illusions about himself.

"I know. Maybe.. I'm too annoying.." How she loathed that word. "..And you're too you. But we can try! Now's a good time to start!" Sasuke turned his face away, a hidden smile on his face. What a persistent girl... He frowned again when he remembered why he was so annoyed.

"Uchiha this.. Uchiha that." he said unexpectedly. Huh..? was Sakura's only thought. Sasuke didn't look at her. "When people look at me, all they see is the potential of an Uchiha. They don't..." he trailed off, not knowing how to word what he was feeling.

"They don't.. see you?" Sakura asked softly. Sasuke nodded stiffly. They walked the rest of the way in silence, stopping in front of Sasuke's apartment building. Sakura looked at the ground, sure that she had somehow offended him.

Sasuke paused, a deeply introspective look on his already serious face. He turned to her, dark eyes troubled. "It just really pisses me off." he raised a hand in his customary salute. "See you tomorrow." Sakura smiled, like the sunrise beaming over the dark horizon.

"Yeah.. Bye!" she ran off to the direction of her home, a grin firmly plastered on her face. Sasuke watched her go, not sure if he was annoyed, mad, relieved, or what. A smile twitched the corners of his lips up.

"Heh.."


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He knew where she lived. She didn't know if she should have taken that as a good sign or what. Instead she skittered behind him, memorizing the way his head tilted back, how his eyes closed in that bright squinty eyed smile, how his arms folded behind his golden mane.

She loved everything about him, from his expressive eyes, to the three faint whisker marks on his face that made him look like a fox, even to the way his sandals slid against the ground.

When he stopped, she nearly fell right over him. He turned around, worry- for her!- in his gaze. "Hinata-chan? Are you okay?"

Hinata straightened, feeling overly embarrassed. "Y-yes.. I was just.. thinking.." of you.. her unspoken words floated in her mind. Naruto smiled.

"Yeah, you seem to do that a lot.." They looked away from each other, both embarrassed and awkward.

Damn it.. What does a guy do when he's about to leave his girl? Naruto wondered, not having been a heavy dater. Kyuubi resurfaced.

Leave a message with his pack so that they'd take care of her? Naruto scowled at Kyuubi. I'm not going on a vacation, you giant fur ball! I'll probably see her tomorrow! There was a speculative silence.

Hm.. Mark her before a rival does? Naruto rolled his eyes. Alright, last time I ask you for advice... The Kyuubi scoffed and muttered something rude about human courting rituals.

Naruto put a hand on the cool metal gate that lead up to the Hyuuga mansion. He looked at the dark and almost dreary house, feeling almost homesick. He knew every entrance and exit to the place. Every hidden door, hallway, and passage. Even all eight of the secret entrances to the rather large kitchen, three of which he didn't reveal to Kohonamaru and Chouji.

He frowned. Thinking of that made him remember the very last time he had been a grown up, staring at his surviving friends hopeful faces. How Tsunade had given him a reassuring smile. How Ino had begged silently with her eyes to save Shikamaru. How Gaara gave him that faintly dark, yet oddly reassuring look. The one that screamed 'You better not screw this up, or else.'

Naruto opened his eyes, not seeing the images of the past, only a Hinata looking worried. "A-are.. you okay, Naruto-kun?" she asked quietly. "You looked like you saw.. a ghost."

But I have been seeing ghosts, Hinata-chan! his mind insisted what his mouth would not. People long dead walking upright and acting as if nothing at all has happened. But nothing has happened.. but yet it has. Paradox of time travel, I suppose. Makes me kinda wonder if a ghost is a fragment of a memory, or something that is expelled out of our body when it expires. Is there even an afterlife? He looked back at the mansion that, although the noon sun shined down on it, no brightness and cheer could be felt within. You said once.. His mind flash backed to Iruka's funeral. You said something that at that time, made me very happy. But, I don't know if I can cling to that beautiful notion you gave to me.. Not now..

His hand came up and touched the side of her face. "I'm fine.." Naruto smiled. "You shouldn't worry about a guy as unworthy as me.." His hand dropped and he took a step away, knowing his boundaries.

The blonde lifted a hand in a wave. "See ya later, Hinata-chan." She watched him shove his hands in his pockets and walk away. Hinata touched her cheek where his warmth still was. Naruto-kun.. Your eyes..

She always heard the saying, 'eyes are the windows to the soul' and completely understood it's meaning whenever she looked into Naruto's eyes. His eyes, no matter how bright, no matter how loud he was being, were always lonely. Just like her's.

But his eyes now.. It was like looking into a different soul, still Naruto, but covered with more scars, more wary of opening up. Tears came to her own eyes, blurring the vision of her retreating crush.

Naruto-kun.. what happened to you to make you have such a wounded soul?

[Review, but I will post the next chapter early morning on the 3rd]

Title: For the Love of My Friends
Chapter 12: Endless River of Blood
Rating: Mature


Flashback: Year Five of the Great Sound and Leaf War.
Umino Iruka's funeral
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You can tell who was closest to the deceased at the funeral.
The gossipers, excited that something interesting had happened, and can't wait to spread the news about who was wearing what, and which person cracked first, slink near the edge of the crowd.

The ones there to show their respect, but didn't know the dead person well just stand there, inserting a few comments here and there, looking a little bored.

The ones the deceased had touched deeply, such as a dead teacher and his students, past and present, cry hard when they watch their beloved instructor being lowered into the ground.

But the ones who the deceased had been a major part in their lives, such as the family members, the close friends, the lovers, stare almost as emotionlessly at the dead body as the gossipers. So many emotions conflicting them ever since they heard the news, so many tears spent.. They are spent. Devoid of emotion, and non reactant to stimuli.

Even as their souls scream, 'This cannot be happening! This cannot be real!' and wishes to run over to that godforsaken coffin, rip it open, and somehow make the person come back to life, they stare almost coldly at the lowered casket, their bodies frozen in place.

Umino Iruka was an average ninja. Chuunin level, a favorite among the instructors at the Academy, he had never taken a pen without bringing it back to it's owner. Like many other ninjas his age, he was without parents, and although liked by many a female ninja, didn't even have a girlfriend.

Few came to his funeral, mostly the Hokage, her attendants, the students, the genin, and lower class chuunin. The few left in the village, who had not been given a highly dangerous assignment crucial to the Resistance.

Praise was given lavishly to Iruka. After all, it was the dream of a ninja to die a noble death protecting one's village. The ones closest to him didn't want to hear it. Not only because they wished to mourn in silence, but also because they knew that in no time at all, Iruka's name would just be another engraving on the Leaf's memorial stone. Ninjas died everyday in the times of war.

The sky opened up and the tears of the heaven rained down upon them.

The gossipers leave first, prepared for an hour long session of gossiping to those who could not make it. The respectful ones linger for a little, before they make the excuse of leaving because of the rain. Those who liked Iruka a lot and missed him stayed for a little while longer, risking sickness.

Kohonamaru collapsed before the gossipers had a chance to leave. A long haired Anbu, just returned from a highly dangerous mission, caught him before the genin could hit the ground.

Some shook their heads at the display, others crowded in closer, half worried about the grandson of the Third Hokage, half curious. The Anbu, his face fixed in a expression scarier than his carved mask, glared at them.

"Back the ******** off." the teenager said in a roughed voice, his throat raw from the hours he had cried over his sensei's death. The elders glared at him, knowing well what lay behind that angry face. The teenager's eyes darkened, his chakra rising to such a high level that few had ever sensed before in their lives. "I said, back the ******** off."

Finally, the curious and the rude departed, leaving only a few stragglers. Two genins stood before him.

"Naruto-ni-chan?" the girl asked in a soft voice. She stretched out her arms for Kohonamaru. Her eyes were outlined in red from crying, her face pale. Her male companion wasn't in much better shape.

"Moegi-chan, Udon-kun.." Naruto found that he didn't care much about what happened to him, but cared worlds more what happened to the three kids who idolized him. He handed over Kohonamaru. "Take him home, take off his wet clothes, and make sure he gets something warm to eat. That goes for you guys too." Udon, being the taller and the stronger of the two, put Kohonamaru over his shoulder before wiping his runny nose.

"But what about you..?" Udon asked in his slightly nasal voice. Naruto shrugged.

"I'll be here for a while." Knowing how hard headed and stubborn their idol was, they nodded in unison and left, taking the quicker route, on the roof tops.

The Anbu shifted his gaze from the retreating genin to the cold tombstone in front of him and the picture of Iruka that whoever organized the funeral forgot to take with them.

He refused to look at the tombstone. It was too cold.. too impersonal. He instead focused his gaze on the smiling Iruka.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei.." he whispered. "Told you I'd come back." Rain plastered blond hair to his face. His knees grew weak. He sat rather roughly on the muddy ground. "My ninja way, you know.. To never break a promise. Kinda wished that I had been more true to it.. and come back sooner rather than later."

Tsunade watched Naruto sadly, then donned the mask the Hokage of the most powerful ninja village was suppose to wear. A mask of cool indifference, yet a spark of warmth.

Sakura started to walk toward Naruto, only to be halted by the Hokage. The older woman shook her head once and walked away. Taking one glance backward, Sakura followed the Hokage's footsteps.

"You know.. Kakashi would have been here.." he tried to make an excuse for his sensei's best friend. Iruka would have highly disapproved of Kakashi's actions. Even Naruto was angry at Kakashi, although it was mostly fueled by sadness. Two of his most precious people had been killed, one by his own selflessness, and one by the emotions that he himself had called 'excess baggage'.

Kakashi and Iruka had a strange friendship. Both of them were rather solitary men, Iruka preferring to spend his time focusing on his students and making sure they achieved their best, Kakashi preferring to spend his time living life on the edge and reading his perverted books.

Iruka was the kind of guy you could trust your life with. Kakashi was more of the type where he'd make sure you were safe in a dangerous situation, but in the next minute, throw your life in danger if he happened to be bored. Iruka was a steady guy, a rock one could lean on. Kakashi was like the wind. He drifted this way and that, too elusive to catch.

Both completely polar opposites, they collided when a force of nature called Naruto was throw into the mix.

Kakashi asked about his new students, hoping to get a new perspective on the strange trio. Iruka gladly gave it to him. Kakashi scolded Iruka when he coddled and was protective of his students. Iruka argued right back, annoyed that the children he knew so well were being handled by a man like Kakashi.

Well.. They were far from friends at first. They were constantly on the opposite sides of a battle field- in a figurative sense, of course- and often clashed on the ideas they felt were the most important.

But they had some common grounds. Naruto, for one. Some of the others were the need for at least one medic per team, how Kohona needed to tighten up it's security, how they both approved the choice for the new Hokage. Soon after Kakashi lost to Itachi the first time, they stopped looking at what made them different and started to look at what made them similar.

Iruka would drag Kakashi's sore body from the training areas- Kakashi really started to push himself after his humiliating defeat by the much younger missing nin's hand- back to his apartment, Kakashi would substituted in for Iruka when the chuunin got sick. After Naruto left for his three year training, the two became even closer friends, both reminiscing over the blond ninja and the light he shinned in their lives.

Rumors that the two shared a relationship beyond that of just friends spread around the village, fueled by Kakashi and his favorite prank of randomly popping up behind Iruka and reading out passages from his favorite perverted books. Iruka would immediately turn red, elbow the gray haired ninja in the stomach, and refuse to cook for him for an entire week.- Kakashi was such a horrible cook that it was said that he could burn water. Iruka always wavered and didn't fully administer the punishment when Kakashi went on and on to another ninja about how his microwave 'mysteriously' exploded when he 'accidentally' put a kunai in there, or a different lame excuse of some kind. Iruka always fell for it.- But the fact of the matter was, they were both lonely men who found comfort in arguing, debating, and annoying each other to death.

The death of Kakashi's second best friend screwed up the jonin's mentality big time.

Naruto's hand fisted in the muddy dirt. "But.. you know.. s**t happens.." He was soaked to the bone, so cold that he was numb, yet he continued to sit there, staring at the immortal smile of the man he had thought of as his father. He let out a shaky breath, aiming a small and sad smile toward the photo.

"Heh.. If I didn't stay so long in that last village.. it would have been me in there, not you." His head dipped down, long raggedy bangs shadowing his eyes. "I killed Sasuke, and now I've killed you. Who's next?" He laughed bitterly. "It must be some kind of curse, huh?"

Someone walked up behind him. Naruto noted their advancement, but did nothing about it. He didn't care if it was a friend or a Sound Nin. He was the cause of so much pain to his loved ones. He deserved to die.

The other person sighed softly and sat down next to him, not caring about the muddy that soiled the medic uniform that the other ninja wore.

"Naruto-kun.." He knew that voice. No one else that he had ever known said his name so sweetly, so full of affection every time he heard it. He wanted her to go away. He wanted to wallow in his sorrow. Drawing his knees to his chest, he tried to ignore her.

"Go away Hinata." was his almost forceful demand. Hinata sighed.

"No." she murmured. "I'll leave when you leave. I will not back down.. for it is my ninja way..." He was quiet, not knowing what to say.

"You're dumb." he said lamely. Hinata frowned, her voice becoming a little more clipped.

"And who's the idiot who planned on staying out here all day? During a storm even?" He looked over at her, his eyes roaming over her form, taking it in like he had never seen her before.

Her hair was longer than he remembered, tied up in a messy bun. She no longer wore the baggy clothes of her youth that she had hid behind, but the rather form fitting skirt and tank top that most female medic nins wore. Hinata tied her forehead protector around her arm instead of around her neck, and her demeanor was no longer a shy little girl, but a mature, fully grown ninja.

Her eyes, he thought, staring into the silvery depths when she turned to look at him. They have not changed at all. She smiled at him, such a healing smile, so freely given.

"He's happy, you know?" He arched an eyebrow, confused. "Iruka-sensei. He's happy now. He may have died, and left us all.." she looked at the photo, then turned back to him. "But he's with his family now in heaven. It must be so nice.. after not seeing a loved one for so long.. to be able to stay with them for eternity."

Had it been a lighter situation, he would have scoffed at the notion, the idea being too romantic for a tough guy like him. But Naruto felt a spark of hope light up in him. No longer feeling the pains of growing older and older every day, no longer missing those who've passed, no longer having to worry day after day about stupid ******** Orochimaru and the Akatsuki.. and knowing it's only a matter of time before those he had left behind come to visit him! He jumped up, letting out a whoop, startling Hinata.

"Ha ha, Iruka-sensei! You ended up getting the best deal of them all!" he shouted up at the sky. Naruto punched his fist in the air, a grin threatening to spilt his face open. "I'll kick the icy snake b***h's a**, and then I see you in the afterlife!" Filled with energy, the blonde danced around in the rain, reminding Hinata of a sacred ritual to honor a god.

Naruto finished a twirl, then surprised her by grabbing her hands and pulling her to her feet. He whirled her around twice, laughing the entire time. Finally, he came to a stop, putting her down gently.

"Thanks Hinata.." he said quietly, pressing his forehead against hers. She blinked at his sudden proximity, knowing that Naruto had no problem showing his affection to his friends, but wished there was something more behind the innocent act.

Hinata smiled and kissed his cheek. "Anything for a smile from you..Naruto-kun."

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End Flashback
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The genin leaned against the iron railing of the balcony, looking out at the Hokages of the past.
It was so strange not seeing Tsunade's face carved up there. He sighed and slumped against the railing fully, sliding down until he hit the ground.

Team Seven had been given only D class missions for the past two weeks, something that annoyed even Sakura, who hated to be put in danger. Naruto was more annoyed at the fact that most of his time was being monopolized by the Fire Lord's wife, and her stupid cat that just couldn't stay put.

Naruto yawned and stared out blankly. Kakashi better not be too late or..

"Naruto!" The Kyuubi host blinked and turned around. Sakura ran up to him, slowing down so she didn't look like a fool. Her eyes looked left and right. "Is Sasuke-kun here yet?" Naruto rolled his eyes and grabbed the bottom of her dress, tugging sharply so the girl would fall down. She 'eeped' when she dropped, then punched him hard on the head.

"You never change.." he muttered, trying to sooth the bruises on his skull with his fingers. Sakura scowled at him.

"Nor do you, idiot." was her tart reply. He scowled back, not in the mood to be the submissive one. Her angry expression dropped when she got a closer look at his face.

"Naruto.. did you even sleep last night?" His eyes were bloodshot and shadowed. His normally lively face was pale and withdrawn. Naruto shrugged.

How could he sleep when so many nightmares plagued him? How many more nights could he stand watching Sasuke, Moegi, Udon, and the others die over and over again before he snapped?

"I slept just fine." he mumbled, lying through his teeth. She opened her mouth, just about to call his bluff when Kakashi poofed in behind them.

"Yo." They both stared at him with wide eyes. Kakashi arched an eyebrow, wondering if he had something in his teeth. Then remembered that even if he did have something in his teeth, they wouldn't be able to see it because of his mask. He looked down, pretty sure he had put his vest on the right way and zipped up his pants. Hm..

"What's with the looks, you two?" Sakura pointed a shaky finger at Kakashi.

"Y-you... you.." she stuttered. Naruto braced himself against the railing, his hands hovering in front of him uncertainly.

"You can't possibly be Kakashi..." he muttered. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, even more confused.

Uh.. Last time I checked, that was my name. he thought. Out of his mouth, a rather intelligent "Huh?" slipped out. His confusion made Naruto and Sakura jumped up in unison, pointing their fingers at him.

"You're not late!" they yelled. Kakashi sweat dropped. Damn... If this little mistake is repeated, someone might think that I'm a responsible person. He shivered at the thought. Responsible people were predictable. He hated being predictable.

"Heh.. eh, I'm here early 'cause.. I'm testing your ninja skills!" Nice save. "If you get too used to a person, enemy or ally, doing the same thing over and over again.. it'll throw you off balance if they try something different." Oh yeah.. He was slick. Kakashi: Two points. Innocent students: Zero.

Sakura's eyes grew hopeful. "So.. you'll be early from now on?" Kakashi leaned over, a smile curving his one visible eye.

"What do you think?" he said in a sweet voice. Both of his students scowled at him. He turned to look at the Hokage's monument, the easy smile sliding off his face when he remembered why he had been so distracted that he broke his perfect record of tardiness.


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Flashback- Thirty minutes before.
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Kakashi whistled a cheery tune, one that he could not name, yet was so familiar and soothing to him. He was in a great mood. Who knew that teaching a bunch of angsty driven pre-teens would be so much fun?

He flirted with the fruit lady, badgered the book keeper of his favorite adult book store about the release date of the next Icha Icha Paradise, helped a pregnant lady carry her groceries home, and set fire to Asuma's vest when he wasn't looking.

The jonin giggled in only what could be sadistic glee when he saw Kurenai throw the whole pot of coffee at Asuma, apparently forgetting that it was hot.

"It's a beautiful daay, in my town." he switched tunes, singing off key. The Copy Cat Ninja of Kohona couldn't be good at everything, after all. The jonin was tone deaf.

"Glad to see you're so perky." someone said sullenly. Kakashi turned to see a fellow jonin leaning against one of the walls in the town square. He had chin length brown hair, wore his forehead protector like a bandanna over his head, and had a senbon hanging out of the corner of his mouth. For some reason, Kakashi couldn't attach a name to the face.

Ebsui? No.. that's the guy who acts like a p***k. Hayate? No wait.. that's the guy who looks like he has a terminal disease...

"Be careful with your brats Kakashi." Genma muttered, pushing himself away from the wall. Kakashi frowned, feeling his happy meter deplete a little. He didn't like some other jonin, no matter who they were, call his only students brats. They're my brats.

"How so?" was Kakashi's neutral reply. Genma frowned to himself.

"There was a sighting at the border.. A missing nin." Kakashi tensed, the first missing nin popping up in his head was the sole murderer of an entire gifted clan.. and the brother of one of his students. "A Rock village nin. The Anbu apparently followed him, but.. they lost him."

Kakashi scoffed, although a little relieved that the nin wasn't from Kohona. If he was still Anbu captain, the nin would have been caught. Genma started to walk away.

"The few Anbu that managed to catch up with him were found later, either killed, or underneath a genjutsu so powerful that some of them needed to be killed in order to give them peace. Don't be arrogant, Kakashi. The genjutsu is said to be at a level that the sharingan cannot reach. Keep your team close."

"Question." The brown haired jonin turned back, a little exasperated. "Who are you?" The annoyance and seriousness on the brown haired ninja's face faded into a look of comical disbelief.

"W-What! You don't remember! I served underneath you five years ago!" Kakashi touched his chin, deep in thought.

"Nope, still don't remember you." A vein in Genma's head throbbed.

"It's Genma." he bit out. Kakashi brightened up. Finally.. Genma thought. He remembers.

"Oh, Genma!" he said in surprise. "You know.. you don't look like a Genma." The poor jonin face faulted.


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End Flashback
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It had been fun, messing with Genma's mind. Of course, Kakashi had remembered who Genma was. Soley because of the senbon hanging from the brown haired jonin's mouth. No one else in Kohona were dumb enough to stick a weapon in their mouth.
A genjutsu.. too strong for my sharingan to defeat.. He frowned, the idea faintly scary. He looked at his students, not wanting them to face something he could not handle, not in their first year. Especially not in their third week. Kakashi noticed the absence of one brooding student of his.

"Hey.. Where's Sasuke?" he asked.

"Dunno." Naruto replied.

"Maybe.. he's sick?" Sakura supplied, worry in her eyes about Sasuke and his well being. Naruto snorted.

"As if. He'd drag his sorry a** down here to train, even if he had a raging fever." he said knowingly. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head.

"Ditching?" he inserted. Naruto shook his head.

"Again, as if." The trio 'hm'ed, all in their separate thinking poses. Sakura gasped in horror when a horrible image danced in front of her eyes.

"What if Sasuke was taking a shower in the morning, slipped on some water, bashed his head into the wall, and started to bleed to death-" Naruto bopped her on the head.

"Once more.. Highly unlikely. Quit rambling." She scowled at him. Kakashi pushed them apart before things got ugly.

"Anyway.. that does bring up a good suggestion." Sakura stuck her tongue out at Naruto. He returned the gesture. "Let's go to Sasuke's house and check up on him. Now.. does anyone know where Sasuke live-"

Sakura was already going down the stairs. "Hurry up slowpokes! Sasuke-kun needs me!" Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets and followed at a slower pace.

"Don't be so surprised. Every girl from eleven to sixteen years old in this village knows where the great Uchiha Sasuke lives.." the blonde muttered, sarcasm dripping off of his words.


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The apartment was large, in Naruto's eyes. Separate rooms for the kitchen, laundry room, and living room, not a speck of dust anywhere. The floor was so clean that he'd eat ramen off of it.
But, it was cold. Not in the way that temperature could be an explanation.

The walls were bare, save for a single poster in Sasuke's bedroom, depicting a red and white fan, the Uchiha family crest. No luxuries were there, no cent wasted on material items. Extra kunai sat on Sasuke's dresser in a protective casing. Scrolls were neatly lined up on his desk. No pictures were lying around, except for the team picture they had taken right before Naruto stumbled onto Kohonamaru.

Naruto hated Sasuke's apartment, such a contrast to his own messy one.

At least his felt like a home. Sasuke's felt and looked like a place where one sleeps.

There were major differences between the comfort and warmth of a home and a bed.

"Sasuke-kun..." he heard Sakura murmur in the next room. He scowled. Making us go through all this effort for you, you b*****d.. Truth be told, he was as worried as Sakura about Sasuke's well being. It took every ounce of control in his body not to run around in a circle like a headless chicken over worry for the Uchiha boy.

Grinning suddenly when he spotted a permanent marker, he picked it up and gave a sly look over at the white walls.

Kakashi was in the kitchen, a little worried about the delayed return of Naruto from Sasuke's room- it should have only taken a second or two for even Naruto to see if anyone was in there., but was too occupied with his book.

Taka..you sly dog, you.. he thought wistfully.

Sakura walked out of the bathroom. "He's not in living room, the laundry room, or the bathroom." Kakashi nodded once.

"Naruto's still in Sasuke's room." he mumbled. Sakura's eyes lit up. Maybe he found Sasuke-kun! She ran over, pushed open the door, prepared to greet her precious-

"Naruto!" The blonde gave her a guilty look, hiding the marker behind his back.

"H-hi, S-Sakura-chan!" he said nervously, standing in front of his latest prank, trying to hide it from Sakura's prying eyes. But, alas, he was too short.

Sakura shoved him out of the way and stared open mouthed at the drawing on the wall. It was a short comic. Naruto and Sasuke were sparring in the first square. The second square, Naruto flicked Sasuke in the head, making the boy fly out of the comic. In the third part, Naruto flexed his muscles and wore a medal that said 'Defeater of the Wimpy Uchiha.'

Naruto laughed nervously. "Gotta remind him who's boss.." Sakura gave him the evil eye. Naruto 'eeped'.

Kakashi pulled his attention away from his book to look at the bedroom door in confusion. Sounds of a very violent beating flowed out into the kitchen.

Sakura walked out, dragging Naruto in a head lock. The blonde had an assorted amount of bumps on his head.

"Not in the bedroom either." Sakura bit out. "And Stupid was drawing all over Sasuke-kun's walls." Naruto struggled half heartedly.

"The walls were glaring at me, dammit!" Sakura scowled at his obvious lie and bopped him on the head. Kakashi coughed.

"Ahem. Sorry to interrupt, but we have a missing Sasuke to find." The trio became serious again.

"So.. not at the meeting area, not at home. Where else does Sasuke hang out?" Kakashi directed his question toward Sakura, now knowing she knew the dark haired boy's habits better than anyone else. The pink haired girl let go of Naruto and started to pace.

"Well.. Sasuke-kun doesn't really.. hang out, in the strictest form of the sense. When we were in school, he'd wake up an hour before, get ready, go to school, spend two hours at one of the training areas, go home, get ready for bed, sleep.. and so forth. Every day."

Naruto blinked owlishly. "How boring." She glared. Kakashi coughed again.

"So.. he'd be at a training area?" Kakashi asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this so he could finish reading his book. Sakura frowned, and slowly shook her head.

"Sasuke-kun.. would never break a meeting time to train by himself. He'd see more use in showing up to the meeting to train with you, Kakashi-sensei, than just practicing by himself." She murmured.

"In other words.. back to square one." Kakashi muttered, annoyed. Naruto walked over to the window, deep in thought. The other two watched him.

"Hmm." He stared out at the village, his eyes focusing on a tall building in the distance that had the Uchiha crest on it. His eyes lit up suddenly. "That's it!" He turned around to face his companions.

"He's at the abandoned sector of the village." Naruto said excitedly. Sakura arched an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about? There's no abandoned-" she started to say.

"None at all, except.. for the Uchiha sector!" Kakashi said. Sakura's eyes widened. She didn't know there was a whole part of a village that belonged to the Uchiha clan.

"Why is it abandoned?" she asked, her curiosity perked.

Naruto and Kakashi were solemn. "Well.. After the Uchiha tragedy a couple of years ago.. Sasuke became the sole owner of the Uchiha sector." Kakashi said quietly.

"Why?" she whispered. Naruto shifted, not comfortable with talking about Itachi, even indirectly.

"There's no one else left alive to fight him for it."


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They made it to the Uchiha sector in good time. Naruto nearly cried when he realized how many buildings there were.
"Well.. Tally ho.." Kakashi muttered, walking into the first one. Sakura nodded, determined to make sure her Sasuke-kun was alright.

Which left Naruto out on the street, confused as hell. "Aw.. whatever." The boy walked down the street, not bothering to check in any buildings. "What a pain in the a**..."

He was annoyed, but the sheer creepiness of the sector was what kept him talking. There was not but silence. No birds chirping, not a sound from the other parts of the village could be heard. The air was stagnate.

It was a ghost sector.

"Stupid Sasuke.. making me waste my time on him.." he hoped to motivate Sasuke into coming out of the shadows with his insults, but only the faint echo of his own voice greeted him. "Why.. does this feel so.. familiar?"

The walls of some of the vacant stores were covered in a brownish stain that refused to be washed clean by the rain. Shivering, Naruto thought he could hear the faint whispering of the ghosts still haunting the sector, those whose lives had been unfairly taken by a boy wanting to test out his power.

A sudden wail burst out of nowhere, making Naruto jump three feet into the air. It echoed throughout the sector, making Kakashi and Sakura run out of the buildings they were in to see what was going on.

Naruto was frozen on the street. His breathing was labored, his heart was pounding, he never felt more scared in his entire life.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled. "Was that you?" Her voice broke him out of his trance. He turned shakily back, his face pale underneath his whiskers.

"No." Another wail echoed through the sector, making Sakura and Kakashi slide into defensive positions.

"Dammit Naruto!" Sakura shouted, on the verge of hysterics. "This better not be one of your stupid pranks!" Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down.

The wail died down to quieter sobs. Naruto blinked and turned to where the noises were coming from. Some.. Someone's crying!

Feeling returned to his legs. The blond started to run toward the sound.

"Naruto!" the other two had no choice but to follow. Naruto ran like the hounds of hell were at his heels. He came upon a rather expensive looking house, knowing that inside, whoever.. or whatever was causing that horrid sound was in there.

Naruto kicked open the wooden gate, darting up the three steps to the mansion, tearing through the sliding door. "Sasuke!" he cried out.

The Kyuubi host could feel his friend's chakra. It was so unstable. "Sasuke!" he yelled with more urgency. All that greeted him was that horrid cry. He turned to it. The next room!

He ran up to the door and slide it open.

What he, the jaded war veteran of the future, saw, was enough to make him back up a few paces.

"Aw.. ********.." Naruto whispered. Blood poured out of the room, coating Naruto's ankles with it's sticky substance. Sakura and Kakashi caught up.

"Naru-" The rest she had to say was interrupted by a gasp. She covered her mouth with her hands, bile rising to her throat. Kakashi stared at the blood, then looked up at Naruto, not being at the right angle to see what the blonde was seeing in the room. Naruto's face was white as a sheet, yet, he took a step forward, his hand reaching out for something.

"Sa..uke..?" he asked in an uncertain tone.

In the middle of the room, crouched over himself and sobbing, a seven year old boy with dark black hair and an oversized blue shirt with the Uchiha crest on it, sat in the middle of the flowing blood. He looked up at Naruto, a childish face twisted in agony, dark eyes filled with so much pain.

"Did.. aniki kill you too?"

[There is your Double Chapter, next will be on Thursday]

whoa...very scary..hope sasuke didnt die... crying that would be sad...

Title: For the Love of My Friends
Chapter 13: The Man with Two Faces and the Darkness of the Light
Rating: Mature
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"Did.. aniki kill you too?"

Naruto blinked in confusion. "What the hell are you talking.." He was interrupted at Sakura's horrified gasp. The girl pointed shakily at the wall to his left, the wall most of his body was turned to.

Naruto tore his gaze away from the small version of his rival, and looked where she was pointing. On the wall hung a huge mirror, elegant gold trimming surrounding a dusty reflective surface.

He cared not about the mirror, he cared about what was staring back at him, the pale blonde haired boy identical to him. The boy looked awful. Blood streaked across his face, a huge gash on his torso. Naruto's breathing shaky, his hand touched his chest. The gash was deep, the white of his ribs peeking out through the red. The boy's dark clothes prevented Naruto from seeing how much blood he had lost, but his green shorts were colored a faint brown.

In denial, Naruto backed away from the image, feeling his ribs and sticky blood against his fingers. "No.." he muttered, falling down to his knees, not caring about the blood that sloshed against his body.

Hiding in the shadows, a being giggled sadistically. This was going better than he thought it would. Who knew that the boy who had caught him in the abandoned sector had such a dark mind? His eyes lit upon Kakashi and Naruto. He rubbed his hands together in glee. The Copy Nin and Kohona's dark little secret.. This will be fun..

Sasuke started to cry again. "I-I'm sorry... I-if I w-was stronger..If I w-wasn't such a c-coward.. you wouldn't have died.." Naruto curled over himself, the pain unbelievable.

"Bull s**t.." was all he could get out. As if broken out of a trance, Kakashi and Sakura moved forward.

"Don't." Naruto snapped. "Look closer at the blood." Both of the ninjas looked at the blood that was steadily flowing to them. They back up when the blood came closer. It disappeared. "I-it's not real." he bit out, pushing himself to his feet. "It's not real" he shouted, putting his fist through the mirror.

"Naruto.." Sakura whispered. The blond turned around, red slitted eyes meeting her own. She gasped at the demonic eyes. Naruto shifted his attention to Kakashi, who was unsettled by the sight.

Is the seal loosening? He feared the one he called his student was now a demon. Is Naruto possessed by the demon? The red eyes and the youki pouring off of the blonde was making his hair stand on end. He knew he only would not be enough to destroy the Kyuubi. Even the Fourth, the strongest ninja ever to grace their village, could not defeat the demon lord.

Red chakra whipped around Naruto, snapping at invisible threads of chakra in the air. The blood and Naruto's wounds flickered twice, like a faulty light bulb.

The hiding nin gritted his teeth in anger. The youki was weakening his genjutsu! His anger melted into amusement. It doesn't matter. If the Uchiha believes the illusion to be true, no amount of weakening could break him out of it. That's the beauty of my blood line.. The mind is a most powerful thing. Even the demon is feeling pain at the sight of his 'wound'..

The feral eyes softened slightly. "Kakashi-sensei.." he whispered. Naruto was still himself. "The blood.. the mini Sasuke.. my wounds.. none of it is real" He touched his chest, the blood coating his fingers. "If it was real.. I'd be healing already" Kakashi suddenly remembered his talk with Genma.

He tore his forehead protector off, his red sharingan glowing. He could see what was real, and what was not but illusion. There was no blood. Naruto had no wound. He walked closer to Naruto and looked into the room. There was no child screaming his lungs out, but there was Sasuke, looking relatively normal, clutching his head in pain and trying to fight off the illusion.

Kakashi's hands formed a seal, the sharingan spinning. "Release" Kakashi was thrown backward against the wall. The pain he felt on his back, he knew was real. "Damn.." A genjutsu that cannot be defeated by a sharingan.

Naruto groaned. "We are so screwed."


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Kurenai sat down next to her fellow jonin, Asuma, impatiently. "I said I was sorry" she muttered low enough so their students wouldn't hear. The bearded jonin shifted painfully, the pull of his bandages over his burns not very pleasant at all.
Their teams sparred in front of them, Kurenai's team having a significant advantage because, overall, they were stronger. Asuma's team surprised them with a well thought up strategy. Ino possessed Hinata, Shikamaru captured Kiba and Akamaru in his shadow, and Chouji used Meat Tank against Shino.

"You know what I told my kids? That I was on a mission. I had to go into a burning building to save people. Why? 'Cause they'd laugh their asses off if their instructor was burned by coffee" Asuma hissed. The red eyed woman rolled her eyes.

"Men and their pride.." she muttered. Asuma brightened up a little, remembering why they had been at the coffee shop in the first place.

Shino disappeared in a flurry of bugs before Chouji could hit him, and appeared behind Shikamaru. The quiet boy attached his bugs to the startled shadow user, draining his chakra. The shadow's grip loosened and finally fell off of Kiba, who let out a whoop. Kiba knocked out 'Hinata', sending Ino's spirit to spiral back into her body.

"You canceled our date to go after that nin, right" he asked slyly. She nodded slowly.

"Yes, what of it" Kurenai asked carefully. The bearded jonin grinned.

"Well, if you tell me about it, I'll forgive you" Kurenai nearly face faulted.

Ino bounced up and threw five kunai at Shino and Shikamaru, forcing Shino to withdraw his bugs and retreat. Shikamaru was too tired to dodge. About an inch away from his face, the kunai stopped their flight, being tugged back by his blonde team mate. Ino had tied fishing lines to the loop hole of her kunai.

Shikamaru wasn't the only one who could look several steps ahead.

"Forgive me! I was trying to help you! Besides, it's top secret information." Asuma gave her a stubborn look. "..Fine. You jerk."

She sighed, not actually minding if Asuma knew. The Hokage didn't specifically say that it was confidential, just to not cause a wide spread panic over the news. He didn't say that she couldn't talk the mission over with her boyfriend, who happened to also be a fellow jonin.

Despite how petty Asuma sometimes was, he had a good head on his shoulders. She needed someone like that to help her make sense of what she had seen.

"That nin.. used a lot of jutsus exclusive to the Rock village to evade us. As expected." Kurenai started. "But none of them compared to the genjutsu he used on those that caught up to him." Asuma nodded. He had heard rumors about it.

"I was part of the back up forces. We have a very shaky treaty with the Rock Village. If we caught one of their missing nins and gave him to them, our peace may have been strengthened." she said unnecessarily, for Asuma already knew that. She was just buying some time. Kurenai's hands shook when she remembered what the back up forces had come upon. "The nin probably isn't as strong as, say, Itachi, but with that blood limit of his, it really doesn't matter."

Chouji came back, a little bruised and roughened up from hitting whatever that had stopped his roll. He shook his head roughly, gathering his wits to him, and joined his team mates.

"The genjutsu is.. so elementary.. so easy, yet is so incredibly deadly. It takes the image of yourself, what you think you are, deep down in your subconscious, and pulls it to the surface. For a normal person, I doubt that it would make much difference, but to a ninja.. someone who has killed, who had done things they feel guilty about, even if they do not show it.. someone who has a dark past.. it is a most effective technique." Kurenai said, resting her chin on her hands. "And no one, but the person inflicted with it.. can pull themselves out of the worst of it. Not even a sharingan. Only a person with the will of a kami could snap the illusion right in half. For us lesser humans, unless the person comes to terms with what they are, deep inside, someone like me cannot help them, cannot guide them out of their illusion and help them break it."

She took a breath, remembering when they were forced to kill some of their own Anbu, the torture their minds were going through too much that they were trying to kill each other. Kurenai used a lighter idea to explain the genjutsu.

"If one, deep down, believes that they are a woman, even if their physical gender is a man, by the kamis, the genjutsu will make him look, feel, and sound like a woman. Even makes think he really was, burying all past memory that deviates from that." When Asuma arched his eyebrows at her, she added grudgingly"If, deep down, they believe that they are a blood thirsty monster, then that nin can take that image and make it come alive, to both the victim, and the people around him."

"I don't.. understand." he said, confused. Sure, he wasn't a genjutsu specialist like her, but he had some experience. And this wasn't making any sense. Kurenai laughed bitterly.

"Let's use an example, shall we"

Shino darted over to Hinata, having one of his bugs secrete a smelly gas, then lifting it to her nose. She twitched and shot upward wrinkling her nose. Kiba helped them up, then they turned to face the other three.

"Let us use our number one prankster, Uzumaki Naruto. He's lived all of his life in a village where they continually verbally abuse him about Who We Must Not Speak Of living inside his body. He's found about our violent friend. His mind is probably so screwed up by now. The villagers scorned him, and labeled him as the demon, although the demon and him are two separate entities. He knows and understands now why everyone hates him. He may even believe, deep down in his mind, that he is Who We Must Not Speak Of. If the nin uses the genjutsu on him.." Kurenai let out a shaky breath.

"We'll have another Kyuubi on our hands."


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A dark flash darting out of the house caught three red eyes. "That's the b*****d" Naruto yelled. "After him so we can find out how to break the illusion" Kakashi immediately followed the nin, Sakura close on his heels.
The blond moved into the bloody room, grabbed the crying boy by the back of his shirt and started to run after them. He didn't pay attention to the blood that suddenly coated his back, nor the terrified cry of the child when he was sudden hoisted up.

Get back here, you b*****d.. Naruto thought, his movements becoming more animalistic. You'll pay for what you did to Sasuke!

The nin ran as fast as he could. He felt the deadly rise of blood lust behind him, and knew he could not afford one screw up. He jumped over clothes lines, people, and buildings, yet the demon and the ninjas kept on following him. He turned left, to where he knew the training areas were located.

Kohona was legendary for it's training areas, among other things. Each one was the size of a small forest, and together, all sixty of them took up about eight five percent of the land. He knew he could lose them in there. And once their guards were down.. he'd strike.

Naruto was in front of Kakashi and Sakura in a matter of moments, to their surprise. He glided over the roof tops, giving the illusion that he was flying, only touching down every once in a while because he could. Youki still rolled off of him in thick waves.

Instead of fearing the Kyuubi's release- he didn't feel the seal loosening at all, despite the sudden release of youki- Kakashi was glad that so much power, so much strength, was on their side.

Sakura, however, was just confused. What was with his eyes turning red? And why has his chakra changed? That's supposed to be impossible! The only reasoning she could find for that was that maybe Naruto had a blood line. But she could not recall a blood line like that of Naruto, nor a clan called 'Uzumaki'.

She shook those thoughts from her mind when she saw the terrified look on Sasuke's face. First things first. Find the nin and force him to tell us how to undo the genjutsu. It did not cross her mind that it would take much more than what they had to defeat the nin. Genjutsu specialists were generally weak physically and strong mentally. The nin they were following was strong in both categories.

Naruto jumped over a chimney, then darted left after the nin. He glanced once at his hand. The kanji had reappeared and were glowing a faint red, excluding the very first one, which was glowing blue. Maybe I shouldn't have released the first seal.. They entered the foresty area suddenly, the darkness provided by the large trees that Kohona was so well known for the only sign that they had left civilization.

About a mile in, the three slid to a stop. The nin had completely disappeared.

"What the hell.." Naruto put Sasuke on the ground. The earth immediately began to bleed. Sakura rushed over to the boy, random wounds appearing on her body. She cringed and almost kneeled over in pain.

"It's not real Sakura-chan. Your mind makes you think it's real, so your nerves react as if it was." Naruto stood erect two feet away from Sasuke. Every strand of dark energy stretched out toward him was ruthlessly beaten down by red chakra. "It's phantom pain. Ignore it."

She understood phantom pain. It was one of the goals of a genjutsu to create, but was not always caused by a genjutsu. She knew several people who refused to read a gory book, or watch a bloody movie because any of the pain the characters went through, they felt themselves. They were just that sensitive.

Sakura straightened and walked the rest of the way to Sasuke, trying her hardest to ignore the stabbing pains. She sat down in front of him, giving him a weak smile when his eyes focused on her.

She reached out and took on of his small hands in hers. "This isn't real. You're safe with us. We'll keep you safe." The terrified look on his face broke her heart, not because it was her Sasuke-kun that was so scared, but because someone could wear a look like that. Especially a child like the one in front of her.

The boy surprised her by nearly tackling her, embracing her as hard as he could. "Not real, not real, not real.." he kept on chanting in her shoulder. He was starved for the need to be comforted. Sakura had no problem giving him what he needed, even with the blood that continuously poured around them.

Naruto frowned. "Come out, you ******** coward." He growled. Kakashi stood at his side, for once his book not out. They stood protectively over Sakura and Sasuke. The copy nin shifted uncomfortably.

"I hate this.." he finally said. "We're the sheep, being stalked by the wolf." Naruto gave a crimson eyed glance over at Kakashi.

"What do you mean? We're the ones following him." he said in a low tone. Kakashi looked back, deciding that the red eyes weren't such a bad addition to Naruto's face. They still lit up with the vibrant emotions that Naruto always carried on his sleeve. The gaze was still solely Naruto's. The jonin was grim.

"You so sure about that" Kakashi muttered. Naruto couldn't disagree. The air had changed when they had made it into the forest. Instead of the powerful need to find and capture as well as the powerful feeling of a predator, they were tense, careful, and anxious, as well as the horrible feeling of someone watching them. Suddenly the roles reversed. And Naruto didn't like that switch at all.

A dark swirl of energy came at them from behind. Sasuke saw it, a flicker of memory making him scared. "No no no" he shouted, startling Sakura and the others.

Kakashi and Naruto turned around, paling when they saw the pure chakra hurled at them. Kakashi picked Sakura and Sasuke up with one arm- the boy had a death grip on Sakura- and dodged to the left. Naruto dodged to the right.

The blond rolled on his shoulder so he'd land on his feet. He performed Kage Bunshin, sending twenty or so copies running around. Several dark balls of energy make his kage bunshins disappear, but he made it to his comrade's sides without getting hit.

Kakashi had let go of Sakura and Sasuke, fighting off a not very impressive looking ninja with his kunai. It was a Rock nin, judging by the slashed forehead protector tied around his leg. He was skinny, only about five or so inches taller than Naruto. His untidy brown hair stuck in up in every direction. The nin's eyes were a deep black.

The nin chuckled and jumped back. "You are fools, to challenge me." He gestured to Sasuke, who was cradled in Sakura's arms. "He challenged me. Look what happened to him because of his weakness against someone of my strength." While Naruto snorted at the idea that the missing nin was strong, judged on his appearance, Sasuke bowed his head.

I'm.. weak. Aniki killed my clan, but left me alive because I wasn't worth his time. His hand fisted on Sakura's dress. Everyone I touch.. everyone I come in contact with, ends up getting hurt.. because I am weak. He looked at Sakura. Blood coated her dress, wounds decorated her body. He felt agony at the thought of the girl who so freely gave him comfort was hurt because of him. She's gonna die 'cause I'm weak.

"I'm sorry.." he whispered. To his surprise, the girl only held him closer.

"Leave Sasuke-kun out of this" she shouted angrily, using her body to shield him from the nin's gaze. Sakura had completely tossed away the pain she felt from her 'wounds', the disgust and terror she felt at the sight of the blood. All that mattered to her was to keep Sasuke safe. And dammit, she wasn't going to let such a wimpy looking guy keep her from doing just that!

The arrogant look on the ninja's face turned ugly. "Wench.. you should know.. how to talk to your superiors" He hurled a ball of dark energy at her. She paled. He was too close, she wouldn't be able to dodge. Instead, she used her entire body to shield Sasuke.

She waited for the chakra to hit her, but all she was given was a hiss of pain. Sakura watched in horror as Naruto's body flew over hers and impacted heavily into the surrounding foliage, out of her sight.

The blond had taken the hit for them.

"Naru.. Naruto" she yelled. No one answered. Tears sprung to her eyes. No.. You fool. Get up. Give us that stupid grin of yours.. Tears slid down her cheeks. Act like your normal over confident self.. But he didn't get up. Sakura couldn't see him any more.

"You.. b*****d." Kakashi hissed in anger. Sakura, although worried about Naruto, couldn't help but stare in awe at Kakashi. She had seen him annoyed, but never had seen the usually cheery jonin this angry before. The air nearly solidified around him with his rage. She suddenly knew why Kakashi was referred to as one of the strongest of the Leaf. Sakura knew why he was feared.

The nin tsked when he saw blue electrical energy dance around one of Kakashi's hands, feeling only the slightest bit of discomfort at the jonin gathering so much energy, stubbornly waving it away.

"Oh, don't worry Kakashi-san. Your village's dark little secret isn't dead. Rather.. under a similar genjutsu that Sasuke is, unique to my clan." he laughed in an evil way. "Aren't you curious what Kyuubi the Second will look like" Kakashi growled.

"You tread dangerous ground.." he said in a threatening voice.

"Why yes. I believe you Kohonaians have a few laws about speaking of the fox, right" he snickered. "'Thou shall not speak of what really happened to the demon to the youngsters?' What's the point? They'll see the demon clearly in a matter of moments." While the clearing filled with his raspy laughter, Sakura mulled over what she had heard.

Demon? Laws? What does the Kyuubi have to do with Naruto?

"How do you break the genjutsu." Kakashi didn't ask. He demanded. The nin shrugged, not really caring.

"The genjutsu created and bred into my family, the Revival of the Being Within, my old man called it. Noble guy, dumb as hell. He hadn't gotten the chance to teach me the reverse technique before I ran him through with my blade." The nin said casually.

"That's it.." Kakashi said in a flat tone. The jonin couldn't stand hearing someone talk so lightly about the people he had killed. He performed several seals before leaning over, his palm facing the ground. Blue chakra danced around in his form. "Chidori!"

"Going to kill me because you know you'll have to kill Sasuke later?" Kakashi stiffened. "Yes, you are going to have to kill Sasuke later, if you want him to stop suffering, although the demon might just go ahead and do it for you."

Sakura hugged Sasuke to her. The boy had gone limp and his eye turned glassy. Sasuke's eyes were dead and lifeless. He had fallen into a trance, one she feared he wouldn't be able to walk away from.

Sure that when the nin was killed, the genjutsu would fall, Kakashi attacked him, his sharingan not registering the change in the nin's chakra until it was too late.

His hand buried itself into the nin's chest. The nin smiled and griped Kakashi's wrist. A rock bunshin! Kakashi tried to pull away, but the bunshin grip was powerful.

"An instanteous attack, where the user moves so fast that he cannot see his opponent's counter attack."

The real nin appeared at Kakashi's elbow. "So hasty.. too blinded by emotions to even se the truth.. not what I had expected from the legendary copy nin.. oh well. I'm much more interested in what horrors lie in your mind than picking a fight.." A ball of darkly colored chakra formed in his hand. With sinister smile, the nin tossed the ball at Kakashi.

It melded neatly into his skin. Kakashi let out a soundless scream. Tears running down her face, Sakura looked away. Kakashi-sensei.. An image of Kakashi looking up from his book with a slightly confused and glazed look, as if he had been concentrating too hard on the story, appeared before her eyes. Naruto.. The blonde as he danced around after their promotion to genin, how he had punched his fist into the air, wearing that foxy grin of his. Sasuke-kun.. The usual confident look graced the image of the boy she loved, one eyebrow arched in quiet amusement. I'm so sorry.. If I had been stronger..

"Now it's your turn, little girl.." the nin said almost kindly. Sakura pulled the limp Sasuke to her, chanting soft prayers in her mind, begging any deities listening to save her team. "I don't wish to waste any more chakra, so death will be your escape.." He took out a kunai, griping her chin in his hand. He pulled her up to her feet, forcing her to let go of Sasuke.

"How could one with such an innocent face like yours be a ninja, I wonder" the nin asked, more to himself than her. He drew his arm back, preparing to bury his kunai in her chest. "Good bye."

His initially hard thrust was stopped when something looped around his elbow. It tugged hard, nearly pulling the nin's arm out of it's socket. The nin whirled around, only to meet a fist crashing into his face. He fell back.

Sakura opened her eyes, making a happy sound when she saw the side profile of her savior. "Kakashi-sensei" He looked fairly normal, despite that ball of energy that the nin threw at him. She touched his sleeve.

"Are you ok, sensei" He turned to look down at her, a startled gasp slipping out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Half of his mask was completely torn off, leaving half of a pale nose and pair of lips bared. On the same side, his hair had neatly shifted from gray to black, a black oversized shirt mended neatly into his regular flak jacket. His red sharingan blinked at her, dying down slightly in it's ferocity.

"Sakura.." his voice sounded strange, like two people dominating one voice box. "..-san."

What..? He's never called me Sakura-san before... The strange dual person that was supposed to be her teacher started again.

"You need to bring Kurenai-san here.. She's usually practicing with her team in training area eight, when not on a mission. We need her." he said quietly, his mismatched eyes focusing on the moving nin. Sakura immediately looked toward Sasuke.

"What about-" Kakashi shook his head, interrupting her question.

"I'll take care of Sasuke-kun. That's a promise that I will honor and die to uphold." Sakura slowly nodded, a little bewildered at the changes in Kakashi's speech pattern, but realizing Sasuke would be much safer in Kakashi's protection.

The girl started out toward where she was sure training area eight was, pausing for a moment to look at Kakashi's back. The half of the material covering his torso that was black had half of a red and white fan on it, something she was sure she had seen somewhere before.

"Kakashi-sensei" He turned, his darker half staring at her with the red eye. "I don't want you to get hurt either." He looked at her, her hands clasped in front of her.. so like a child he once knew. He smiled, for once at least half of it visible.

"Okay."


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He guessed it would be too clique to say that he was in pain like he never had been in before. Because it wasn't true. His best friend sticking his hand through his lung had hurt much more, both physically and mentally.
But he was in pain. Annoyingly so. And it just wouldn't go away.

He sighed, rolling on his back, trying to find a position that didn't make him feel like nails were digging into every part of his body. He curled into a fetal position.

"This really blows.." Naruto muttered. It took all of his stamina to force the haunting images that filled his mind away. He could barely move, besides rolling around. He pushed away the images because when he did, youki started to fly everywhere.

He accidentally killed a rabbit. Mourning over the death of the fuzzy woodland creature, he shoved the images away and gave it a proper burial, right before he collapsed onto the ground.

He considered rolling back to his friends, but there were too many trees and bushes. "You suck." he told them half heartedly. They shrugged with the wind, as if to say 'Hey man, I didn't ask to be put here.'

His defense slipped, the dark images from his past lurking suddenly bursting forward. You are... a killer. The voice didn't sound specifically man of female, but he could tell it wasn't the Kyuubi. The voice had a haunting quality about ******** off.' he told it, trying to push the voice away. It always worked on the fox..

A murder.. a taker of lives.. a bringer of blood..

How many other ways can you say 'killer'? A loud voice boomed in his head.

'Kyuubi!' Naruto cried out gratefully.

Do not resist, bring your inner self out.. show all who you truly are.. the voice murmured, ignoring the demon. Pain blossomed in his veins.

"..Ugh.." He curled tighter against himself. "********! His only constant companion cried out. If he had been calmer, he would have wondered at the almost affectionate nickname. If he had been in less pain, he would have calmed at the concerned voice, from a violent demon or not. If he was less pissed off, he would have wondered if the kamis decided the only way he could have a family that cared about what happened to him was to seal a fox inside of him.

Truth was, he was too interested in his hand. His hand, of all things.

But you'd be interested too if it was growing at an alarmingly fast rate- for human growth, that is. "Wow.. way cool."

If the two voices in his head had physical forms, they'd be sweat dropping.

The unknown voice recovered first. See, you are changing into your true self. Just relax.. No pain will come to you once you change, dark one..

Piss off, you wanna be. I'm the only voice that's allowed to make Stupid insane. The Kyuubi muttered. Naruto scowled. Kitling, keep pushing the images away from you, unless you want to end up like Sasuke.

Why do you interfere, demon? Is it not your wish to bring pain to Kohona? Have you gone soft over the years?

Remembering not the tears, or the blood, but the sheer terror on Sasuke, his rival and friend's face, Naruto violently shoved away the images.

Good. Now think of something less.. dark.

Naruto nodded, looking through his memory, shying away from the darker ones. The happy ones were soft and hard to grasp, either making him sad because they were fake, or reminding him of the darker memories that took up the most space in his mind.

He found one that he could hold on to. It was neither happy or sad. It was hard to explain but.. it filled him with content.

I interfere because I can. Because I do care about what happens to the idiot.


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Flashback- Two weeks before Naruto's nineteenth birthday
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A temporary occupation, they had called it. A simple breach in our walls.
They'll be gone by a week! they said. We just need to stick together! <******** that. Kohona was being taken over by the Sound. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Naruto didn't need any pretty words to disguise the truth. He had too much of that happening already to have the Elder Council try to sweeten and soften to blow to them.

The Hokage was blunt. "We need you to stay behind the barrier." was all she said. When Naruto showed up later in her office, she had started to bang her head against the desk. "We are so ******** screwed."

Naruto yawned, roused by the smell of bacon cooking. Not bothering to put on a shirt, he knelt down and put his slippers on, for the ground was cold. Drooling, he nearly floated off of the bed in his haste to follow the heavenly smell, nearly tripping over the other futon that belonged to his room mate and his dog.

What was left of Kohona's population after the Sound's initial attack was crammed in an area one fifth of it's size. People were crammed side by side almost, in the rather small area, the farthest the jonin and the Anbu could spread out a barrier.

What was left of Naruto's team and Kiba's team had crowded into a small three room apartment. Kurenai was usually out on missions, leaving Hinata and Sakura to fend for the apartment's cleanliness. Kiba, Akamaru, and Naruto were usually pigs, letting anything they dropped on the ground, stay on the ground for a week before they actually picked it up.

Naruto was the only one who they could talk into helping them, partially because he was afraid of Sakura's mood swings and mostly because he hated that tired look in Hinata's eyes.

He stumbled into the kitchen, eyes lighting up in sadistic glee when he saw who the cook was.

"Oh, love of my life! My god! I shall forever worship the ground you step on! What has this lowly mortal ever done to have you do such a wonderful thing for him?" Naruto said passionately, hugging the person in front of the stove. He looked over the cook's shoulder, sniffing tearfully. "You make me want to cry!"

Despite the lovely words, Kiba still pushed him away. "Don't make me give you something to cry about!" he said crankily. "And put on a shirt, you show off." Naruto snickered and sat down on one of the chairs.

"Seriously, I like the pink apron. Sexy." From his place on top of the kitchen table, Akamaru started to howl in amusement. Flushing red, Kiba kicked at Naruto, only hitting him because he was too tired. Naruto's chair tipped back, spilling the blond onto the floor.

"Ow.."

Someone snickered at him. Naruto opened his eyes to see an upside down Sakura, a clean towel tossed over her shoulder, about ready to partake in her morning ritual of taking a shower. "Hello love." he said eagerly. "Do you want me to scrub your-" he got kicked in the head.

"Pervert." His vision blurred. He could hear his only living team mate walk away, slamming the door behind her. Naruto snickered. She always fell for it.

"Naruto-kun?" A soft voice asked. He felt gentle hands cradle his head. "Are you alright" He opened his eyes, his vision focusing. Hinata frowned, feeling for a concussion. When there was none, she gently laid his head in her lap.

"What happened?" Naruto blinked, then rolled his eyes.

"What happened is that I am unloved and under appreciated." She smiled at his pout, lightly petting his wild bangs. Kiba peered around the corner, immediately scowling when he saw Hinata taking care of Naruto. He turned his attention back to the bacon and eggs.

That a**! Always making her baby him. Kiba was way jealous.

"Your birthday is in a few weeks, huh?" she asked him in a low tone. He stopped pouting, a true look of surprise on his face. Sure, his birthday was becoming more and more enjoyable each year because more people were acknowledging it, but usually he had to remind them it was coming up. Like the time he had written 'Happy B-day Naruto!' all over the Hokage monument.

"Y-yeah.." he said, at a loss for words. She smiled secretively.

"When the sun hits the horizon and turns the sky red, meet me on the roof." she said in that soft tone of hers.

Impatiently, Naruto sat through the meetings between the Council and the Hokage. He hurried through with his advanced training with Kohonamaru and his beginner's training with Inari, who wanted to be equipped to fight if worst came to worst. He lost quickly to Shikamaru in a forced game of Go, leaving during his speech on how much he sucked today. He rushed and rushed, making it to the designated roof a little early than needed.

Naruto sat on the edge of the roof, his feet swinging lightly. His nonchalant gaze slipped off when the sun started to dip underneath the horizon, turning the sky a deep red, his mouth opening in a silent 'o' of appreciation. When's the last time I've looked at dusk? He smiled sadly, knowing why. The night was the only time for him. The only time for a shinobi who made his living by killing people.

"Pretty, huh?" Naruto nearly fell off the roof.

"Eep!" he squeaked in a high pitched voice. She laughed, taking a seat next to the blond.

"You know, you should pay more attention to your surroundings." He was torn between blushing in shame and scowling at her. Instead, the expression on his face was like a confused puppy.

"Y-yeah well.." Naruto 'ahem'ed, attempting to insert more manlyness in his voice. Hinata just smiled and patted his hand, choosing instead to look out at the fading dusk.

That's why he liked Hinata. She never made fun of him, never ridiculed him, always made him feel accepted. He supposed that was why she was such a good medic. Her simple actions and words were healing enough. A goofy smile appeared on his lips, when he too looked toward the fading dusk.

"You know.. I have a mission. With Neji-ni-san, Lee-san, and Nara-san.. Outside of the barrier." He immediately stopped smiling, turning to give her a worried look. Her pale eyes asked him not say anything.

"Your birthday.. um.." she could feel herself reverting back to her younger self, a strong urge to twiddle her fingers running through her head. "I was afraid that maybe I won't make it to your birthday s-so.."

Naruto hit the roof with his fist in anger. "Don't talk like that, Hinata-chan!" he grabbed her hands, forcing her to look right at him. "You'll make it back! You're not going to die-" Hinata put a finger over Naruto's lips. She chuckled lightly.

"I didn't mean it like that, Naruto-kun. I don't know if I'm going to make it in time for your birthday." His rant died, a surprised 'oh' slipping out of his mouth. Blushing, he muttered a soft 'sorry' against her finger.

"I want to give it to you now."

Hinata turned more to him, fully aware that this would be the first time she was face to face with him when he received one of her presents to him. She took a calming breath, reaching around her neck, pulling a silver chain into view.

She pulled it over her head, then placed it around Naruto's neck, the silver contrasting heavily against his dark sleeveless shirt. He touched the pendant on it, in quiet awe.

It was a pure white diamond surrounded by silver figures. It was hard to tell what the silver was, one direction looking like a wave about to crash on a beach, the other like wings of an angel.

"It was my mother's. Father gave it to her after they were married. It is said that whoever wears it will have luck bestowed on them." she whispered. Naruto looked up.

"A good luck charm? You believe that?" he asked, curiosity rearing it's head. He always had been a firm believer in skill over luck, but there were sometimes in his life that he knew luck was the only way he survived. There was no other possible explanation.

"I met you, didn't I?" Hinata said with a smile, a stubborn blush appearing on her face.

"Heh.." Naruto murmured, looking away. "All this time I thought guys who wore necklaces were girly." He reached underneath his shirt, pulling out the necklace the Hokage gave him. "Guess I'm real girly." He snickered, prompting Hinata to laugh as well.

He gave her a serious look, both of necklaces in his grasp. "I'll treasure your necklace as much as I treasure the old lady's." Naruto said solemnly. She nodded and stood. "I need a little luck here and there anyway.."

Hinata smiled again, patting his head, going toward the door that led back into the building. He watched her go, an almost sad smile replacing the soft one from before. Hinata-chan.. you are my good luck charm..


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End Flashback
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He reached for it, sighing softly when it wasn't there. Hinata-chan.. I need you. I need the luck you always give to me.
You're too dark for her.. she is too weak for you.. surrender yourself.. bring out the darkness that burns in your heart. He wanted to tell it to stick his speech up where the sun don't shine, but his mouth wasn't obeying him. Nor was his body.

Naruto stood up. W-what's happening to me! Kyuubi! There was no answer.

I have silenced your friend. I have control over your body. And there's nothing you can do.. Naruto struggled for control, his best efforts only making his body tremble a little.

You b*****d! he shouted. His body was drawn to the small pond not far from where he had first fallen. Let go! Leave us alone!

Naruto looked down at the water, looking at his reflection. A man with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail, with the coldest blue eyes stared back at him. Naruto couldn't help but stare at the person in front of him.

He wore a completely black outfit, a katana draped sideways at his lower back, like Naruto used to, back in his Anbu days. He smiled, a dark smile with deadly promises, tying a dark sash around his head and neck, leaving only those icy eyes visible.

"Naruto-kun.." his mouth moved behind the fabric. The voice was not his own, but the haunting voice inside his mind.

"It's time to kill.."