When Sasuke first met him, he was standing against the wall of the classroom, his face scared and a little dirty. He was oddly pretty for a boy, but Sasuke just looked him over and ignored him and everyone else just like his elder brother had taught him to do. It was the first grade, and Sasuke was determined to catch up to his elder brother, who was currently the top of his class in the fifth grade hall. The school they were going to was only for those who placed in the top ten of the placement tests for grade schools.
Fugaku Uchiha had only wanted the best out of his children, and he made sure they did well. If they fell behind, his strict punishments were motivation enough to do better. As a crime lord in the capital of the largest country in the world, it was imperative that his sons could take his place when he was dead and gone. He was proud that they were two very strong alphas, their power undeniable compared to many others in their dangerous family.
Minato Uzumaki loved his son. He really did, most of the time. It was easy to tell when he was born that he was going to be an omega, which was very unfortunate. He himself was an omega and his lovely wife a very strong alpha, but he hadn't wanted this life for his own child. It was hard, with all the prejudice against omegas and the violence they faced from their own biology. He had wanted his son to be strong and not have to face the violence that would come from being an omega in today's society. Unfortunately, the last time he saw his son, he was only ten months old and could barely walk.
Mikoto Uchiha never really understood how she became part of this family. Much of it was because her own father was in a great deal of debt and the Uchiha family had agreed to pay it off, and the other, albeit much smaller part, was because she had found the Uchiha family intimidating and didn't want to decline an offer from such a scary person as Fugaku. Or Madara. No one denied Madara and lived to tell about it. On the plus side, she had two beautiful, strong alpha sons who she truly loved, and they loved her right back. When it came to her, her two sons lost that roughness around them and smiled and laughed, making her a very happy woman in the slightly sour home of Uchiha.
Kushina Uzumaki was a very happy woman. She had a loving mate who she pampered and kept at home to keep her and her son well fed and a son that was just as lovely as him. She knew that her mate was disappointed that their son was an omega, but she didn't really see the problem with it. Her little boy would make a lovely mate to a strong alpha some day, she was sure. As a police officer, she knew that it wasn't easy to keep omegas safe in today's society, but she damn well would try her hardest to keep both of her precious omegas safe. Sadly, the last time she saw her mate and son was on the side of the street, dying in a small alley.
xXx
Naruto Uzumaki had always known life in an orphanage. They said that his parents were killed in a hit-and-run and he was found in the dying arms of his mother, but he doesn't really remember anything about them. He likes to imagine that they loved him, but he's never really too sure. The house Mother was never really kind. Sometimes they remembered his birthday and sometimes they didn't. He didn't know why the older kids who came were always sad when their mothers died, if they had a mother to begin with. Mothers in the orphanage were not really very kind at all. The house Fathers were just like the house Mothers, too. They would hit them if they didn't do all their chores or eat all their scraps or if they were just angry about something.
Sometimes, some of the older boys who were omegas would have to go into the house Mothers or house Fathers office and when they came back they walked funny and they would cry themselves to sleep. Those boys got better clothes sometimes, and they would even get more to eat. The only times the Alphas were kind was when other scary people came and looked at all the rooms and looked over all the kids.
When Naruto was three, those people came and they sat down with him and a few of the others his age and taught him how to read and write. They came every day for two weeks, and it was the best two weeks of his life. He got lots of food and the house Mothers and house Fathers were always really nice to him. They gave him a notebook and lots of pencils to write with, but once they left the house Alphas didn't like it when he wrote things. They took it away from the other kids who learned to write like him, so he only wrote and practiced in secret. One day a few months later, a new kid came and he gave Naruto a garbage bag full of books to read, but again, Naruto had to hide it or else the house Mothers would take them away.
When Naruto was five, those people who taught him to read and write came back, but this time they made Naruto take a test. It was a little hard, but Naruto didn't mind. The people had said that if he did well, he would get to go to school. The older kids all liked school because they got to get away from the house Mothers and house Fathers, but they always hated doing homework. Naruto wouldn't mind homework, really. He got to write as much as he wanted and the house Alphas couldn't take it away from him. When he was done with his test, he gave it back to the nice people who gave it to him. They said they would be back tomorrow with their results.
Tomorrow came and the nice people were so excited over something. Eventually, they gathered all the kids at the orphanage and said that Naruto and another kid were so smart they were going to one of the best schools in the whole country. Only those who scored in the top ten percent got to go to this particular school. The people made it obvious it was a really big deal, but Naruto didn't really understand. He was just happy that he got to go to school. Apparently, he would be going into the first grade, not kindergarten like they told him he would be.
The house Alphas had these odd smiles when they looked at him, and suddenly Naruto was more worried than he had been. He couldn't wait to go to school.
xXx
School was not what Naruto thought it was going to be. First off, all the other kids just ignored him. They all had brand new, expensive-looking clothes and they seemed much cleaner than he did. Naruto had taken a bath last night, but the water had been used by the two older boys in his room and he didn't have much soap left; he would have to wait till next month to get more.
The first day, the teachers had put them into groups of four and put them at desks. Naruto sat next to a boy with dark hair and dark eyes that was so obviously an alpha, Naruto was a little scared. Across from him sat another blue-eyed blonde omega, but she was obviously a girl. Across from the first dark-haired, dark-eyed boy and another dark-haired, dark-eyed boy, probably a beta, who was exceptionally pale. The much paler boy was very good at drawing but his smiles were a little weird.
There were other groups, of course. There was another table across the room that held the other omega from the orphanage. Her name was Temari. She had two brothers, Gaara and Kankuro, and they were just called the Sabaku siblings. Naruto was pretty sure Gaara was an omega too, but they all stayed together. She had briefly looked over and caught Naruto's eye; a moment of understanding had flown between the two for just a second: all these people were very different from them.
Months and months went by, and Naruto hadn't made a single friend. He was, however, the third in the class, topped only by the dark-haired boy he sat next to that he later learned was called Sasuke Uchiha and an incredibly lazy boy called Shikamaru Nara. Apparently, they all came from well-off families. There were few kids who came because of smarts, but most of them getting accepted to the prestigious school because their families were rich or well-known.
The Uchiha and Hyuga families, for instance, were wealthy and very much feared by others. The Inuzuka family was full of doctors, veterinarians, and private dog show trainers. The Yamanakas had their own chain of florist shops, as well as their own line of perfumes and cosmetics. The Akamichi couple were world renowned chefs, and they wanted a normal life for their son while still making sure he had the best of the best. The Aburames were incredibly fortunate scientists, and Shino had an odd fascination with bugs; Naruto thought they were gross, especially when they got in the food. The Nara family apparently worked for the government in some high-end facilities, but Shikamaru didn't need the reach of his father's influence to be part of the high end school district with his brilliant mind.
Before he knew it, Naruto was going through the second grade then the third, but it was the fourth grade where Naruto finally, finally, got noticed. He had to stay in his group of four with Sai, Ino, and Sasuke when they were paired for groups. In the fourth grade, there was a required project at the end of the year that the groups had to do. Unfortunately, they had to be done outside of class, which meant going to other people's houses.
Naruto had taken much better care of his clothes and his looks since that first day of the first grade, and he made sure that how he looked was no different from the other kids. One of the older kids in the orphanage that had a job had taken him out to celebrate being in the high honors class of the fourth grade that year by buying him new clothes from a thrift store. He made sure that he never stained or ripped them and that they were always properly cleaned and put away.
Now, though, he faced the dilemma of going to other people's houses; if he didn't, he wouldn't be able to pass that year and would be expelled.
Ino had volunteered first, and when she gave him her address, he had to groan. It was on the other side of town from the orphanage, at least an hour and a half walk. After school that day, Naruto had walked for almost forty five minutes in the cold to get to the luxurious mansion that Ino called her home. It was amazing, just standing there looking at the tall house. Naruto rarely got to see something so fancy. His thin coat did little to block the biting wind, but he didn't really care much about the cold.
When he knocked on the door, a man with long blond hair and pale blue eyes like Ino's opened the door and peered down at him.
"Hello, little guy. Are you lost? Do you need me to call your parents for you?" The man asked kindly. Naruto shook his head.
"No, I'm here to do a project with Ino, sir." Naruto made sure to be polite to the alpha. He did not want to get on any alphas bad side, even if they didn't work at the orphanage.
The man looked around over his head with an odd expression before he smiled at Naruto and beckoned him inside. He led Naruto into the house and waited for him to take off his shoes (something he didn't do at the orphanage) and asked him if he liked any kinds of snacks (which definitely never happened at the orphanage). Naruto just stared at him for a moment before he shook his head 'no'.
The house was just as beautiful inside as it was outside, and Naruto was afraid to touch anything. There was so much he could break and get punished for. He almost didn't want to sit down, but he also didn't want to look weird.
When they decided it was time to go, Sasuke got picked up in a nice shiny black car. Sai left about ten minutes later in an equally shiny silver car, leaving Naruto alone in the house. He hurriedly said his goodbyes when they asked if they needed to call someone to pick him up and left. He nearly ran to get home before the official curfew was reached, and he made it by two minutes before the door was locked. Either way, he still got hit and kicked for being late.
Several more times they went to Ino's before Sai offered to host. His house wasn't as extravagant nor was it as far from the orphanage, for which Naruto was grateful. It meant fewer beatings and fewer bruises. When they called it quits, they noticed it was raining outside. It was getting colder outside as the weather changed from fall to winter, and this was to be one of the last rainstorms before the snow started falling.
For the others, this wasn't a problem. They had nice, dry, warm, shiny cars to come and pick them up, but Naruto had to run home in it; he would be freezing and wet, and probably would get beaten if he got the floors dirty. He house Mothers were always very strict about that.
After Ino had been picked up, it was just the three of them. Sai eventually left to go and finish a painting, apparently, leaving him and Sasuke alone. The silence between them was normal, and when the other spoke, Naruto was startled. They rarely ever directly addressed him, and he was not used to the attention.
"Why do you always get picked up so late?"
Naruto looked up at Sasuke, who was staring at him with a cool expression and a raised eyebrow. Naruto stared at him in confusion for a minute before he shrugged and looked back down. He always left last so the others didn't really see that he didn't actually get picked up but instead walked home.
"I said, why do you always get picked up so late?"
Naruto looked back up at the dark-haired boy and saw he looked slightly irritated. With a sigh, he decided that the truth was probably best.
"I don't. I just wait till you leave so that I can walk home." Naruto decided to get up and leave then. There really was no point to stay anymore. Just as he was about to open the front door, a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist. He flinched back from the forceful hand, afraid that for once his schoolmate was going to beat him up just like his caretakers.
"You can get a ride from me then. I know that the school takes in a couple poor kids, so it's okay if your parents can't pick you up. Just tell my mom where you live and she'll drop you off. And don't say no." Naruto had opened his mouth to refuse, but he was tired and he didn't want to fight. There wasn't a reason to, really. He was just so tired.
When Sasuke's mom came, he climbed in back with him and buckled himself into the expensive, luxurious machine. He remembered the address of the orphanage because it was practically beat into him by the other kids there. They also taught him how to read street signs so he was never lost anymore.
The journey there was quiet, interrupted by the turn signals and eventually the honking of other drivers when they got into the bad part of town. When Sasuke's mother pulled in front of the orphanage, there was a somewhat grim, sad expression on her face, but Naruto didn't take the time to look. He hurriedly thanked her and jumped out of the car, making sure not to slam the door as he closed it and rushed inside.
The outside of the orphanage was covered in crumbling brick, dirt and dead weeds. The sign on the sidewalk read Kono a City Orpha age. A couple letters had fallen off and their shadow had faded into an ugly green that blended in with the rest of the ugly colors on the once bright sign. It had the feel and look of an overall unhappy place.
As Mikoto pulled away, she didn't see the thoughtful look on her youngest son's face. All she could think about was the boy who looked a lot like her childhood friend Minato and how scared he had looked to be at that wretched orphanage. It tugged at her heart thinking that that poor little boy had probably grown up in that awful home.
xXx
Sasuke watched as Naruto went into the dirty orphanage. He had been watching him since second grade, when Naruto had beaten him twice at tests he had not expected the short, little loser omega to surpass him on. He noticed when Naruto came in with a bruise on his arm that he was constantly covering up, or when Naruto didn't have any lunch money or even a lunch to eat. He didn't do anything, he just watched. Naruto carried on as if nothing were wrong, reading a book or doing homework.
Naruto's choice of reading material was… interesting. Many of the books were much more advanced than their age could really handle, and he always wondered if Naruto understood them. With his contributions to their group project, Sasuke thought he just might.
When he had grabbed his wrist at the door, Sasuke had not missed the way Naruto flinched back from him. He had looked scared, as if he was waiting for someone to hit him. The thought that someone was beating Naruto up did not sit well with him, not one bit. He planned to rectify that as soon as possible. All he needed now was a plan, but he could wait. Sasuke could be very patient, when he wanted to be.
He didn't understand his sudden desire to protect the omega, but he would make sure that he did. No one damaged what was his.
xXx
Naruto didn't understand Sasuke's sudden interest in him.
It had started when Sasuke offered to host the group project that week then offered to give him a ride to his house as he set the time as right after school! When they got to his house, they worked on it for maybe an hour before he said they were done and Sai and Ino's parents came and picked them up. Sasuke had asked him to stay back and had started asking him questions like did he like karate movies or did he get picked on by bullies. They were the most inane questions Naruto had ever heard. When he replied that yes, he did like karate movies and no, he didn't get picked on by bullies, Sasuke had had his usual scowl and offered to have his family driver take him home.
Sasuke's parents- his whole family- were rich. Naruto was sure that Sasuke himself already had a small fortune at his beck and call. Naruto wasn't too sure what they did to make that money, but they didn't seem particularly kind, except for Mikoto. He had only met Sasuke's father, Fugaku, once, and he wasn't too keen to do so again. The man had immediately reminded Naruto of the house Fathers at the orphanage and it scared him. He knew right away to be nothing but polite to this man, or bad things would most likely happen to him. Whether that was true or not, he didn't know, but he didn't want to find out.
From that first time on, the project was always done at Sasuke's house. They would go over and work on it, and Naruto was always the last to leave in Sasuke's family car. The other kids in the orphanage had gotten wind of it, and they turned more hostile against him. They didn't like that he was hanging around with the rich people who would gladly piss all over them instead of give them a helping hand. Naruto didn't know what to do. On one hand, he liked the thought that Sasuke was starting to become his friend, but on the other hand, without the protection of the older kids, the house Alphas had been increasingly cruel to him.
The one time that they had been particularly violent and nearly cracked his ribs, Sasuke noticed.
"Idiot, why are you being so weird today?" Ino and Sai had already left- together, oddly- and Sasuke had been staring at him for the last ten minutes. Naruto hadn't noticed much because he had been trying to focus on not passing out or throwing up, or, worse, both.
At his abrupt question, Naruto looked up, a little startled and very much confused. He thought he had been perfectly fine. His mind was a little hazy and his vision was swimming, so when Sasuke was immediately in front of him, he jumped back a little and instantly regretted it. The action pulled at the bruised muscles and bones of his torso, and he couldn't hold back the loud whimper of pain that slipped out.
Sasuke roughly grabbed his shirt when he hugged his arms gingerly around himself and pulled it off. When he looked back at Naruto's black-and-purple-littered ribcage, his mind went blank. People did this to kids? The thought that people were hurting his friend enraged him to a level he couldn't even describe.
The emotions pumping through Sasuke left him angry and confused. Was Naruto his friend? Looking at the poor blond orphan, he nodded his head. Yes, Naruto was definitely his friend. His best friend, even.
"I am going to kill them. Tell me who did this to you, Naruto, and I'll take care of them." The calmness of his voice made Naruto shiver. He knew that Sasuke would carry out with his threat. He had felt so vulnerable, sitting there exposed under Sasuke's suddenly angry gaze. Was he mad at Naruto for getting hurt? he had thought. But no, he was angry at the house Alphas. That realization made the pain he went through suddenly worth it. He finally had someone who cared. All his life, he had just wanted one person to care solely about him, and somehow, miraculously, he did.
Naruto hesitantly told him what was going on, explaining why he was getting beat up so much, and he watched as the emotions of rage and promise flitted across Sasuke's face and blazed in his eyes. Someone did care. That thought alone kept his mouth moving until he had finished what was probably his whole life story. He reached up and tugged his shirt out of Sasuke's hand, hurriedly putting it back on and trying to make himself smaller.
Before Naruto left that night, Sasuke promised that Naruto would be protected. The next day after the project planning was done with, Sasuke led Naruto through his large mansion and brought him to a padded room with odd pieces of training equipment.
"This room is called a dojo. My father and brother train me how to defend myself here. They taught me how to use martial arts, and I'm going to teach you, too, so you can protect yourself, Naruto."
Sasuke hated to think that he couldn't do more, but he really couldn't. Before Naruto had left yesterday, he had made Sasuke promise that he didn't tell anybody and that this stayed their secret. Admittedly, he didn't know why Naruto didn't want him to tell anybody, but he wasn't going to betray the trust of his first friend just because he didn't understand something completely.
Naruto had looked at Sasuke with a mixture of awe and gratitude for the longest time before he nodded his head. He had never felt so much hope in one moment in his entire life.
xXx
From that day on, Sasuke taught Naruto martial arts for the next two and a half years. In that time, the two became inseparable. When Sasuke told Naruto that he was going to a private high school that his father had picked out for him that was two cities away, Naruto had ran away and cried for hours before remembering curfew. When the house Father who was locking the door tried to punch his little twelve-year-old self, Naruto grabbed his wrist and threw him over his body then stormed up the staircase and didn't look back.
No one came after him.
Naruto had just started, earlier that week, really developing as an omega. He was starting to notice the other alphas in his sixth grade class, Sasuke included. In fact, he couldn't stop thinking about the dark-haired alpha. He smelled so good and his presence made Naruto want to submit, just so Sasuke would look at him.
He didn't understand these feelings that were coursing through him. He wanted Sasuke to be around to help him figure them out, but then Sasuke had told him he was leaving, and Naruto just didn't know what to do.
Over the next few weeks, since he didn't have school and he wasn't required to have job since he wasn't sixteen, he sat and made a decision about the rest of his schooling career. He firmed his resolve every time he saw one of the alphas at the orphanage- whether it was one of his caretakers or one of the other orphans was irrelevant- look at him as if they wanted to see how far he could bend before he would break.
He ended up getting into the best public high school in the city and he had learned to dawn a mask. As an omega, there was a certain way he was supposed to act, which he did, but only to an extent. It was a simple task of putting on a smile and being more demure to the alphas in the halls and being kind to everyone around him, no matter how taxing. He got a job as soon as he could and bought himself a better a wardrobe, one more suiting to an omega, no matter how much he hated it. He made sure to be in the top ten graduates of his class, and graduate he did.
After high school, things got more complicated. Naruto didn't really have a goal in life besides get out of the orphanage, and he did just that with two full-time jobs and a shabby apartment. He didn't have the money for college even if he did have the brains. There was no college that would want to accept him, anyways.
When many of the omegas left the orphanage at 18, they turned to the less glamorous professions. Most became prostitutes, others turned to the drug trade, and some just stayed in the low life category, working at a dead-end until an alpha with a 9 to 5 came around and they fell into the life of an at-home housewife or househusband that cooked, cleaned, and raised the kids. Naruto didn't want any of these for his life, but there wasn't much he could do.
He worked a job at a local diner for old people, waitressing and cooking some of the morning meals during the day. At night, he worked at a strip club, unfortunately. It was at a bar called Sally's Sweeteners, a rather dole name for a strip club, but it was open for all omega-types to work in with an all-alpha clientele. The bouncers and bartenders were big, beefy alphas that could probably crush a car if they wanted to, but they turned out to be generally nice people. There was little more Naruto could do for money that was this good for only four nights a week, though, so he stayed.
He quickly became one of the favorites, mostly for male alphas, most likely due to the fact that he had no qualms about wearing heels, panties, and a sheer baby doll nightgown to dance around a pole in. He found out early on that he liked the feeling of dancing up there on stage, so he was very much okay with it. It made him feel powerful. It wasn't until about two years or so after he started working there- three years out of high school- that things got a little rough. One of the regulars decided he wanted a private dance, which was something that Naruto wasn't unaccustomed to, but he got too handsy and wanted more action than just a dance. Before the bouncers could come to the rescue at Naruto's few cries of help, he flipped the alpha over and put a heel into his back to keep him down.
Of course, he did have a few new bruises for a few days, but his childhood of beatings had built up a tolerance and they disappeared quickly. It was that night that Naruto looked at his life again.
Was this really what he wanted for himself?
This single question followed him for weeks, leaving him distracted in thought. That distraction was what led to this particular night, weeks and weeks after that first rough client.
Naruto had been walking home when he finally heard them. They were three drunk alphas from the bar, following him and calling out to him for lewd requests that made him shudder a little.
Naruto's apartment complex was a remodeled school that someone had bought for cheaper than dirt and made rough new homes out of. The bathrooms were communal, but it was one of the few omega-only places on the bad side of town that still had functional locks. The walk to get to and from the bar was forty-five minutes or so, passing through the old loading docks and streets of run-down warehouses.
There were a lot of dark corners that Naruto could get stuck in, so he tried to stay away from dark alleys and tight niches that screamed beware. Unfortunately, the drunk alphas had other ideas.
Naruto had just watched a door open, and a dark-haired man with an oddly familiar haircut step out and light up a cigarette when he felt several hands grab his arms and torso.
He had shouted out indignantly before he felt a hand cover his mouth. The panic that overtook him made his limbs freeze and his breath lock in his chest. There was no way he could fight against three strong, inebriated alphas who were so aggressive.
He distantly heard a shout in the background as he struggled, but he paid it no mind as he tried to free his now captured legs. The pairs of hands that had grabbed him were suddenly removed and he was slammed into the ground and knocked unconscious.
xXx
Please, no flames, but tell me what you think. I've already started the next chapter and I know where I'm going, but I have trouble with all the in-between, so this might take a while. I don't update frequently, so please forgive me. I hope you enjoyed it so far!
