"Naruto! You must help me! "

The birds chirped outside Naruto's window. The sun dazzled him, and he enjoyed the warmth that spread over his face. Naruto scratched his cheek and pulled a bit of the whiskers. The blond-haired boy sighed as you always do in the morning, and then kicked off his blanket and sat up.
Then his blue eyes got stuck on the group photo which was placed on the nightstand and it reminded him about the dream, or the imagination he had this night.

"Sasuke, where are you?" Naruto mumbled.

Sasuke was his best friend, but escaped to that sleazy Orochimaru to become stronger and take revenge on his older brother; Itachi. That was for three years ago, and one week ago Naruto lost his

hope to take Sasuke back to the village.

Naruto went to the fridge, opened it and sighed, again.

"There's never food in here," he said to himself while he scratched his neck.
Naruto took a sip from a milk package, in desperate need of food. Spit it out in the sink directly. The taste wasn't very nice. Maybe Naruto could eat some ramen at Ichiraku, before he would meet up with Kakashi and Sakura at the training site. Then he remembered that his money was exhausted.

"Damn."

"Naruto- kun!"
Sakura came running toward Naruto. Her pink hair waved in the air and her green eyes sparkled in the sunlight. She smiled at him. Naruto and Sakura were just a few meters away from the rendezvous point.

"Sakura-chan."

"Do you think Kakashi is late again?" she asked.

"Of course," Naruto said. He realized that it maybe sounded a bit stupid, so he smiled a bit silly.

"I wonder why he wanted to talk to us," Sakura said suspiciously and looked at Naruto.

Naruto nodded in agreement while he saw that they had come to the training location where the three wooden posts stood. The memories from there reminded him of his dream.

"Sakura, I dreamed a dream last night ... though I don't know if it was just a dream or imagination ..." he said.

"Tell me about it," Sakura said and sat on the left post and turned her head so she could see Naruto. Naruto sat on the middle wooden post.

"The dream or imagination was about Sasuke; he talked to me and said that he should come soon. He shouted for help… he sounded scared."

"It was probably nothing special," Sakura said, and wanted immediately start talking about how her training with Tsunade went yesterday. Naruto thought she dismissed his subject a bit fast and didn't seem to care about Sasuke.

When Sakura had talked too much about her workout, Kakashi finally showed up from the trees and he waved at the two curious teenagers. Kakashi was late, as usual, but he was nervous. His grey hair stood up as usually and his headband sat diagonally and covered his eye.

"By the way, where's Sai?" Naruto asked Sakura.

"He's in the hospital, he was attacked yesterday," she answered and looked a little bit worried.

"Oh…" Naruto said, and decided to visit Sai today and ask him what's happened.

"Good morning," Kakashi said. He smiled, but something seemed to worry him. He looked strange to the bushes, but then turned his head to the teenagers on the wooden posts again. "I have received some information about Orochimaru," he said, but almost as a whisper.

"Finally," Naruto said and he could feel deep down in his heart that the little hope grew.

"Yes… finally. Well, he has moved to a different place, and one of his ninjas escaped the day before yesterday. I don't know more than that." Kakashi seemed relived and he relaxed a little.

"That's more than we're used to know," Naruto said but couldn't think of anything but a certain person. "Sasuke ...?"

"We haven't heard a single word about him," Kakashi answered and looked confused at Sakura who had snorted.

"Is Sai better today?" Kakashi asked her.

"I'm afraid not," Sakura said. "He was very weak yesterday evening and we don't know exactly what's wrong with him."

"Did you want to tell us something more?" Naruto asked Kakashi. Kakashi shook his head. "I need to talk with you, Sensei."

Sakura said good-bye and walked away. Kakashi looked at Naruto and waited for him to start talking.

"I need to borrow something from you," Naruto said and felt that he started to blush. Kakashi looked questioning at Naruto. "It's a little bit embarrassing but I need to borrow some money..."

"Of course, Naruto. But don't be embarrassed. It's not you fault that you don't have any parents that takes care of you."

Around four o'clock Naruto went to the hospital to visit Sai. He walked to the desk and saw a young woman there. She looked tired and Naruto supposed she'd work all night.

"Hey, I want to meet Sai but I don't know in which room…"

"What is his surname?" the woman asked but didn't look up from the computer screen.

"He has no surname," Naruto answered.

"Everybody has a surname," the woman said annoyed, but when she understood that Naruto was serious she took her eyes of the screen. "212," she said.

Naruto started to feel cranky but walked to Sai's room.

She was tired; he thought and tried to make himself happy again.

Room 212 was far from the entrance, it seemed like years had gone before Naruto stood in front of a white door with the numbers 212 on. He could hear the beeping machines from the room. Naruto opened the door and walked inside.

Sai lay in a bed and was more white than otherwise. He looked very sick, almost dead. But then he shoved that he was alive; he opened his eyes when he heard that a person came in.

"Naruto…" he said with a very hoarse and quiet voice. He had dark circles under the eyes and all of his chakra was gone, even Naruto could feel it.

"Sai, what happened?" he asked him and stood beside the bed.

"You know that I was on a mission with Team Guy..." he started and cleared his throat. "…when we were on our way home I unexpectedly got attacked by someone, from behind."

"Did you see who it was?" Naruto asked. He was shocked, this didn't happen so very often.

"Naruto, please, don't…" Sai said but got prevented.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked him confused but still wanted an answer.

The already beeping machines started to beep more and Sai began cough.

"Sai!"

One doctor and two nurses ran in to the room.

"Please go out from here," a nurse said to Naruto and ran to the bed. It seemed like Naruto didn't' have a choice so he went out off the room started to walk to the entrance door.

The day was slow and finally when the sun went down, the lonely boy sat down on a chair in his empty apartment. The only sound that you could hear was the yawn from his mouth. This was the time of the day when the mouth was closed in more than ten minutes.

Naruto was tired, but he hadn't done anything hard during the day. He had purchased a little food and packed it in the fridge. He had asked Kakashi to borrow some money and luckily, Kakashi gave him what he needed.
Naruto remembered what Kakashi had told him and Sakura today and he hoped that is was Sasuke who'd escaped from Orochimaru.
He realized later that he had automatically associated this a little with his dream.

"Of course it's not like I want it to be like that," he said loud to himself and went to the bed with Sai's short words whispering in his mind.

When ten minutes gone, the boy was sleeping.

Naruto woke up with his heart in his throat and his hands were sweaty.
He had just dreamed the same dream as the last night, but it felt closer now. He could still hear the screaming voice in his head and tried to think of something else. But the concentration made Naruto alert and he couldn't go back to sleep. Naruto decided to get dressed and take a stroll through the village. He put on the orange outfit and clenched his black headband around his head. After that he went out to the warm summer night.

It was totally quiet everywhere and almost all the lights in the windows were off. Naruto enjoyed the loneliness. A wind blew past him and a shudder passed through his body.

This would Sasuke appreciate, he thought.

Naruto walked past a restaurant and he almost thought he saw Lee in there and he was eating with someone at a table. It was the restaurant that couples usual goes to. The restaurant with roses and candles on the tables, a band playing in the background and of course, the champagne bottles. Maybe Lee was with Tenten? It looked like her.
Naruto went ahead and after a few minutes he was standing at the big village gate. It was open, which was strange because it should be closed every night. There were no guards either at the gate.
As he stood there he saw something moving in the darkness.

Naruto walked closer and stopped outside the gate. He got himself in the defending position and pulled up a kunai. Suddenly someone touched him and Naruto could feel a person collapse in front of him.

"Naruto!"

"Sasuke…?" The voice was familiar. It was the voice mode Naruto had longed to hear. He couldn't believe this was happening.

"Please Naruto; let me go inside!" the voice sounded again. Naruto felt like he stood on glue or something, because he couldn't move.

Sasuke was scared, he was trembling all over and he looked around all the time like someone was chasing him. Sasuke's voice sounded panicked and he gasped. Naruto didn't know for a while what he should do.
But in the end, Naruto helped Sasuke up and they went through the gate. Sasuke was leaning on Naruto. He took a look at Sasuke and saw that he was shaking in pain, but the questioning boy saved his questions till later.
Naruto decided it was best that they went to his apartment. They had to tell Tsunade or someone else in the village tomorrow.

Fortunately, Naruto found his home in the dark and the two boys were finally in the apartment. Sasuke sat on a chair while Naruto poured a glass of cold water to him.
Now when they found themselves in the light, Naruto could see Sasuke clearly. The sight was terrible; he never thought that someone like the strong and fearless Sasuke could look like this. His face which had always been so flawless was now narrow and dirty. His black hair was worn, and his body reminded Naruto of a skeleton. The clothes he wore were as dirty as the face, and the once white shirt was almost gray.
The too big shirt revealed his curse seal.
Sasuke looked down at the floor for a while but then looked at the staring Naruto.

"What are you looking at?" he asked, raising one of his black eyebrows.

"What happened to you?" Naruto asked him and set down his glass to him, and then sat on another chair.

"I have never been so stupid in my whole life," Sasuke started, and he began to shake a little when he held the glass in his hand. "I thought he would train me and make me sufficiently strong enough to fight against Itachi."

"Are you talking about Orochimaru?"

Sasuke nodded and looked at Naruto with tears in his eyes. Naruto had never imagined that a pair of jet black eyes could look so innocent and scared.
Then Sasuke took the left sleeve and began to pull his arm out of the shirt.

"You know the mark you get if you are a ninja in The Hidden Leaf Village ..." he said. "It was Orochimaru who did it ... I tried to stop him, but I didn't succeed."

The mark he was talking about was The Hidden Leaf Village logo on the left arm. If you had been a ninja in The Hidden Leaf Village for one year, you'll get the mark burned on the skin.
Sasuke showed Naruto what Orochimaru had done. His leaf had been burned with a dash over it and he had another mark under it.

"The Village Hidden in the Sound," Naruto whispered when he saw the note and when he saw it he realized how deeply wounded Sasuke was.

"He burned the mark," Sasuke said and swallowed. "He chained me so I couldn't run away and then he burned the mark on my arm. He told me that he had to… remove all the links I had to my o-old life."
The chains that had been sitting on the wrists explained why he had large, infected wounds on his forearms.

"Sasuke ..." Naruto said shocked.

The mark could never be removed, only if you cut off your skin. Naruto had never imagined that Sasuke got into that sort of trouble. A ninja who'd experienced anything like this were wounded for life.
Sasuke wiped tears from his eyes and put on his shirt again. He tried to hide the marks on his back but when he saw that Naruto was looking on his back, he tried to focus Naruto's eyes on a fake smile instead. By his smile, he calmed Naruto a little. But Naruto knew that nothing was okay.

"Maybe we should sleep ...?" Sasuke asked tired and yawned.

He blinked away the last tears he had in his eyes.
It couldn't be far till the sun would get up but Naruto made up the sofa, and said that he could sleep there and Sasuke could sleep in the bed. The tired one accepted it.
Sasuke fell asleep first and Naruto heard at least once when Sasuke called out the blond boy's name in the sleep.