Yay, a new story, I will still do my other one, so don't worry. This story won't be very long, only a couple of chapters, and I'll have it done really soon, maybe two days if I bust my ass over it. Anyway, yes this is a GaaraXOC, and if you no likey, you go AWAY! But if you don't mind, I hope you enjoy Lauralie's story. This has all Naruto characters in it somehow, including Akatsuki.

It was ironic...I had always told my parents I could take care of myself. I told them they never had to worry about me doing drugs, or drinking, or smoking. Apparently, they didn't have to when they were alive. Now, since they're gone, it's open season for me. My friends try to make me stop, sometimes they take whatever it is I'm doing, or sometimes they yell. Honestly, I don't think they understand why I keep it up...it's the only way I keep everything from catching up to me.

Let me explain just what is going on. My name is Kumori Lauralie, and in this story I am 18 and live in Konoha City, Japan. Four prior, my parents had died in a car accident that made national news, since my dad was a famous author. When they died, I only really had my friends and boyfriend to lean on, because my aunts and uncles wanted nothing to do with me. An old family friend, Kakashi Hatake, took me in, and acted as my guardian until I moved out at 17. My problems began around that time as well. The reason? Well, my boyfriend of four and a half years, Pein, broke up with me for his bimbo fangirl Konan. Pein was two years older than me, and had relationships before ours. In fact, according to my best friends Deidara and Hidan, he had extreme commitment problems.

They were surprised when we managed to last over two months. By the time we hit the two year mark, they were absolutely astounded. When four years had come and passed, they were sure we were going to be staying together. Then, when we broke up however, it was not Deidara or Hidan who had comforted me; they were busy that night. Instead my best of best friends, Shino, had been the one to sit with me. I knew Shino since I was ten, and he had introduced me to everyone else. Shino was my brother, maybe not in blood, but definitely in soul; we did everything together, and ended up dragging our friend Kiba along for the ride. It had taken Shino hours to get me to stop crying, and by that time it was almost four in the morning.

The next day, Shino went to school and left me to hang out at his house. His parents were fine with it, in fact, they absolutely adored me. I've been convinced more than once his mother had tried to get us to start dating. Going back to the point, I was all alone in the house, and suffering through the second worst day of my life. Now, when I opened a cabinet, and found Shibi Aburame's alcohol stash, I couldn't help myself. Three hours later Shibi had come home, and found two of his gin bottles empty, and me puking my guts out in the bathroom. He had been mad, sure, but didn't yell at me too badly, since he understood I was already upset. Unfortunately, he did tell Shino what happened, after cleaning the mess up. I had never seen Shino that upset before, and that only made everything worse.

After sleeping off the after effects of the alcohol, and then leaving the Aburames' house, I was home alone. Usually Pein and the others, meaning the rest of his gang, hung out around my house. It was extremely quiet without Deidara and Hidan arguing, Kisame raising hell, and Tobi running around screaming. The quiet let me think...about how the alcohol had dulled the pain, if only for a short time. Now, understand that I had tried to resist the temptation, but it got to be too much. My neighbour, Zabuza, was a 24 year old gang member, with his 20 year old boyfriend Haku living with him. Unfortunately for me at the time, Zabuza was more than willing to stock me with alcohol, for a price of course. Being that my father was famous, and the insurance on him and my mom was huge, I definitely had the money.

And thus began my drinking problems; the drug and smoking problems would come later. For the first few weeks, I only drank when I knew I wouldn't get caught. It got to the point where that wasn't enough however. I began drinking wrecklessly, even when I knew someone was coming over to see me. Soon enough, I was caught by Deidara and Hidan, and was yelled at once more. The yelling began a large argument, and the two had left, taking my alcohol with them. Zabuza refused to get me more for a couple more days, so I needed something else to help me. This is where my smoking began.

I would go out at night, and find someone old enough to buy me cigarettes. It cost a little less than alcohol, but it wasn't as good at killing the pain. Really though, I didn't care at all, as long as it did something. Everything had become too much for me, and I needed an escape. So, for nearly two weeks I kept the smoking on the down low, and carried around mints and perfume to keep the smell from alerting someone. And then, it blew up in my face again, when I was caught once more. This time, it was my friend Ino who found out; you will never know the definition of loud until you heard how she screamed at me. By the time she left, the whole street, and possibly the whole neighbourhood, knew I was a smoker. Zabuza thought it was funny, but Haku didn't. At this point I should have realized everything was going wrong, because I just couldn't care what Ino thought.

The warning signs were clear, and they riddled my path everywhere I went. I was drinking, I was smoking, and I didn't give a dman. In fact, the only thing I wouldn't do at this point, was cutting myself; I had at least some morals left. So, with the drinking and smoking both discovered, and me being watched like a zoo animal by everyone, I found I needed something else to do. It was hard, a lot harder than I thought; Shino and Kiba followed me everywhere now, and at least one of my friends stayed over until I went to sleep. My chance came over the summer into my senior year, when Shino was forced to go home for an emergency.

Wandering the city, I came up on an alley that had a lot of yelling in the back. Mother always used to tell me I was too damn curious for this world, and it proved to be true. I walked to the back of the alley, and met Kimimaro, a drug dealer. He 'kindly' offered me some Cocaine, and I took it. It cost me a bundle, but it was so much better than the alcohol or smoking. The best thing was, I could take it with so few signs that I was high, once I learned to act correctly. Their only sign, was my eyes, which would turn red. Thankfully, I could blow it off that I had been crying. Over the summer I got worse, and upgraded from Cocaine to Heroin.

At this point, I needed to start wearing longer sleeves, to hide the injection marks on my elbow. Needless to say, my friends got suspicious, but did not badger me themselves. Instead, they went to Kakashi, a low blow since I held the man close to my heart for taking care of me. Kakashi came to me a few days later, and started to question me about my sudden wardrobe change. I blew off all his questions, saying I just liked the longer sleeves better. Seeming to accept my answer, Kakashi backed off, and I thought I had won. My victory was short lived however, because I came home a week later to find them in my apartment. Sitting at the table in my kitchen were Kakashi, Shibi, and Tsume, Kiba's mother. In front of the three, was my Heroin, and they were watching me blankly.

The proceeding argument was the worst out of all three. Though I was into my narcotics too deep, and really couldn't feel bad, I knew I had let the three down. Years later I would feel like shit for this, and be unable to stop apologizing, but at that moment I hadn't cared. Kakashi had been mad...very mad. We yelled at each other for nearly two hours before he had taken my Heroin and left, Tsume and Shibi close behind. At this point, I was frustrated beyond belief, and had been foolish. I thought I knew everything, and that these things were okay, and I wasn't hurting anyone but myself...but that changed the next year, when I overheard a conversation between my friends.

-_-_-_-Normal POV-_-_-_-

Lauralie walked slowly around the main building of Konoha High's campus. You could tell with one glance at her eyes she was high, but she hid it well. It was common knowledge you didn't piss Lauralie off when she was high or drunk, unless you wanted a death sentence. Back when she was sober and clean, she had been violent, but now she was just plain vicious. In fact, it was rare for anyone, her friends included, to be able to talk with her without getting their heads bitten off. Hanging between the pointer and middle fingers of her right hand was a cigarette, and occasionally she brought it up to take a drag. Deciding she really didn't like walking on the path, as she was high and her logic was terrible, Lauralie turned walked to a clump of trees to her left. The trees' shade felt cool on her skin, and she smirked in enjoyment at the break from the hot sun. Walking through the close standing trunks, Lauralie searched for a place to seat herself.

"I just don't know what to do anymore Shikamaru." Lauralie looked up in slight interest. That sounded surprisingly like Ino, and apparently Shikamaru was with her.

"I know, but we need to keep trying; it may not seem like it, but she needs us." Creeping closer, Lauralie crouched down by a tree near the pair. This had caught her attention; who was this 'she'?

"We can't help her if she doesn't want us to." Lauralie leaned against the tree and remained silent. There was the sound of shifting, and then silence.

"Would you rather just leave her, and let her kill herself?" Shikamaru's tone was gentle, but questioning; he would never yell at Ino, he loved her.

"No, but how do we help her Shika?" Ino's words were choked, and it was obvious she was crying.

"We just have to keep stopping her in any way we can. If it comes down to it, we get her professional help." Lauralie's nose twitched as she listened, and a smirk wormed it's way onto her face. Obviously, whoever this 'she' was, was a complete loon if she needed professional help.

"I really doubt Lauralie would take some professional sitting her down and treating her like she's crazy." Okay, now this interested her even more; they were talking about her. Stopping her concentration for a moment, Lauralie shook her head as she remembered she had called herself a loon.

"Probably not, but it would be best for her, she needs to stop Ino." A small sob came from their direction, and Lauralie jerked in surprise at hearing it, she had been yelling at herself silently.

"I know, and I'm so scared for her, she doesn't deserve for this to happen." Lauralie sat against the tree this time, and raised her cigarette to take a drag from it.

"I know Ino, I know. Nothing's really gone her way, has it? Troublesome woman's had nothing but hell, but she really needs to end this." Lauralie paused after Shikamaru spoke, and lowered her cigarette to listen once more.

"But she won't Shika, she's too far in to get out." Lauralie blinked at Ino's words, and furrowed her brows in irritation. She could get out any time she wanted, she just didn't want to. Besides, if anything happened to her, nobody would really care.

"Then we have to help her out Ino, she's not too far in until she's gone." Another sob sounded from Ino, this time more desperate.

"But she doesn't realize that the more she does this, the more she kills herself, and she's taking us with her!" Lauralie jerked at Ino's words. That was impossible, she was only hurting herself.

"No, she doesn't, and I don't think she will unless we tell her outright, troublesome." Lauralie leaned against the tree and raised the cigarette. Ino's words echoed in her mind, and she couldn't seem to shove them out. Just as she was about to inhale on the cigarette, she stopped. Pulling it away from her face, she stared at the innocent looking white stick. Pushing up off the tree, Lauralie stood, and then threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped on it. For some reason, what Ino had said was bothering her, and she didn't have the heart to smoke at that moment.

Walking back in the direction she had come, Lauralie thought her situation over. She had thought the entire time she was only hurting herself, but if what Ino had said was true, then everyone was getting hurt. Shaking her head, Lauralie walked to the parking lot, where her bike was sitting in it's space at the end. Climbing on to the shiny black machine, Lauralie jammed the key into the ignition and turned it with a jerk of her wrist. A purr came from the engine, and Lauralie backed her bike up enough to pull out of the parking lot and race down the road to her home.

-_-_-_-Break-_-_-_-

I did a lot of thinking that night, and what I came up with, I didn't like. With Ino's words from earlier in my head, I thought over all of my friends' reactions to my actions. It turned out, she was right, I had clearly been hurting them, and I was such a careless bitch I didn't care. Why had it taken me getting basically slapped in the face to realize I was hurting everyone; except Pein, who just didn't care. In reality, I should have been out to just hurt him, make him jealous or something. Years later, Pein would tell he had indeed been as hurt over my behaviour as everyone else, perhaps even more because he blamed himself for it.

The truth was sitting right in front of me. I needed to stop, but I couldn't do it here, there were too many memories. So, I gathered everything, my alcohol, my drugs, and my cigarettes, and threw it into a pile in my backyard. After gathering a few changes of clothes into a bag, I tossed my cell phone into the pile as well. Opening the last bottle of alcohol, I poured it all over the pile, and tossed a lit match on it. A fire shot up with a roar, and I backed away slowly, and then turned and ran out to my bike. Jumping on, I glanced at my house one last time, and then took off down the street, and out of the city, leaving everything behind.

There's chapter one. The point of the narration is it's an older Lauralie, telling you her story from when she's younger. I really don't care if you don't like it.