00: Prologue (Run)

It was raining the day they buried Jiraya. It reminded Naruto of the day they buried the Third with only a few crucial difference. When they buried the ex-hokage Naruto had been young, he had been naïve, and he had Sasuke standing by his side.

Seven years since Sasuke had left Konoha. Seven years since Naruto had started running. Because Naruto was running just as much as Sasuke but in a way that forced him to stay in the one place he longed to leave. Training vacations, suicide missions, and just plain avoidance help Naruto forget what he once was. Who he once was. Who he was with Sasuke, before that mask covered up the broken child he became. In seven years he still lacked the answers he had sought since the Valley of the End. In seven years he had gained nothing and lost nothing but his innocence and a darker part of his soul.

He wiped his eyes hastily, hoping that people had assumed his tears were just rain. Jiraya died the only way he would have wanted. His body was found outside a women's hot spring where he had suffered a stroke during his research. When Naruto found out he laughed so hard that Shizune sedated him, claiming he was hysterical. But he wasn't. It was just funny someone that stupid would die in such a stupid way.

Gaara stood next to him, gripping his hand in a vice like grip Naruto didn't mind. He had begged Gaara to come with him, begged him so that he wouldn't face this group of people alone. And Gaara was his savior in a way Naruto adored without ever telling him. In his heart he knew that Sasuke would never come back and it would be healthier to stop pining over something he didn't have and move on to something he could. But Gaara wasn't an option, the redhead was to close. Gaara seemed more and more like family these days and Naruto just wasn't into incest.

Plus, he has seen the way Gaara looked at the Hyuuga. Even though he denied it, Gaara defiantly had a crush on that boy. Naruto smirked sadly to himself as the funeral dragged on, focusing his attentions as far way from the ceremony as possible. So far, in fact, it seemed he had been lost.

"Naruto..." Gaara's deep monotone voice whispered and his eyes snapped up to meet Gaara's green ones, "Naruto, the service is over." Breaking his gaze away from the Sand ninja, he glanced around the cemetery. True enough, everyone was gone but a few stragglers and one or two sobbing woman.

Turning away, Naruto walked out of the cemetery, letting his mind wander again. How long he walked or how far he walked, he didn't know. But when he stopped walking it was dark and there was a brick wall that he collapsed against. He slid down the wall and rested his elbows on his bent knees, staring at the sky.

He didn't cry. He could have. In retrospect, he probably should have. But he didn't and he doesn't know why. He knew Gaara was nearby, trailing him from a safe distance, watching and keeping him safe. He knew this just as strongly as he knew that Sasuke was nowhere nearby and that Sasuke wasn't watching and caring after the blond.

Naruto contemplates running in a more literal sense if it helps him escape the darker things that threaten the edges of his heart. He thinks of standing and running away from Konoha until he can breathe again. And he wonders if he wants to run away from Konoha or just run to an easier fate. Run to freedom or run to Sasuke, whichever he finds first.

TBC

Hey ya'll. This story has been sitting unfinished on my computer for months so I though I'd upload the prologue and see where it goes. Thanks so much for reading! Review please, flames will just be ignored. Oh ya, the couples for this story are SasuNaru, NejiGaara, and ItachiSai. Thanks again.

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