Disclaimer Valid Until End of Story: Naruto and Co. are owned by Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement intended.

Author's Note: Wassup and welcome to my new story. Please note that this story is baseball centered and I'll be using technical phrases for plays and stuff of that flavor. You don't need to be a baseball FANATIC but you need to know more than a guy with a bat hits a ball and then runs around four bases before coming home. If you need any real help with anything that sounds unfamiliar feel free to ask and I'll explain it here because someone else might have the same question as you and I can answer it clearly. I'm not 100 percent an expert on baseball so if I write something that sounds impossible in a real game just ignore it for the sake of the story and my sanity. For instance, a typical baseball team has nine players on the field and twenty five people on their roster because I want to keep the attention on just ten people, the Konoha Phoenixs, Sasuke's team, has ten people on the roster. In the sporting world of this fanfic, all teams just have ten players.

During baseball game scenes, the players will be referred to by the number on their jerseys because that is how the main character sees them on the field, as numbers not individual people. He even sees himself as a number. There won't be a lot of baseball scenes but since the sport plays a crucial role in the life of the main character I'll keep it in the background, noticeable but hopefully not overbearing. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this story because the underlying themes are about romance and life changing friendships.

This story was inspired, and not based off of in anyway, the Japanese drama Pride starring Kimura Takuya (really great, one of the best if not THE best Japanese drama) except in this story, the sport is baseball and not hockey.

And here, so if you won't get confused, a list of baseball players and their numbers.

:Konoha Phoenixs:

Hyuuga Neji - Number 20 - First Base

Sabaku Gaara - Number 9 - Second Base

Inuzuka Kiba - Number 33 - Shortstop (player between second and third base, usually in a sprinting position to cover both bases)

Nara Shikamaru - Number 57 - Third Base

Akimichi Chouji - Number 41 - Bat Catcher

Hatake Kakashi - Number 3 - Pitcher

Umino Iruka - Number 16 - Pitcher

Sarutobi Asuma - Number 37 - Left Field

Uchiha Sasuke - Number 13 - Center Field

Uzumaki Naruto - Number 27 - Right Field

Tsunade, Ebisu - Batting and Pitching Coach

Jiraiya - Manager

Elder Sarutobi - Owner

Pairings: (Cuz I know someone is going to ask) SASUKExSAKURA (primarily) , NEJIxTENTEN, SHIKAMARUxINO (a smidge), ASUMAxKURENAI, NARUTOxHINATA (a smidge), JIRAIYAxTSUNADE (mentioned A L O T) and others that I will mention if I get around to them.

Enjoy and please review. I now present...

Shatter With the Rain

Chapter One: The View from Home Plate

The roar of the fans that filled the stadium was deafening. Any sane person would wonder how a player could concentrate with all the noise but he was at his calmest when he was on the field. There was something tranquil about being stoic and surrounded by people constantly losing control. It was like he was in the eye of a raging hurricane. There was pure chaos outside the field and he could see it all happening but he could never be affected by it.

He was untouchable.

His fans helped him feel so untouchable. The more they shouted his last name and the number at the back of his jersey, the calmer he became. During at home games, games at which they played at their home stadium, he was the calmest but when they played on foreign fields, his facade cracked a little. If there was no one there to call his name or shout their devotion, he became slightly nervous. He never voiced his nerves or made it outwardly known that he was on the verge of dropping his precious bat but somehow his team mates always knew. His demeanor changed. There were only subtle differences that any person besides those that knew him on the field would over look but they were there. His eyes got harder, his mouth got tighter, he held his bat tightly instead of loose yet firm like he should and he refused to speak to anyone about anything. Not that he spoke while he was on the field anyway.

He was quiet, reserved more than usual, and fixed his gaze on something far away, like an improbable baseball that had jumped the fence and won the game for the other team. But he was always observing everything that was happening on the field. His eyes were always moving, taking in everything and observing the scene like a super computer.

His team mates were already on the field, running around and hyping the crowd up for the game. Their uniform blended in with the nicely color coded advertisements that lined the field. Their team uniforms shirts were all black except for the orange, red and yellow stripes running up and down vertically. In the middle of the shirts was the word Phoenixs in cursive since they were home. If they were at an away game, game at a foreign stadium, their uniform would be white with instead of black with Konoha Phoenixs on the front. On the back of their shirts were their last names in white surrounded by a red outline and their team numbers outlines twice, once in orange and once in yellow. Their team logo, which was the head and neck of a black Phoenix with a thick red outline with the words Konoha Phoenixs in yellow above and below the mythical bird, was on their right sleeves. The pants the team wore were a classic black color and light enough to let air in and not overheat the player. At away games, the pants were white and dirtied very easily with brown sand spots.

The player took a deep breath and released it in a sigh while looking intensely at his team mates. As the unofficial star player, he was always last onto the field but he didn't mind much. It made no difference whether he was first or last, as long as he got to play he had no problem with the order. The LED scoreboard, supplied by the team's high income, flashed his baseball stats with his picture and he readied himself to play. That was when the fangirls started to scream their love.

"We love you Sasuke!"

"You're so hot!"

"Marry me!"

He almost gagged.

"And now ladies and gentlemen," the announcer said and the players on the team fell into their positions, waiting for him. The fans closest to the dug out, the area where the players go whenever they are not needed on the field, the area were the coaches and manager reside, screamed against in anticipation to what the man with the mic was about to say. "The highest paid baseball player in history, the pride of the Konoha Phoenixs, the man with a plan to end it all: Number 13, Sasuke Uchiha." He extended the last syllable of the player's name for an added affect although he didn't need to. Fans, raging from nine to ninety years old, screamed and wailed as soon as his name was mentioned and who was he to deny them what they wanted?

He stepped out onto the field and he could feel all eyes on him. Fans all over the stadium, presumably girl fans, held out large, crudely drawn posters with his name surrounded by hearts and small inspirational phrases on them.

You can do it!

Uchiha is #1!

Go, Sasuke, go!

Fans in the upper rows held out cards that when held together spelled out Sexy Sasuke while others swooned and tried to throw their belongings at him. He had seen them all, nothing surprised him when it came to his fans. He knew he depended on them, they were one of the few things he could say, but he never did, that he couldn't live without but sometimes they were a little disturbing, even for his standards.

"Beware, beware, beware," the man over the loud speaker continued, his voice hush and mock whispering, "Those that cross Sasuke Uchiha will receive the Uchiha Glare."

He didn't have an action that made him stand out. He didn't have a fist pump into the audience like Number 33 or even a catch phrase that sounded like gibberish like Number 27. All he had was his glare. If the glare was suppose to be so threatening, the announcer person was always warning people about it at home games, why did it make so many women melt in front of him? Why did it cause his opponents to smirk to themselves and send secret hand signs to each other. For one thing, his glare was the declaration of complete and utter annihilation. From it the other team knew they were about to be taken for a ride. They knew it was coming but they never really knew what he had up his sleeve. He did have one of the best batting averages but his throwing wasn't bad either. Of course, after the glare was thrown, other pitchers usually walked him, intentionally giving him four balls so he could advance to first base and not hit the ball or bank in a home run. In his opinion, getting walked was one of the worst things about being a star hitter.

"Get out there Uchiha," he heard his coach say. He turned and caught Coach's eyes, nodding once. The older man clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth twice and knodded toward the field. Two clicks meant 'look alive', one click meant 'get in there superstar and show 'em what you got.' Words weren't need once the game started, secrets signals, hand or otherwise, were always being thrown to another player.

Their opponents that day were the Sorakara Dragons from Sky City. The team was fairly new to the major leagues but somehow, by some miracle, they made it all the way to the big boys. The Phoenixs were always given briefings about the teams that they were going to be facing, although the team was unusually strong for new comers, Number 13 wasn't impressed.

Their starting pitcher was legally blind in his left eye and that should have messed them up in the beginning but somehow it made them stronger. It gave them a reason to play harder than anyone else because they had to cover their only true weakness. Not that the pitcher didn't do a fine job of that himself. His left ear was extremely sensitive so he knew everything that was going on even if he couldn't see it.

Number 13 could handle any pitcher, whether he threw fire or lightening or whatever. Every pitcher cracked under pressure eventually and he enjoyed watching them crack in front of him.

He jogged onto the field to join his team mates, catching a ball from Number 27 when he got close enough to him. The blonde, who almost always had a smile on his face, grinned at him before catching the ball back and passing it to Number 33. He couldn't believe the way the two acted sometimes. It was safe to say that they were treated like rock stars whenever they went out but he had never seen two people enjoy the perks of living the high life as much as them. They took advantage of all the fan autographs, fan photos and all the free things they received from their fame. But they were talented on the field, that fact couldn't be denied.

Number 13 lowered his cap, black with the red letters K and P overlapping each other and looked toward the fans for the final time. His eyes somehow flew to the dug out where the manager, the batting coach and the pitching coach were watching eagerly. A lot more than bragging rights were riding on that game, that much he could tell by the way the coaches were whispering to each other.

Konoha's pitcher, Number 3, was lazily walking toward the mound. He looked odd since his trademark spiked up ivory hair was hidden within his baseball cap. A few strands were flattened against his forehead. Number 3 yawned into his glove and angled his head to look back at Number 13 with a glint in his dark eyes. Number 3 was a senior member on their team alongside the owner's son, Number 37, and their other pitcher, Number 16. Together they were the oldest people on the team besides the coaches and managers but they never acted as if they were. Number 3, although he almost always looked disinterested, was a genius when it came to turning the game around. He used to be the highest paid player until Number 13 was signed to the Phoenixs but he never held any grudges toward the rising star player. Number 3 was the team captain and vouched for his team members whenever any of them acted stupid and was summoned before the owner of the team. Whether he truly liked them or not, no one would ever know since he kept his emotions hidden but his techniques for teaching and helping others made him liked throughout the entire Phoenix franchise.

The pitcher gave him a lazy nod that meant 'don't mess up kid' and turned to wait patiently for the Dragons. The Phoenixs could handle the Dragons, no problem. They had the highest paid players, legendary coaches, and a nice season to prove it. It looked nice on paper but it was even nicer because the Phoenixs always delivered.

Always.

The dim light that lit the sports bar reflected itself off of his drinking glass. He sat in the VIP section of a high class sports bar in down town Konoha. To his left were regular customers who came to the bar to watch pre-recorded games on huge plasma screen televisions attached to the walls. The were normal city people and ever so often their eyes found the VIP section at the top of stairs that over looked the lower bar and sat the star team. Two tall, muscular men in suits stood guard at the foot of the stairs wearing dark colored shades so no one could tell where they were looking. They were on first named basis with a few team members and were paid by the owner to stay at the bar until it closed in early morning.

Sasuke's eyes looked up to his drunken team mates who were now merrily singing a happy karaoke tune. They had beat the Dragons 3 to 2 in extra innings, innings that were added to prolong game when the score was tied, and it felt good to watch the juniors mope and sulk after their almost perfect record. Sasuke wasn't a veteran to the league yet but he had been around longer than those babies. Sky City hadn't even boasted a baseball team until two years ago so all their players weren't that experienced yet. Their oldest player was probably twenty eight years of age. Naruto had said later in the locker room that killing the spirit of those toddlers in uniform felt bad and 'so incredibly nuclear' at the same time.

Whatever that meant.

Currently, Naruto was trying to see if he could drink his weight in watered down beer. He wasn't allowed to drink regular beer because his body had a very low tolerance for alcohol and the smallest drop of concentrated 50 Proof alcohol could smash him. The people with the highest alcohol tolerance on the team that could drink regularly but never lost their cool were Sasuke, second baseman Gaara who was recently signed from the Suna Coyotes, third baseman Shikamaru Nara and bat catcher Chouji Akimichi. Their other pitcher besides Kakashi named Iruka was such a good boy that he didn't drink at all. Ever.

Sasuke himself didn't drink during baseball season because of the after affect it had on his game so he just stuck to drinking water. Some other players shared his ideals but most of them drank until they were piss drunk, moaned about it the next day and then locked themselves in the gym to work off the alcohol. They were drunken idiots that sang about beer and women when they could have been training.

But not all of the team was there at Into the Fire, the sports bar that the Konoha team regularly visited. Asuma, left fielder and son of the owner of the team, was at home with his wife who was pregnant with their second child. He had never introduced her to the team but from all of the stories he told his woman had a hold on him that nothing could break. Asuma said that his wife was at all the home games they played and Naruto and Kiba looked for her constantly but they could never find her. She was real but by all the facts only Kakashi knew her personally.

Gaara, another non-drinker, disliked going out in public if it didn't have to do with the team and for that he was the most distant team mate. He was never in the photos the paparazzi caught of the team during the wee hours of the morning and that might have benefited him. Child hood friends Shikamaru and Chouji were dining with another child hood friend that they hadn't seen in a while or so they had told the team. They weren't drinkers so they didn't have to explain why they weren't at the bar.

Sasuke wasn't either but he had no where to be besides at Into the Fire. He wasn't lonely but appreciated being entertained by the drunken antics of his team mates. And the batting coach for the team, Ebisu, told him not to stress his shoulder too much. Somehow, at some strange point in the game, he had pulled a muscle and his shoulder was aching a little. But he had played with worst before so it didn't bother him.

Once, when he was on his older team, the Oto Cobras, he had played with a broken rib acquired from when the opposing team's third baseman fell on him with his elbow after Sasuke had slid too close to the man. His face had betrayed his injured state and he had stood up and shook himself off as if it didn't hurt to breathe and continued playing. But that game changed his life. A representative of the Konoha Phoenixs had been in the audience and that was the game he was offered a few hundred millions for a ten year contract with the Konoha based team.

He rolled his shoulder forward and back and sighed in contentment because the pain he had felt earlier had disappeared a little. Ebisu was a magician when it came to quick medicines for injuries. He wanted it healed as soon as possible. If the press and sports commentators knew that he was injured, they would just talk and talk about whether or not he was going to be on the disabled list. He didn't need that. Ebisu had recommended him to a private spa and rehabilitation center near the stadium for a few sessions of cold compression therapy so that swelling would reduce although there wasn't much to begin with.

"Hey," someone drunkenly tapped him on his injured shoulder causing him to hiss and nearly cuss out loud when the person grabbed onto him to keep from falling down, "Hey, hey, hey, hey." Naruto was an idiot sometimes and Sasuke pulled him away from injury and rolled it again, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Hey Sasuke," Naruto burped and Sasuke tried to glare at him without turning around to face the man.

It wasn't working.

"Sasuke."

"What?" he said through clenched teeth, forcing himself to act civil. It would not benefit the team if he were to punch Naruto in the face. Sasuke used his own version of the 'What would Jesus do?' question entitled 'What was better for the team?' He restrained himself from hurting anyone in the team because it would not benefit them as a whole. He couldn't be selfish.

"You wanna go visit the ladies?"

Hardly.

The 'ladies' Naruto was talking about were the exotic dancers at the club down the street. Sasuke preferred to call them what they were: whores. But apparently they didn't like that word very much.

"Did you just say ladies?" asked Kakashi, swaying from side to side and finally slouching against the bar. Kakashi. Smooth, agile, intelligent Kakashi was just as piss drunk as Naruto was. But the only difference was that Kakashi was never ever hung over. He just needed to sleep off his buzz and he awoke as if he had just slept soundly the entire night. He had a very good alcohol filtering system that enabled him to recover easily and always perform at his best after hard drinking. "Gimme another," the white haired pitcher signaled to the bar tender who looked at him for a straight minute before complying uneagerly.

"Yesh," Naruto turned to him, patting him on the shoulder, "I asked Sasuke if he wanted to go see Erik-...uhh...Erikara...Ereecka...Era...era..." He kept on repeating Era in soft tones until his quit completely and fixed on a point on the bar.

Sasuke stared at him, unimpressed and annoyed, before saying, "Erica, her name is Erica."

She was the preferred exotic dancer for the team. She was the standard classification of beauty, in the doll world anyway. She was of medium height with bleach blonde hair that reached to her waist, tan skin that resembled caramel and a body that could rival that of a swim suit/porn model. Sasuke wasn't even going to lie, she was alright looking it was good to have someone to fool around with. No strings attached.

She did have a thing for millionaires and baseball playing millionaires. She had bragged before that she had slept with both of Oto's heavy hitters: Kimimaru and Jugo. They were both equally fucked in the head in Sasuke's opinion.

"So yeahh," Naruto slurred, leaning heavily on Sasuke's uninjured shoulder which caused the dark haired man to relax considerably. He still shook Naruto off his body though, he didn't like to be touched so casually. "You wanna go visit Erica? Tonight's the victory night special, two for the price of one."

Simply atrocious.

Any other day Sasuke would have said no. He didn't care for whores but it had been so long since he had last fucked someone. His last girlfriend was from Oto and they had broken up three years before. They had tried to keep in touch after he had moved to Konoha but it didn't work out and for that Sasuke was a bit thankful. She was also fucked in the head. But the break up wasn't entirely her fault. Sasuke had a very short attention span when it came to women and their womanly interests. He was glad baseball was a male only sport so he could easily concentrate and not worry about the smallest action he did.

So he made up his mind. "Whatever," Sasuke drowned the water in his stout glass, "Let's go."

Naruto blinked and shook his head, looking at him with disbelieving eyes. "Are you sure? Cuz you know we got a game in two days agains-."

"Hurry up before I change my mind," he stood up and looked over to Kakashi who was practically asleep. "Team Captain," Sasuke said, hitting the man with the back of his hand.

Kakashi jumped up and burped, muttering, "Mmm pass the stripper, hold the onions," before falling back down onto the bar with a loud thump.

"Yeahh," Naruto said slowly, laughing good naturally, "He's dead on his feet alright. Yo Kiba!"

He called over to the shortstop sitting on one of the soft booths of the VIP section who was not alone. Two voluptuous women with long hair that touched him all over sat on his lap, one on each leg. "Kinda busy here," he winked, smirking so widely one of his canines were visible, "Go talk to Icebox over there."

At the other end of the table in the booth, Number 20 first baseman Neji Hyuuga looked up from his drink, and book, with a frown and took off his glasses. "Who are you referring to, Inuzuka?" Naruto had once told Sasuke that he and the 'Icebox' had similar personalities but he didn't see it. The Hyuuga was serious and expressionless all the time while Sasuke knew that he at least showed anger and he smiled...barely but he knew he did smile. In the few short years that he had known the Hyuuga he had never full out laughed or enjoyed anything remotely humorous. He was an icebox after all.

"Ahhh," Kiba smiled at him, "Give it a rest, Icy, Naruto wants to ask you something."

"You wanna come with the Blue Lagoon with us?"

At the mention of the club, horror filled Neji's face. "No, I will not be tarnished by such filth. Who knows what kind of diseases those women have." No one knew why he talked as if he lived in a different century and, frankly, no one questioned it. He was a good player, a menace on the field, and he was respected for that and partly by his old fashioned words. He did have a way of making people feel stupid when he spoke to them, the same way Sasuke had the power to make a person's self esteem drop each time they talked to him with his harsh stare. Their ability to take people down a notch was probably the only thing they had in common.

"Yeah sure whatever," Naruto rolled his eyes, "Are you sure you don't wanna come? Sasuke's coming."

Sasuke could never understand why they always used him to get someone someplace. It didn't work on Neji though, he just looked at Sasuke with disgust in his clear eyes. "That speaks for itself doesn't it."

He didn't like that tone. "If you're trying to say something, say it," Sasuke urged, walking closer to Neji.

"No words are needed," the other man said, putting on his pair of reading glasses.

Sasuke didn't feel like fighting but he was a guy and the whole team was full of men except for the pitching coach but she wasn't there at the moment. The abundance of testosterone caused for a few spare arguments here and there. Humans were still animals and animals thrived on having others surrender to them, even if they were an advance species. What was better for the team? He couldn't fight Neji, he wouldn't fight Neji. It wasn't right and it would put a strain on the team. They didn't need that.

"If you say so, let's go Naruto," Sasuke said dismissively, walking away from the team's area and down the stairs with Naruto close behind. He paused at the two body guards who both knodded at them and exits through the team-only door.

He stepped out into the night air and dug his hands into the pockets of his pants. His team mate followed closely behind and was uncharacteristically quiet as they walked down the long city block.

"Hey Sasuke," he heard Naruto say softly. Sasuke glanced at him and saw that his eyes were downcast, his beer high was spiraling him head down into a tiring crash.

"What?"

"Do you...do you think we'll always be at the top? I mean, no team is perfect or continually perfect but...do you think that, for at least this year, we will be?"

He hated this side of Naruto. The soft, hippy-dippy, scardy cat side Naruto only showed after experiencing something 'nuclear.' He knew, personally, that what went up came down twice as hard. It was the law of gravity after all.

"No you idiot," Sasuke told him, walking back and hitting him, not so gently, on the head. "No team in this league has ever had a perfect season, the Phoenixs are no different just because we haven't lost yet." Naruto dropped his eyes to the ground and sighed heavily.

Sasuke watched him with growing impatience. He was never good at cheering people up and he could never figure out what to say. The least he could do was supply Naruto with the cold, hard facts and let him think what he wanted to think. If it helped him feel better, fine. If it didn't and made him feel worst, fine. He was the cause of his own sadness then.

"Just don't doubt what we can do," he said slowly walking again, "Our job is about winning and thinking we can win helps us do it." If the other man followed or not was not any of his concern, but he hoped he helped a little. Just a little.

Everything was so complicated to him off the field, everyone had names and emotions and thoughts that he couldn't control. In real life, everyone wasn't divided into friend or foe, them or us, win or lose: everything had an in between.

"Why are you just standing there, Mr. Millionaire?" he heard a voice ask. Naruto smiled at him from his position in front of the Blue Lagoon's door which was covered in neon lights and silhouettes of top heavy and slender women.

"No reason," he said walking up and pushing through the door, "Get in."

Sometimes, he wished that he could live his life on the baseball diamond and never step off of it. Everything was so much easier with his jersey on, blind to the world and seeing what he thought mattered: numbers and only numbers.

Please review and let me know what you think about my new story. Stick around...this story is gonna get good.