Well, this was an idea I wanted to try. If anything to just get this off my chest, and before anyone gets too disappointed with my lack of updating I'm going to say in my defense that I have recently been busy with things not pertaining to writing-ashamedly. Enjoy the story.

Beta-reading courtesy of Brown Eyed Honey Badger and Yuuki usea.

On with the show!

Falling. Broken. Eyes dulling, tragically, in the face of death. He fell. Nothing to stop him, no one to stop his descent to hell. Grinning as he went, the wind passed longingly down his small body, cuts and bruises being kissed passionately, passing gently through his system, he felt sweet release—nothing to stop him—like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Generic scenery filled the platform below, which was to be the stage of his crumpled and broken body with his black t-shirt scoring high in blood patches, white shorts following not far behind, dirty shards of rock standing viciously out of his hair, perhaps even some blades of grass to finally signify his death. Art couldn't hope to compare to his crimson gold.

By the time he hit the ground he could only hope to be passed out. He hated pain—the villagers already caused his heart to ache... He hoped the villagers were happy. No, he knew they would be happy. Once he was gone and out of their lives the world would rejoice, celebrating a new world peace only visited through his death and his alone. To them he was a guest that was not wanted, not a poltergeist, nor a ghost, but a pariah that no one wished to see.

So they ignored him. Pretended his existence was faulty.

His parents didn't even want him, if they did than they wouldn't have left him alone. Why? Tears escaped his eyes slithering down the dry cracks on his face. His chapped lips grimaced as the tears wouldn't stop. Why!? Even his own parents didn't want him, nobody wanted him! Laughing hysterically to himself he watched the ground gallop insanely towards him, his eyes widening the nearer he came to his death. Whipping his head around he tore at the tears, threatening them to fall more. Baring his teeth he awaited the impact.

Now that he thought of it… his eyes lit up slightly, the sun looked so beautiful setting over the horizon. The way it demanded his attention mesmerized him for a mere moment. Here it is! Shutting his eyes and laxing his muscles Naruto embraced a silky red end.

Then, suddenly, a voice familiar to his sore ears sounded louder than any siren. She wasn't supposed to come back... Not for a long, long time.

"Naruto!"

Blackness. Pure dark feeling un-mistakenly similar to hell, without any of the blazing fires sheering man's will and flesh dominating his vision. He felt so alone. Utterly alone. Describing such a feeling would be impossible to anyone else until they felt the feeling just the same. Only then would others comprehend. Then again. He felt at peace, almost. That was describable.

Sharp electrifying pain shot through his system as he threw an arm to his chest, holding white bandages weakly as he sat up. Blinding light filtered through the window in a laughable juxtaposition to his mood causing him to shadow the sun out with his spiky hair. He sneered meanly to a long string of the stuff circling around him, it holding his chest in the nicest of embraces. Why was he here? Jumping off a cliff was, by far, the easiest and sure-fire way to end himself...

"You're a baka."

Leaning forward further he shaded his eyes, hiding the gaping pupils he was sure to have. Why was she here? Her sweet voice cradled his ears like a mother coos to her child in the midst of night. He gulped.

"Why did you do that, Naruto?"

Her voice sounded angry. Rightfully so, he might add. Before her departure she had made him promise to not give-up, and that she would be back with good news; something to aid him in his struggle. But he had failed her. A hand clasped firmly on the tip of his chin, pinching it, before prying his eyes to meet hers. Soft pink eyes glinting hard at him—pray to thy Kami and hope for redemption, he recited.

"Why?!" She roared, hand still bought on his chin.

He didn't want to say anything. His excuse was minute in the utmost certainty. Why not, he could try, but that's no better excuse. Sighing to himself he turned his eyes tentatively to her.

Naruto struggled with what he was to say, "W-why not?"

Watching her pinkish skin turn a flustered red and her already disheveled black hair shake he knew that she was going to hit him.

Instead.

"Was it that bad?" her voice sounded laced in shaking sorrow. Even on her worst day the girl sitting in front of him never cried, batted an eye-lash, or even let her voice sound remotely sad, so for her to do this…

Naruto shook his head, hoping to lift her spirits. Her cheeks tinted to a rosy red, crossing her eyebrows, she sneered at him.

"Don't feed me that bullshit! If it's not as bad as I think it is than you wouldn't have decided to jump off a cliff!"

Tears began to make their way down her face, gently running over her usually tan skin, softly touching down to meet the hinge of her mouth as she tasted her own tears—she paid no attention, instead forcing her attention on him and letting the tears fall perfectly to the ground. He traced one as it fell from the tip of her chin. Watching it go.

"Damnit Naruto! Was it the villagers? Did they do this to you!?"

Looking down on himself he merely nodded his head whilst the air in the white-doctored room suddenly shuddered and altered as he knew she was leaning over barely restraining herself. Pressure filtered the room and he knew then that she was analyzing his scars from where the bandages did not cover.

Pushing the girl back up, Naruto made sure to adjust the blue hospital clothes covering his lower section. He regarded her carefully, eyes searching her Iwa uniform—just like before when they first met. Her Iwa head-band rested solemnly under sweat-covered hellish black hair, the Iwa vest placed uniformly on her chest with a light red long sleeved shirt coming out from there—one side no sleeved. On her hands, just like before, were black combat gloves and fish-net on her legs with a mismatched red cloth covering falling just after he knee.

All in all her style had not changed.

"Kurotsuchi. It's worse than before," he trembled slightly.

"I've been in more pain than ever after you left. People just stopped paying attention to me. It was like I was some phantom drifting in an abyss, a never ending abyss."

"So what we did to help made it worse?" she asked to herself.

"No matter what I tried to do I couldn't have anyone's attention. Kids in the park ignored me, adults in the street refused to acknowledge me, even some anbu wouldn't look at me from the shadows. I felt so alone. It was closer to hell than anything else."

Sitting back down Naruto collected himself, trying his best to stop the scowl from approaching his calm demeanor.

"I'm sorry."

Facing Kurotsuchi swiftly he saw the tears that were there before flood out of her eyes as she grinded down on her teeth, her face set in a permanent scowl. Naruto wasn't expecting that, nor the hug a moment later. Setting his head softly on her shoulder she pushed her head deeply into his neck.

"But I'm not sorry about saving you," she pulled back a fiery glare being the only thing he could see, "got that?"

"Yes, Kuro-chan," he smiled gently to her locking his eyes with hers.

"How long has it been?" Kurotsuchi asked silently.

"What?"

"When was the last time we saw each other?" she asked again, clearer.

Naruto cradled his chin gently, framing his tired neck allowing a small relief to fire through his neck. Sun rays filtered in and the wait lingered slightly as the soft heat hugged his skin allowing his thoughts to thrive. When exactly had he seen her last? He cracked his internal gears going so far as to furrow his brows trying to remember. After a moment more, fire struck. That's right.

"Three years ago when diplomacy was successful between Iwa and Konoha," he looked to the ground—he tried to get his facts straight.

"You left after that… to become a kunoichi."

Kurotsuchi nodded her head.

"I did. Weren't you in the academy when I left?"

Those were happier times in Naruto's life. Iruka was like an older brother to him, keeping him safe, giving guidance whenever he needed help. Even on his worst day Iruka still had time for him, a place to stay away from the rain. The other may have hated him for what he was, or rather what their parents rumored him as, though his head stayed high. Until the world came crashing down around him after Kurotsuchi left, after the raging inferno that she bestowed went out. Children forsake him, opting a blind eye, only due to further harassment from their parents. Iruka challenged the world and stayed by his side, his arms forever wrapped around Naruto, or that could have been if Iruka had stayed sane long enough to do so.

Like so many others challenging the anti-social standard the villagers deemed worthy to make hell on Iruka. Soon his eyes as well turned blind and glazed over at the sight of him, for his reward he was chanced friends again. Outside him. He was utterly alone. The Hokage was his only acknowledgment in a month full of sanity seeping loneliness.

"Yes," he nodded his head once, slowly, "It wasn't better."

The girl in front of him licked her lips, tasting the wet moisture fill her cracked and dry skin as her tongue passed sadly over, bringing her hands up she cupped Naruto's cheeks. His eyes were so sad. That sheen of moist freshness from before had left him long ago, and now did she only see the implications of everything in such clear lighting.

Standing up, and letting his face slide back down to slouch, she quickly marched over to the cabinet holding his clothes. Reaching her hand out she stopped.

No... I'll give him those.

Setting herself down next to her pack, which sat promptly on the door, she opened it, unwrapping a package she had made before coming on this trip to Konoha.

Suddenly, Naruto's voice pitched in her ear, his voice cracking "Kuro-chan, is the Tsuchi-kage visiting as well, or did you come by yourself?"

"No, I came by myself."

"Oh."

Long before, at the Tsuchi-kage's visit, he had met Naruto near the more run-down district of Konoha just after his arrival. His blonde hair is initially what caught his eye back then, reminding him of his adversary during the war years ago. So he followed that lock of hair, to a young boy running in the crowd, running from a large man in an apron. What the man said was unintelligible, as it was a roar of obscenity at the child. When the Tsuchi-kage put a stop to the burly man's rant he found that lock of hair sitting sadly in an alleyway. Alone.

Their relationship went from there.

"I'm going to make him come next time to make sure he checks on you, alright?" Kurotsuchi compromised.

"If you could, would you come too?"

Kurotsuchi lifted her head, eyes locking onto Naruto, a smile gracing her face in a small sense of shyness, the blood rushing to her face flushed her cheeks unknowingly. Why does he have to do this to me? When she was to answer she found her voice locked away in the pit of her stomach, and each time after the same result. Quickly, covering up her embarrassment Kurotsuchi smiled again, nodding her head swiftly.

Naruto watched her slowly un-cover a long sleeved shirt, a red one. Then another but pants instead with a long piece of cloth falling off the side.

"Naruto."

He tipped his head. In response, Kurotsuchi lifted a face covering to her cheeks hiding all but her eyes. In his mind his thoughts trampled any rationale as he nodded dumbly, answering the question, "It looks good on you," rather than, "Do I want to wear it."

Nodding her head Kurotsuchi picked up all of the clothes she removed from her pack, holding them out for him. His eyes questioned her purpose until she shoved them in his chest.

"Put them on already, baka!"

Grinning slightly to himself Naruto did as he was told, though his eyes lingered on Kurotsuchi when she was still watching him grip the waist of his pants whereas her eyes turned a cutely embarrassed shape as she spun around quickly enough. It didn't take long and when it was on he couldn't feel newer, the clothes fitting him like a glove, firm in the right places and loose in others.

"These feel so good!" he stretched.

Turning back around Kurotsuchi coughed lightly in her hand. "Well they should, they were tailored for you."

Naruto didn't need to ask. "The Hokage may not visit you often, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care. He contacted us, as we are allies, to aid him in a scheme of his, which may I say was the silliest thing in the world, though I'm not complaining. You see all he had us do was fashion those clothes," she pointed at Naruto, "for you, so be grateful."

Naruto beamed for the first time in a long time, Kurotsuchi could tell. His cheeks lifted and pulled back to reveal his full smile and by the way his skin protested she could tell they were not used to that kind of stretching.

"How much did this cost?" Naruto asked, elated.

Kurotsuchi made a noise, waving her hand, "Pshhh, they were free of charge."

The smile lessened on his face, not in an upset statement, his curiosity merely does that.

"The tradesmen who sell cloths and our workers were all happy to do it. After seeing the photo we brought them of us and the Tsuchi-kage they melted quickly, saying that times were abundant so they could afford a small expense," she leaned back in her chair staying up at the ceiling. "It was a sight."

Tears swelled from his eyes, stinging slowly as they formed in the corners again, following down the contours of his face Naruto could feel the small droplets caress his face. He couldn't hold it in anymore!

"Kuro-chan, do you want to see something?"

Slow chapter maybe but it's all to set up the story.

P.S. PEOPLE THIS IS GOING TO ONLY BE A FEW CHAPTERS GOT THAT? Just letting you all know.

R&R and PM, it does help.

See ya!