Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own ramen!

A blond exhaled his breath as he walked silently away along a sidewalk. His azure eyes looking lifelessly down at the ground. The searing sting of his latest wound clouded his mind, and only increases with every step he took.

His steps soon came to a halt in front of a school. Staring at it and the people slowly trudging into it, his pain became nothing but a numb sensation. However, the most significant change was those eyes. Life slowly seeped into them, somehow making them lighter in appearance.

Having a sudden jump in his step, he ran forward into the school, a grin from ear-to-ear on his face.

"Naruto! You're here!" exclaimed a voice. Spinning around, zed boy opened his mouth to say 'hello' but was greeted with a head lock instead.

"Kiba let go of me!" Naruto yelled at the wolf boy, flailing his arms in a desperate attempt to get free.

After successfully ruffling up the blonde's already messy hair, Kiba let go of his hold around the blonde's neck. "What I can't pick on you?" he inquired.

"Not when I've just arrived. I was defenseless!" Naruto joked.

"You defenseless, yeah right." Kiba was met with silence.

"Naruto!" Both boys instantly turned around to see a blonde girl walk towards them. Her hair put up in four ponytails, two high and two low.

"Temari." They both said in unison.

"So, how was your weekend?" she questioned.

Their answers were interrupted by the constant beeping of the warning bell, signaling that they had a minute to get to first block class. All of them sighed. First block was always the longest not to mention the most boring. None of them had any of their friends in their class.

"Off to band I go, maybe some sound waves will kill me." Naruto said, then stomped off in the direction of the computer lab which they used to write compositions.

"I'm takin' it, his weekend wasn't all that great." Temari inferred.

"He's an impulsive guy, you can never tell." Kiba answered back.

"Oh my, dog boy used a big word."

"Shut-up!" Kiba growled than both of them separated.

Meanwhile

Naruto ran down the hallway, because of his chat with Kiba and Temari, he wasn't able to go to his locker. 'Damnit!' his mind screamed

30 seconds

Picking up his pace, Naruto ran faster not having to worry about crashing into anyone since no one was there

20 seconds

Turning the last corner he found out that the hallways weren't as desolated as they made out to be.

"Ow…" Naruto uttered as he fell to the ground but heard nothing from the other person. The aching in his stomach returned.

"Watch were you're going…" the ring of the bell cut of the other's sentence.

'Shit!' he thought. Quickly standing up he rushed past the other. As he passed the other, the blond observed black hair and its oddly shaped cut. "Yeah, yeah." He muttered and made his way to the computer lab.

Shoving open the door, he stood there for a moment, trying desperately to calm his panting.

"Mr. Uzumaki, thank you for joining us." Naruto only huffed and made his way to his seat, which was all the way in the back of the room.

"Anyway…" the teacher resumed. "your first project of the year will be due by the end of the month, which is only 3 weeks away. I will arrange the partners and no switching. The teacher was somewhat surprised that he heard no one complained. Truth was one: it was first thing Monday, and two: people in tenth grade could care less.

The rest of the teacher's explanation was once again cut off from a knock at the door. Walking over, he glanced through the window to see who it was.

Naruto stared off blankly into space but was snapped out of it when he heard all the girls suddenly squeal. Looking up he was greeted with the midnight black hair color and an oddly shaped of cut hairstyle. Moving his eyes down, he noticed pale porcelain skin which gave way to deep chocolate brown eyes which from far away looked black.

"Class we have a new student." The teacher announced. "Duh, we can kind of see that." The blonde mumbled than it hit him. "Hey, you're that jerk from earlier!" Naruto yelled, knocking over his chair as he stood up.

The raven-haired boy smirked. "Good, now I can get an apology from you dobe."

"Say what? I'm the one who deserved an apology for not even getting one in the first place teme!"

"If I do remember correctly you were the one you bumped into me."

"Why you…"

"Mr. Uzumaki, sit down and apologize for being rude to the new student immediately. If you continue this I will have no choice but to give you detention." The teacher threatened.

The raven-haired boy watched as the blonde's eyes instantly filled with fear as he sat down uttering a 'sorry' without hesitation. 'What is he bipolar?' the raven thought, narrowing his eyes.

Sighing, the teacher gestured for the new student to introduce himself. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke." He said. Once again, the teacher gestured for him to continue but he remained silent.

Slowly nodding his head, the teacher turned his attention back to Naruto. "As for your punishment Mr. Uzumaki, you and Mr. Uchiha will be partners." Naruto gaped and was about to refuse but the thought of the teacher's earlier threat popped into his mind and caused him to shut his mouth.

'What the fuck! Just because you punish the loser doesn't mean you have to punish me!' Sasuke thought in fury; instantly sent a death glare at the teacher. Oblivious to the glare, the teacher smiled at Sasuke. "Please take a seat next to Mr. Uzumaki."

Naruto watched as the cold boy walked down the isle to take a seat next to him. 'Sasuke what kind of name is that! I bet you he's the uke in any relationship. His name does spell it out.' Naruto silently laughed at that but stopped as soon as he saw the glare from not only Sasuke but from the female population of the class as well. 'What the hell did I do?' he asked himself. Glaring back at the Uchiha he started working on their in-class assignment. 'Man, this is going to be a long…long block.'

Forget long block, this was going to be a long frickin ass day. Naruto's face held a scowl, as he looked upon the smug smirk of none other than Sasuke Uchiha sitting right next to him. Finally giving up on their little staring contest, Naruto threw his head down onto the desk. 'Why does god hate me so much?' Naruto pondered.

"Don't make yourself even stupider loser." Sasuke retorted.

"Look, I'll lose brain cells if I want to!"

"You know you're not ever going to get those back."

"If they're about you, I could care less!" Naruto retorted, now resuming his glare with Sasuke.

"Excuse me, is there a problem back there?" asked the female teacher as she and the rest of the class averted their gazes to the two boys.

"Sorry sensei, Naruto was just complaining and I was trying to tell him to be quiet." Sasuke quickly came up with.

"That's one big pile of bull!" the blond yelled only getting angrier when the raven smirked that cocky smile of his back.

"Mr. Uzumaki, for disrupting my class you'll have detention." The teacher sternly said than went back to her lesson.

Sasuke's smile disappeared when he saw that fear return to Naruto's azure eyes. Again, Naruto opened his mouth to protest; yet once again he shut his mouth and sat down.

"What's the matter loser?" Sasuke asked yet it lacked any insult. The raven got no answer from the now doll-like blond. All it did was star blankly ahead with lifeless eyes as it did what it was told to do.

'He's going to hit me.' Naruto thought sadly.

The rest of the day quickly passed. Naruto trudged through the halls, staying close to the middle of the crowds of students, but it was no use. "Mr. Uzumaki, don't tell me you're trying to skip detention. If you do that it's an automatic referral." His second block teacher spoke.

Naruto instantly stiffened. 'If I get a referral, I'll probably end up in the hospital.' He thought. Putting on a smile, he turned to his teacher, "Of course not I was…um…was just going to my locker, that's all."

"I see well, make it quick."

Nodding, Naruto head off to his locker for no reason. Being late was better than a referal; his punishment wouldn't be so bad. Sighing as soon as he found himself in front of his locker, he just stood there staring.

"Shouldn't you be in detention?" asked a voice behind him.

"Shut-up teme! You're the one who got me in detention in the first place. What are you afraid of, getting yelled at by a teacher? What a suck up!"

The raven frowned. "School is like life, it's every man for himself. That's only common sense."

"You're wrong, no one deserved to be alone in this world, that makes everything seem more bitter and cold." The blond than chuckled. "Why am I explaining something like this to you, you're emotionally fridged." The blue-eyes boy finished than walked away to detention leaving the Uchiha standing there, pondering.

Naruto groaned as he watched the clock hand move to the 'six'. Great bow I only have half an hour left.' He thought bitterly. Taking out a sheet of paper he got his pen ready to write, determined to get some homework done. I'll just work on that stupid project we have to do.'

Flashback

"You're project will be to come up with two original songs. Since this is music theory, you will be expected to sing and play, hence why you have partners. Each person in your group will write one song but both of you must perform it three weeks from now. Everyone got it?" only a few students nodded.

End Flashback

Naruto stuck his tongue out as he wrote down lyrics. After a while thought, he crinkled up the paper and threw it away. This was going to be a challenge for him. 'At least I have three weeks.' He thought, again looking at the clock.

'20 minutes to misery'

Naruto walked slowly out of the school, hoping to delay the inevitable.

"Hey loser." That statement made the blond stop all together. For some odd reason, that voice did things to his mind. 'Maybe I am bipolar…. or just crazy.' He thought turning around to star at Sasuke. "What do you want? Are you stalking me?" His angry rant was abruptly stomped on as he caught a juice in his hand. "What the…?" he trailed off

"I know it isn't much but consider it part of your stupid apology." Sasuke gritted out through his teeth.

Naruto blinked totally and utterly confused. "Um…t-thank you." The blond stuttered, being at a lose for words.

The only reply he got was a 'humph' as the emotionless raven walked away. Poking the straw through the hole, Naruto brought it up to his mouth and took a sip. "Eww….some apology…it's warm."

"I'm home." Naruto whispered, but all he got was the creaking of wood beneath his feet. That meant his stepfather wasn't home.

Taking off his shoes, Naruto made his way to the kitchen to get some food since he didn't have any lunch. Than, a slap echoed throughout the house as a stunned blond boy lay on the floor.

"I thought I told you to come right back home after school you insolent wretch." A tall man spat at the now terrified blond doll.

"Sorry sir, but I had detention."

"Detention?" the man asked picking up and holding Naruto by his shirt collar so they were eye to eye.

As much as Naruto wanted to, he couldn't lie, so he simply nodded. The man only grunted in disgust before punching Naruto square in the gut with an undercut.

Choking on or for air, Naruto couldn't tell, all he knew was that he was on the floor needing oxygen in his body. It didn't help when his stepfather kept stomping the heel of his foot into the blonde's spine.

After about 30 seconds, his vision started to get blurry but he was still able to make out a human being standing in front of him. 'Please, please make him stop! I don't want to fie!' the blond screamed over and over like a mantra in his head.

Naruto only felt a ghostly hand run over his cheek than disappear as he went into darkness.

Naruto awoke to the slamming of the door and the throbbing of his wounds all come at him at once. Wincing as he sat up he inspected the damage. A few bruised vertebras, a bruise on his face, and the cut to his stomach reopened from the punch.

Shakingly standing up, Naruto made his way to the bathroom to wrap up his wounds. Even though it was summer, Naruto made a habit of wearing long sleeves and long pants to hide the affects of his home life; surprisingly he never got questioned for it. He didn't exactly tell any of his friends that he got abused. How? He couldn't just go up to them and go, 'Hey guess what, here's a random fact about me, I get abused at home.' Yeah right. What kind of friends was he?

"I really am worthless aren't I? A doll is better than me. Even my mother thought so!' he thought out loud.

"Don't tell me you actually believe that shit?" asked a voice, a bit deeper than his from behind him.

Gasping in alarm, Naruto came face-to-face with a full body mirror. In it his reflection smiled then reopened its eyes. So, maybe it wasn't his reflection, one: it was moving on its own free will and second: its eyes were red. Now that he looked at it better, it also had longer blond hair, down to a little above the shoulder; the marks on his cheeks were bigger with a few more marking around them. "What are you going to do, stare for the rest of the night?" Naruto only stared back causing the somewhat of a reflection to snort. "I didn't know you found yourself that interesting."

"Wait, so…you're me?" Naruto asked confused.

"Not exactly. I am the other you. The you that you want and desire to be. I am everything you are not." The reflection explained.

"Oh…I see…I'm crazy, hallucinating from the pain." Naruto said, laughing a soft chuckle at first than it soon went into a full out roar. Finally calming down he noticed the ice cold glare from the 'illusion' in the mirror.

"I see you don't exactly believe me. Whatever, you'll believe it when that bastard of a father gets home."

"What do you mean?"

It smirked. "Aren't you even surprised that you got out of that with only some bruises and a reopened cut."

The real blond only nodded.

"You didn't think I didn't hear your little screams for help."

"But I didn't yell!" the blond protested.

"You idiot, I told you, I am your other self, a spilt personality, I know your thoughts!"

There was only silence, which was soon broken by another snort from the reflection in the mirror.

"So, tell me, what's your name, I don't exactly want to call you me if you aren't really me, and what did you do to the bastard?" Naruto asked, agreeing with his so called other self on his stepfather's nickname.

"Hm…as for a name…I never really thought about it. I guess Kyuubi sounds cool. As for what I did to the bastard, I just gave him a couple of scratches here and there." Kyuubi said with an evil grin.

"You hurt him?"

"What it's not like I haven't done it before." Kyuubi said widening his grin.

"What do you mean…?"

"So you've forgotten huh? Don't you remember when you were eight? He almost killed you for trying to go sneak out at night. He thought you were going to go to the police and rat him out."

Naruto gasped as the memory came rushing back to him.

Flashback

An eight-year-old blond huddled in the corner of his room. Tears ran down his bloody and bruised face; never stopping.

The door was suddenly slammed open; both Naruto and the wood wincing from the impact.

"You little piece of shit. What the hell were you thinking!" his stepfather screamed grabbing the blonde's throat. Naruto coughed and spat for air but it was a useless struggle as the man only tightened his grip. "Y-you…. r…. c-chokin…" little Naruto wasn't able to finish his sentence only loosing valuable air.

"Does it look like I care? You're worthless, even your real parents thought so, that's why they left you at the filthy orphanage."

The blond felt tears well up in his eyes, ready to spill at anytime. Naruto soon felt the lack of oxygen got to his head as he felt dizzy and black started to creep into his vision. However, he felt calm, maybe it was the thought of death, but he was going to be saved.

End Flashback

"So you did that!" the blond screamed. "You expect me to be believe that you saved me!"

"Wow, don't you catch on fast." Kyuubi mocked, cleaning some earwax from his ear as the blond reminisced. When he was finished, the scarlet-eyed being raised a hand. Making it pass through the glass, he touched it to Naruto's forehead.

"Now these are my memories."

Flashback

Naruto slowly opened his once closed eyes.

"Aren't you dead yet?" his stepfather yelled furious; tightening his grip once again.

The blond boy said nothing as he raised his hand putting it on his 'father's' wrist. Pressing his thumb, he heard the older man hiss in pain as he dug his nail into the pressure point.

"It's going to take a lot more to kill us." The new Naruto growled, tossing the man backwards after doing a chest punch. This different eight-year-old boy glared at the man through blood red eyes, but his smile held true malice. Slowly walking forward, the robot-like boy smiled as he noticed the bastard cradling his wrist, knowing he broke it. When he reached the brown-haired man. He punched him with an upper cut, having strength an eight-year-old shouldn't have.

"If you ever try to kill Naruto, I will know, and I will come. Got it?" the boy said lowly. The father only glared back but eventually nodded.

The little boy smiled and purred like an animal. "Perfect."

End Flashback

Naruto starred at the ground as it all soaked in. "Do you see now? He never did beat you as hard after that until now." Kyuubi kindly pointed out.

This made Naruto furious as he punched the mirror, breaking it and his reflection.

"Shut-up! I don't believe that, and I don't believe in you. I'm just tired and in pain!" Naruto said trying to reason to himself why he was seeing those things. Looking at his hand that was covered in glass shards, he noticed one large shard in particular protruding from him skin.

"Wretch! Whom are you talking to and what the hell was that noise!" screamed his stepfather from another room. "Nothing Sieto, sir!" 'shit, when did he come back.' All Naruto heard was a grunt signaling that Sieto really didn't care anymore.

Sighing, the blond kneeled down and started cleaning up his mess, a bit careful, he was already cut. 'Did that guy really, I mean… was he really me?' his mind asked but he snorted answering his own question.

"Spilt personalities, yeah right…what a lot of bull!"