Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters from that anime. I do own the plot and and original characters that may or may not be appearing in this story.

AN: Ok so I have to say I kinda like this paring, but I've noticed that there are hardly any stories about these two, so I've decided to write one of my own. Please Please PLEASE let me know what you all think of this. A review doesn't take that long to write and if you can find time to read my story I hope that you can find time to review my story.

^Iruka's POV^

The sun is sinking into the land and turning the sky a blazing blood red as I make my way outside. The street lights were starting to turn on as I made my way home from work. I was adopted, as was my little brother. We had both lost our parents in tragic accidents. When I was 11 my parents and I were driving back home from a movie. I was lying down in the back seat of the car asleep, when a drunk driver in the opposite lane made a sudden stop. That really wouldn't have been a big deal because the guy managed to stay in his lane, but unfortunately there was one of those 18 wheelers right behind him. When he slammed on his breaks the back end of his vehicle swung out to our side of the rode. My father wasn't able to react fast enough and our breaks weren't able to stop our car soon enough, as a result our car was driven under the back end of the semi. Once the police got there the drunk driver had already dashed from the scene and was found dead later that night having driven strait into a tree. My parents were killed instantly having been decapitated from the force of their car going under the back of the semi, it goes without saying it was a closed casket funeral. The truck driver and myself were the only ones to survive that night and live past the accident. The only reason that I survived was because I was lying down in the back seat. I was cut up by the metal of the mangled car, that took the fire fighters six hours to get me out of. That was the worst six hours of my life. I remember screaming for my parents for the first two before my voice gave out. I cried the whole time covered in the blood that spattered from my parents upon impact. It was a night that never seemed to end for me.

That night turned into months and months in foster care and therapy until I finally found a home with a couple who were old enough to be my grandparents who had already adopted a kid a few years younger then me named Naruto. His parents were killed brutally when a burglar came into their house and they walked in on him. They tried to fight back only to protect their son, but they didn't make it out alive. They were able to contact the police and that is what saved Naruto's life. The cops walked in on the robber while he was carving three parallel lines on each side of the young seven year olds checks. They shot the guy twice in the back and saved the small boy, but he would always be scared much like myself in a way that we could never hide. That was one thing that really bonded the two of us. You see one of the scars I got from the mangled car was a large scar across my nose.

My adopted father's name is Jiraiya who is in his early fifties as was his wife Tsunade. They have some serious issues of their own, but they are nice enough to take the two of us in and they love us, which was all we can really ask for. They also take the time to understand us which is probably the reason why we grew up as decent people. We got really lucky, things could have been much worse for the two of us, especially if we had stayed in the foster care system. The two of us would have just slipped though the cracks and we'd have made some pretty bad decisions.

Growing up with Naruto as a brother was great. The two of us had so much fun playing pranks on each other. After my parents died I never thought that I would laugh again and I know Naruto felt the same way, but when we were together it was easy to forget everything that happened and just be kids again with parents who loved us and even punished us when our pranks went to far, like the time we painted the pig of the woman who lived next door. It was hilarious, the pig looked like a walking Jackson Pollock. Our neighbor on the other hand was fuming mad and from that day on called us demon children and other similar names. That lady was fun to pick on, I think she loved that snorting pig more then any human, which in my opinion is just weird, I mean why would you want your food as a pet. That's what pigs are after all. Really if you wanted a stinky snorting animal for a pet all you would have to do is get yourself a pug. You know those dogs with their faces all smashed in and can't seam to breath so they make a snorting sound. We would get into trouble at school a lot too, because we'd always be playing pranks on each other during the school day. All the school buildings are on the same grounds so it wasn't to hard to get a bathroom pass and sneak to a different wing where the different grades were. When I got into high school though I had to cut back a bit. I knew that I had to start building up my grades so I could get into a good college and hopefully scholarships. With all of Tsunade's debts it would be hard for my parents to pay for my college tuition. I got a job around that time too, though I always made sure I had some time to spend with my brother.

My little brother is now 13 and a freshmen in high school. I'm a senior and impatiently waiting to hear back from the seven colleges I've applied to. I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to get out of this town. I love my family but this place we live is just so... I don't really even know how to explain it. The people here are all two faced and political. If you're not friends with the right person, then you can't get anywhere in this town. I couldn't find a job until someone finally moved into town and started up a coffee shop. No one would hire me, because they either had something against my adopted parents, or their kids at school didn't really like me. That's how bad this town is. Naruto just started working here a couple of months ago. The lady who owns the place really likes the two of us, apparently we have better work ethic and people skills then the other students she employs. Not surprising really.

It was still warm out but there is a cool breeze brushing against my face. Just as I was passing under the large oak by the old park, I heard a group of guys laughing. It wasn't normal laughing either, it was drunk laughing and my suspicions were confirmed when five guys from my class came staggering into the light supplied street lamp. Their laughing stopped however when they laid their eyes on me.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here. If it isn't that clown Iruka? Come on tell us a joke, or better yet show us a trick," slurred the first guy while the others started laughing and circling around me.

"Yeah show us a trick clown!" called some of the guys. I was shoved from behind and bumped into the first guy who had spoken first.

He knocked me to the ground before saying, "I think you need to fix your make up clown, we can see that ugly scar on your face. Come on boys, lets see if we can add some color to that ugly mug." Some deep chuckles came from the the other four guys. The first hit landed squarely on my jaw. "Hey you two pick him up. It's to hard to hit him while he's on the ground like that," the first guy said as he staggered a bit, to drunk to stand strait. The two bigger guys hauled me to my feet before the remaining three started beating on me.

'Why am I not fighting back?' I keep asking myself that while hit after hit lands on my body. The truth is I'm terrified of drunks, my body just froze up the moment they took notice of me. There was nothing I could do to make my body move. I could only take the blows and pray that it would end soon. I prayed that they would grow tired of insulting me and hurting me. I feared that it would never end. My vision is getting blurry and there's something warm running down my face. Someone started screaming, no begging for the abuse to stop. Wait, I'm the one that's screaming... I almost feel like I'm back that car from seven years ago. I feel trapped, I can feel the world around me closing in. Blood is running down my face, my breath is coming out in short gasps and my vision is starting to spot.

"Enough! I've called the police and they're on their way. If you don't want to get caught I'd suggest you get away from him," yelled a deep and frightening voice. My body fell to the ground as the two guys holding me up dropped me and ran away with their friends. I landed in a pile on the side walk, I couldn't even moan in pain I was so exhausted.

A pale hand reached under my chin and lifted my face. I looked in the the darkest brown eyes I'd ever seen. Not only were they dark, but my fuzzy brain found them to be beautiful. There were strands of long black hair covering those eyes that had escaped the confines of the hair tie that pulled the rest of the long silky black hair away from the strong angular face. A slim fair skinned hand with long bony fingers reached up to my face and pressed something to my forehead causing me to wince in pain.

"I'd ask if you were alright, but I can clearly see that your not," the deep voice said in a far more gentle tone then when speaking to my attackers, "My name is Itachi Uchiha, I'm not going to hurt you. Now I'm going to ask you some questions ok?" I nodded my head to show that I understood. "First how many fingers am I holding up?" I look to his hand that wasn't hold a piece of cloth to my forehead where he held up three long bony yet somehow elegant fingers and replied with a simple three.

"Ok, good. Now can you tell me your name?" He asked looking into my eyes, I don't think I could have looked away even if I had wanted to.

"Iruka... my names Iruka, I'm a senior at Kahona High School and I really need to get home. Naruto's waiting for me I promised that I'd-"

"Alright Iruka slow down," he said as he reached his free hand to my face and let his fingers trail soothing lines down the side of my face. "Now do you think you can stand up?" I slowly nodded and tried to stand on my own. Let's just say that it didn't go so well. I ended up right back where I started, on the ground. I heard a low chuckle from the young man above me which caused me to flinch, it was much to like the five that had been surrounding me moments before.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. Let me help you. We'll head to my car then you can tell me how to get to your house. Sound good?" He didn't even wait for me to reply before he slipped an arm around my waist and carefully lifted me to my feet. My legs were shaking so much that he ended up lifting me into his arms and caring me over to a black car on the other side of the street. He set me down and leaned me against the car so he could get the door.

"Wait," I said reaching for his arm, "what about the police?"

He looked at me with a sheepish smile spreading across his lips. "I didn't actually call them. I just said that so those guys would leave you alone. I can call them now if you want me to."

"No, I just want to get home," I said, my body slumping more into the car I was leaning on. He nodded and started helping me into the car before he made his way over to the drivers side and started the car.

"Alright Iruka let's see about getting you home. Which way?" Itachi asked looking at me. I directed him to turn around, and gave him directions to my house. He started moving the vehicle and my eyes felt so heavy that I just let them close. The next thing I knew he was pulling into my driveway. We only had one car, which Tsunade took to the hospital everyday for work. The house was a two story white brick building with a large tree in the front. There was a porch off to the side of the drive way where I could see Naruto waiting for me on the porch swing. When Itachi got out of the car first I could see Naruto stand up and start to make his way over. I was able to open the door on my own before Itachi got to my side of the car. He reached in and helped me out. I was still a bit shaky from the beating I took.

"Iruka! What happened? Are you ok?" Naruto called. When he reached me he took me from Itachi and started heading for the house. At hearing the car and Naruto's yelling my parents came to the door to see me leaning heavily on Naruto as we slowly made our way to the door. I could see the worried looks on their faces.

Once we made it up the porch steps into the light cast by the open door Tsunade was at my side looking me over as we made our way inside. I was sat down on the couch while Naruto went for the med kit that was always kept on hand in the house.

"And who might you be?" asked my dad to Itachi who had followed Naruto and I into the living room.

"My name is Itachi Uchiha, sir. My family just moved here recently, we actually just finished moving in today. I was just driving by after picking up some stuff for my mom when I saw these guys beating up your son," he said glancing over at me. Naruto came back into the room at this point and sat next to me while Tsunade started to take care of the cuts and bruises I had acquired earlier that night. "I knew that I had to do something, so I stopped my car and scared the guys off. Is he ok?"

"He'll be fine, it's not like he hasn't been though worse," my mother said while everyone in my family shared a little laugh. Itachi had a puzzled look on his face.

"I'm not sure I understand the joke," Itachi said looking at all of use. "Do you mean that this happens a lot?"

"Well, our boys tend to have a lot of accidents, but most are caused by their own foolishness, like the time Naruto climbed up that tree outside because Iruka was chasing him around the yard with the turkey my wife had brought home for dinner. The silly brat ended up falling down and breaking his arm in two spots because he was in such a hurry to get away he didn't pay attention to which branches could support his weight." My father let out a big laugh while Naruto got up from my side and started chasing my dad around the room for telling that story to a total stranger. Itachi laughed to at that story causing me to blush for some unknown reason. He did have a nice laugh to.

"So Itachi, you look young enough to still be in high school, I'm assuming you'll be attending Kahona High School, what year are you?" my mother asked ignoring the play wrestling going on in the next room and the occasional swear word when one of them bumped their head on some nameless piece of furniture.

"I'm a sophomore, and yes my brother and I will both be attending Kahona starting this coming Monday in fact. My brother will be a freshmen."

"So what brings your family here, especially in the middle of the semester?" my mother asked.

"My father is in the military and he was recently transferred to this area," he answered simply.

"So your a military brat. Why aren't you going to the military school that's on the base?"

"Well that's mostly due to my mother. She wanted both of us to attend public school to insure that we wouldn't feel obligated to follow in our fathers foot steps. My parents never really agreed on that but my mother usually gets what she wants," he said with a smile.

"Ah I see, so-"

"Mom, what's with the fifth degree?" I asked cutting in.

"Well it's my job to question the young man who brings home my eldest son. I have to know if he's someone that can be trusted. For all I know he's one of the ones who did this to you."

"Well he's not so you can leave him alone, ok," I said hoping that she would get the point.

"It's ok Iruka, I don't mind. She's just looking out for you." A particularly loud shot came from the other room. "Are they ok, I mean should someone go in there and stop them?" he asked with a worried look on his face and flinched when there was an even louder crash.

"No don't worry about them, you'll only need to worry if they they break my jar that's in that room."

"Um ok." Itachi said looking unsure. Just then a loud crash of glass shattering on the floor was heard followed by the two in to curse and my mother stood from the couch. I have to give her credit she was very calm when she excused herself from the room and suggested that we head outside.

Itachi came over and helped me off the couch as she made her way to the other room. Once on the porch screaming could be heard from inside.

"Is everything going to be ok?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah that happens all the time, I'm just glad that I wasn't involved this time. The jar she was talking about holds all of her IOU's. Her and her friends have poker nights once a week and let's just say that she has the worst luck in the world. Though in an odd way when she looses all her spending money though her gambling she usually has a pretty good week and things always seem to work out well. You should see her when she wins, the whole week she's gets so jumpy while she's waiting for something bad to happen. It usually does too, though my dad says that's just because she's focused on the bad things so she doesn't even notice all the good things going on."

"So what do your parents do exactly?"

"Well my mom is a doctor at the hospital and my dad is a writer."

"What kinds of things does he write?"

"The kind of stuff you can't read until your at least 18," I laughed at the shocked look on his face

"I see... I was kinda wondering, you're parents seem kind of... progressed in years and you and Naruto look nothing like them. I was just wondering why that was?"

"Oh yeah, well Naruto and I are both adopted. Both out parents died when we were kids. It happens," I said making it sound like no big deal. "You know, I should probably go back in there to make sure that at least Naruto is still breathing."

"Yeah I should probably get going to, my mom's probably starting to get worried. I guess I'll see you at school on Monday."

"Yeah, see you at school," I said as he started heading for his car.

"It was nice to meet you, though it would have been nicer under different circumstances." Itachi then climbed into his car and drove away. I made my way back into the house to see my mom pouting on the couch and Naruto and my dad on their knee picking up all the IOU notes and little pieces of glass. I just shook my head and made my way over to my mom and curled up on the couch next to her and laid my head in her lap. She ran her hands though my shoulder length chocolate brown hair avoiding the bandage she had put on my forehead.

"He seemed like a nice boy, to polite though. I hope we didn't scare him away."

"Yeah he was nice. Though I'm sure by the end of Monday he'll be taken in by one of the cliques and he'll never talk to me again, just like all the others," I let out a sigh and closed my eyes letting myself drift to sleep.

^Itachi's POV^

"Where have you been! You should have been back a half an hour ago. Do you know how worried I've been!" My mother was yelling at me as I knew she would. She's really the only one in my family who's so open with how she feels. The rest of us you'd have better luck pulling teeth then getting us to tell you how we feel, much less show you how we feel. Though I do recall being more free to smile and laugh a short while ago in that chaotic house I was just at. Iruka's family is so different from my own.

"Something came up. I ran into someone who needed my help and I ended up giving them a ride home."

"Oh is that all... You still could have called to let me know you were going to be late."

"Your mother is right." My dad said supporting my mother in his own way.

"I'll remember that for next time."

"Did you at least make a new friend?" my mother inquired.

"Perhaps." I said before I made my way to my room.

AN: Thank you all for reading, so please review and let me know what you think. Reviews help keep me motivated, so the more you review, the faster I will get new chapters written and posted! Also quick challenge to any of you artists out there, I'd like to see what you can come up with using my story as a little inspiration for your art. Just post a link in your reviews. It doesn't have to be for this story either you can do it for any of my others too. I'd love to see what you all come up with! That's all for now!