-Italics- = thoughts

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Uglies series

"Sasuke! Aren't you excited?" Naruto exclaimed as they walked to the hospital.

"Sure, sure." Sasuke replied.

"Oh, come on, it's your sixteenth birthday! You should be a little bit more excited then this."

"Well, unlike you, and the rest of Konoha's population, I don't really want people cutting me open and turning me inside out." Sasuke growled.

"Oh quit complaining. Everyone gets the surge and you get to go to New Pretty Town." Naruto pointed out. "I'd love to go over there!"

"Yeah, because you never go to school anyways."

"Hey!" Naruto said indigently.

"You know it's true" Sasuke smirked.

After a small banter between the two, they lapsed into silence.

"Hey Sasuke?" Naruto asked after a time.

"Hn?"

"You- you'll visit me right? Uglies aren't allow in New Pretty Town, and…" she led off.

"You're kidding right? I'm taking advantage of the silence for once."

"Bastard!" she yelled and hit him in the shoulder.

Sasuke just smiled a bit before agreeing, "Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it. I promise I'll visit you."

It had been two months since Sasuke had turned sixteen. Since he had been "prettified". Sine the surge. Since he had broken his promise. Naruto was laying in her bed. She didn't really expect him for the first week or two. He was moving! Away from her, away from his home, from everything! Of course it'd take a while, but two MONTHS?

She and Sasuke had snuck over to New Pretty Town a few times, all the Uglies did, but Naruto didn't want to go see Sasuke, not when Sasuke had promised to see her.

"Iruka! I'm going out!" she called out.

"Just be home by eleven!" her father called back.

Iruka was only Naruto's foster father, her parents died when she was born. She loved him and all, but she wouldn't really call them close. To be honest, sometimes she was embarrassed to go out with him. He had this huge mark going over his nose. It was perfectly symmetrical, but… pretties usually didn't have ANY sort of mark on them, symmetrical or not.

She ran out the door and jumped on her hover-board. It was never a good thing when she started thinking about Sasuke, she'd always start to mope.

Soon she was on the outskirts of town. The hover-boards were able to "fly" because of magnetism, in other words no metal, no flying, and those things were heavy! So the most sensible thing to do when you reached the outskirts of town was to turn back, but Naruto was never really sensible.

Soon she was flying right past of boundaries of Konoha.

The Rusties were named that for a reason. They practically breathed metal. It really wasn't that hard to find a path that would lead out. In fact, there was a pair of rusted tracks that suited Naruto just find. She only had to walk a couple meters before she got to them. She and Sasuke had discovered it a few years ago.

-Damn you Sasuke- she thought.

Eventually she stopped at an abandoned town. That was THEIR place. Naruto and Sasuke snuck out here all the time.

-Before he was turned into a Pretty- Naruto thought bitterly.

-Okay, house number one...zero…. twenty-three… Here it is!-

Very slowly, Naruto pushed open the door and went down the stairs. Soon she cam to a solid steel door with a keypad next to it.

-Fourteen… sixty-two… nine- she put in.

And the door swung right open to reveal a large room with bookshelves all over the place.

Naruto stepped in, reveling in the scent of paperback. She immediately went to the back a the room where magazines where pilled high and much less organized then the rest of the room.

"Now where was I…" Naruto murmured to herself, looking through one of the piles of magazines before smiling and pulling on out. "Ah yes, Ulquiorra was kicking Ichigo's ass."

It had now been, officially, six months since Sasuke had the surge, and he still hadn't even shown his face once! Naruto still refused to go a see him. She was not going to give in first dammit!

But she had to admit… it was getting pretty lonely. She had a few other not-as-close-friends around the neighborhood, but she was the youngest and soon, she was the only one in her "group" who wasn't prettified. She had begun to spend more and more time inside house number 1023. She had even started to draw. Not that she was any good at it… she should've asked Sai for tips before he… left.

Naruto was in house 1023 right now. In the past few months, she had finally decided to venture further out in the room and had begun reading the actual books. She couldn't believe how utterly amazing Rusty writers were. She had finished the Lord of the Ring series, The Inheritance Cycle, all of Tomora Pierce's books, The Looking Glass Wars, she had even read some issues of the magazine called "National Geographic". The Rusties were actually really cool! She was on the last book of the "Harry Potter" series right now.

-J. K. Rowling would've been an amazing person to meet- she thought wistfully.

Naruto strode over to her chair, however, when she sat down, she accidentally hit her elbow on the wall. Hard.

"Ouch!" She jumped up and started rubbing it before she realized something.

Gingerly, she knocked on the wall.

Bonk bonk bonk

Naruto's eyes widened. -This wall's hollow?-

Naruto started to feel around the wall. Soon enough, she found a seam in the wall, a slight bump that told her: this right here is not a wall, it's a door.

So she began to push. Not easy. When you're a fifteen year old girl, trying to push a solid steel door probably twenty-five centimeters thick, alone… it isn't easy.

It also isn't easy trying to push a pull-door.

After a few minuets of trying to push open the door, she kicked the chair out of the way...

And stubbed her toe,

"Ow! Ow ow ow ow!" she yelped, hopping around the room. She glared at the chair before making another observation. The chair hadn't moved a millimeter.

Walking over to it, she pulled gently on it. Sure enough the door came with it. It wasn't nearly as heavy(or thick) as she thought.

Naruto look disbelieving at the wall but slowly walked forward into the tunnel.

"You're shitting me." Naruto exclaimed softly as she walked out of it.

Here was another room, slightly smaller then the other one. They look pretty similar, shelves everywhere, except this room had hundreds of just rolled up paper, what were they called again? Oh yeah! Scrolls!

Setting the seventh Harry Potter book down on the ground, she slowly stepped towards a bookshelf and slowly pulled out one of them.

If the Rusties were about one century old, then this was five- six centuries old, at least. Naruto was surprised that the writing was still legible.

Looking around to see if there was any place to sit, she found a small desk. She was just about to open the scroll before spotting an envelope and a small box on the desk.

Setting the scroll aside, turned the envelope over and her eyes widened in surprise as she saw it was addressed to her,

-And Sasuke…-

Hurriedly, she ripped it open and very nearly dropped the letter in shock as her eyes scanned its contents.

To Naruto and Sasuke,

Congradulations, you found this letter and you've found me. I'm glad to know you're both okay, especially you little brother.

Sasuke had one older brother: Itachi. He was the only new pretty Naruto knew of who actually came back to Uglyville before he became a middle pretty. He was eight years older then her, seven years older then Sasuke, and in a mental institution.

Naruto continued reading.

I do hope that the both of you are okay. I'm afraid neither I nor you have much time. Read quickly and carefully.

I'm sure you know of the Rouges. People who have run away from Konoha and other cities only to form their own communities. People who reject the surge.

The police make them out to be "bad" guys, but they're not. They really don't want to hurt anyone.

Naruto snorted. She had seen two Rouge attacks. Both times people got hurt. In fact the second time, when she was fourteen, was when she got her scars on her face.

I know, you've probably been through some violent attacks, but all groups have their extremists. I swear, most of them aren't like that. The Rouges just want to change things because what you don't understand, the surge doesn't just change your face, it changes your mind.

-Changes your mind...?- Naruto thought

When you get the surge, they create blocks in your brain. Obstruction, stoppage, clog, whatever you want to call it, and it's because of these blocks that people can no longer think differently. Anger, creativity, curiosity, and even some of your memories are wired out.

Naruto reread that line, "...blocks in the brain?"

There was no way this was possible… but- No buts, there's no way anyone could do this! People would notice, people would want answeres, they'd get angry!

Anger, creativity, curiosity, and even some of your memories are wired out.

But... maybe that's why Sasuke didn't come, because he had forgotten her? And she never had seen any pretty, whether it was a new pretty or an old pretty, get angry. And now that Naruto thought about it, all the pretties, regardless of age, always reacted the same way.

There are some people who can overcome these wounds and rewire their brains, I, myself, have achieved this. However, these people are rare, and I've only met two other people who've accomplished this, so don't count on it. Some of the scientist in the Rouge are trying to find a way to remove them. It seems that they're close to succeeding, they just need a test, but that doesn't matter right now.

Now, after receiving this information, you can't tell anybody obviously. Nobody would believe you for one thing, and for another, the Special Forces could come after you. I'm not sure if you've heard of them, but think of them as a higher rank police force for now.

Wait, the SP actually existed? They were suppose to be nothing but a rumor, a tale parents told their kids into again, the government wasn't suppose to be rewiring people's brain's either.

You've got a couple choices now: One, you can turn all this in, you'd have honours placed all around you and live your life in peace. Two, you can merely forget about this and leave everything as you found it. Or you can choose three. You can choose to believe me, believe us. You can open the box and take a chance.

Just remember, pretties are docile. They'll do whatever what a higher up will tell them to, that includes revealing information. Whatever you do, don't trust them, don't trust anyone else but yourselves.

Naruto looked at her watch, 10:12, it had only been about ten minutes since she had started reading. It felt like ten hours.

Suddenly she heard beeping. -Someone's coming in!- she thought.

She sprinted through the short tunnel to the door and pulled it close just as she heard the other door open.

"Strange," a voice wafted in. "I thought I heard a thud… Naruto! Are you in here?"

-Sasuke!- She was going to open the door for him before she remembered the last line.

Whatever you do, don't trust them.

"Naruto!"

Her nails dug into her palms, it was all she could do from calling out.

"Damn, must of missed her. I am sorry, Hatake-shi."

"Maa, don't worry about Sasuke-kun. To be honest, we didn't need to look for her today, we could've just waited until tomorrow to talk to her at her house." said a new voice. Naruto's head immediately perked up.

"I didn't realize Specials were so familiar with people." Sasuke relied with a slight humor in his voice.

"They aren't, it's just me." The other man, Kakashi, replied. "Well, it doesn't seem like she's here, lets go, Sasuke-kun." Naruto heard footsteps before the outside door slid shut.

She continued to look at the door. -They-… Sasuke… no...-

Gripped with conviction she walked back to the letter and the box.

Inside the box is a cellphone. Rusties used it for communication. Just type in the numbers 1006607 and press the green button. Just tell them that you know me.

I'll be seeing the both of you soon.

I love you two.

Your big brother,

~Itachi

Ring "Hello?"

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I- Itachi told me to call you."

-shi = More formal then -san, less formal then -sama