First Chapter! Bonds Reawakened

Author's Note:

Okay, so I decided to take a stab at the whole SasuNaru birthday cliché (which may or may not be continued depending on the reviews I get), even though his birthday has passed already and I should be working on Invisible. Anyways, this fic is taking place several years after whenever I imagine the war ends… they're all back in the village, and I've taken it upon myself to decide that Sasuke came back with them. So, lots of angst and um… don't be too harsh if you review… this is the first time I've ever written this pairing or boyxboy. (Constructive criticism would be GREAT.) Yay for yaoi! Ok, that's it, I'm done rambling about boring details now!

-Thoughts in italics

-Bold for emphasis

Warning: Shonen-ai/yaoi (boyxboy- so if ya don't like it, don't read it! It's called fanFICTION for a reason, people.), and abuse/violence that may or may not be considered graphic. Major angsting. Yipee.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

Proceed if you dare…

Naruto was turning nineteen...

It was October tenth, his birthday, the day the demon fox was sealed away and the village was saved. By all accounts, it should be a happy occasion. So why did that make him feel so empty?

Naruto let his thoughts race until his head hurt, sitting on a stool at Ichiraku with a completely full bowl of ramen steadily losing its warmth in front of him. The boy wasn't even eating the food he normally would have inhaled, instead staring at the dead blue eyes reflected in the ramen broth, wondering how people didn't cringe when they saw his face. His birthday should be something to enjoy, but it never was. And it never will be, will it? I know better than that by now.

That was just the way things had panned out for him in the end, and it couldn't be changed. When he was born on that day, it was impossible to smile or laugh in that obnoxious way of his. He couldn't stand to be with friends today, they didn't even have a clue. They didn't know him well enough, or just didn't care enough, to decipher how he was really doing, how he was actually feeling: horrible about himself, allowing negative thoughts to cluster and grow inside him with every minute that passed.

His dad and mom were dead. That ruled out the possibility of two of his most special people just being there with him during every year he decided to keep breathing. As if that wasn't bad enough, he knew that so many people wished this day had never even happened at all. Naruto knew everyone in this village still rejected his existence, wanted him dead for holding the 'terrible monster' that destroyed the village and turned people's lives upside down nineteen years ago.

Almost two decades all alone...

He had to admit, they had fooled him for a long while, hook line and sinker. They'd made him think they didn't hate him, that maybe he'd gained their respect and admiration after nearly dying several times for them. Hell, he might have succeeded at that in the past. So, no, they hadn't hated him back then, but now… now they detested him. It was like everything he'd done up until that point didn't matter in the slightest to them anymore.

While he'd had a certain naivety in his youth, he wasn't as dumb as people thought. Naruto knew many things about the people of Konoha. In all honesty, he found the fact that they attempted to hide the underlying fear that shook their voices when they spoke to him infuriating, and saddening, and a mix of so many other emotions that it was impossible to list them all.

Everyone had seen his full potential brought out in battle and put to the test with war, crushing the enemy that had seemed invincible with his strength. They witnessed firsthand how skilled the boy was, and he was capable of so much more power than they could have imagined. It terrified them. It wasn't even speculation, or opinion: it was fact. The knowledge of that potential, perhaps, was what drove them to revert back into their old ways of treating him like the dirt beneath their feet.

He'd clawed his way up from his dark prison of loneliness, saw the light and reached for it, only to harshly crash down and realize he'd never even left.

That was why, no matter how much they cheered when he saved Konoha, or how many times they attached the word 'hero' to his name, it became painfully obvious that that kind of behavior towards him was never going to last for longer than a few days at a time.

Finally deciding to move so he might not sink under the pressure so easily, Naruto muttered a quick thank you to the familiar old man behind the counter for the free ramen before exiting. Both Teuchi and his daughter Ayame watched Naruto's retreating back, left baffled at the hollowness of his parting words.

"Ayame... am I going senile, or did that boy not eat any ramen?"

The girl shook her head in response as she stared at the bowl of soup and vacant stool sadly, "I should've wished him a happy birthday. It's probably so rare for him to hear that…"

Oblivious to the conversation behind him, the blonde slipped his hands into his pockets and began going nowhere in particular with his feet on auto-pilot, hazy blue eyes fixed on the inky night sky dotted with constellations. He wished to be anywhere but Konoha today, maybe Suna. Maybe he would visit Gaara, he thought, who was like the brother he'd never had.

It was startling, and then purely torturous, when Naruto realized that the sky's color reminded him of a certain person's almond shaped, bottomless ebony eyes, the two black pools that he always found himself falling into. He could still picture, even without that someone in front of him now, how they were a stark contrast against soft ivory sk- no, Naruto wasn't going to think about that now if he could help it. He immediately willed that particular memory away. The blonde usually smiled upon it fondly, but this time shook his head aggressively to rid it from his busy mind. Though he knew those haunting thoughts would return, later, as swiftly as they'd just gone; as silently persistant in their endeavor as the raven they represented.

For the time being, Naruto contemplated anything, anything else, that he could possibly think of to get his mind off the self-forbidden subject. There were just so many things to choose from in his scattered brain. For instance, how nothing had changed in the way he was treated by everyone, even after so many years of his life wasted on the lost cause of gaining acceptance. Suddenly, but not quite shockingly, he realized that maybe it was he that had changed, and drastically at that. Being so hated tended to take its toll on a person eventually.

Naruto wasn't as idiotic or carefree or lively as everyone still believed. It wasn't that he didn't want to be: he really wanted to be okay, content, happy, even; not depressed as he was now. It just felt like there was always something wrong, no matter the situation or how 'cheerful' he seemed about it. Naruto wondered if Gaara had ever felt like this at some point, before he'd met him. And he wondered how one could even begin to describe such a numbing sensation.

"It's almost like… trying to walk through the current of a neck-deep river backwards," Naruto mumbled aloud, continuing to think on it as he walked. In his mind, it was almost like he was lecturing that naive, younger version of himself, warning him of the dangers and heartaches to come. It wouldn't work, though, his standing there alone made that abundantly clear.

You keep getting pulled under the surface over and over again, sucking in mouthfuls of disgusting water each time you go back down. You feel so numbingly cold, but you just ignore that and keep going. Then comes the worst part, when you think you might have found a sturdy rock that you can rest on for a while, but it turns out to be an illusion, another slippery pebble that lets you sink because it grew tired of keeping you afloat. And you just keep repeating that cycle until you subsequently figure out they were all pebbles there to watch you drown the entire time, every last one of them.

It makes you wonder what horrible deed you could have possibly done to deserve such abandonment, but deep inside knowing it was inevitable because you're, well, you. And nobody wants an imperfect, wounded thing like yourself. So, you give up. Your motivation crumbles to dust and it becomes so difficult to get back up again that you don't even bother to try. There's no denying that you're so hollow at that point that it wouldn't matter if you fought anymore, you'd get swept away and broken anyhow because you're too empty to go on without shattering against the slightest bump you hit. Just… finished.

It was the perfect, culminating description of what Naruto felt, and made it all the more obvious that he had most definitely changed. But how could he not have? By ignoring the villagers, he supposed, but that only made him feel like it was a hundred-to-one, him against the whole world. He'd be alone. Not that he wasn't now, he recalled glumly, but if it were possible to make him feel more alone and isolated, experience said Konoha was sure to figure out a way.

It was just so hard to block out all the cruel whispers, especially when it fractured his brilliant 'always happy' mask that he saved just for days like this. It wasn't like anyone ever saw through it, no one ever wanted to. Actually, Naruto had been putting up the façade a lot more lately. Even around his so-called friends, because he just couldn't bring himself to smile genuinely at people anymore.

Even when he did, it was completely plastic, forced and bitter. They didn't see the way Naruto was drowning in thoughts of self hatred. That he was building barriers of steel around his heart to isolate himself from the world, believing it would stop the chaos raging within his mind. Naruto knew it wasn't the right solution no matter how you looked at it. But what else could he do?

Well, he could always go out on missions. It was the one thing he came up with that didn't involve rash decisions, like him living out scenarios in his head that always resulted in him… to put it in less severe terms, disappearing. So, to avoid that (he wasn't giving the villagers that pleasure, rewarding them for their misdeeds against him), Naruto began distracting himself with different missions, taking the most lethal assignments he could possibly find from Tsunade, and acting out recklessly on every single one of them.

There was only a single individual that even knew he was taking such risks, Sakura, but that didn't make it right for him to make her witness him falling apart. Because all of this just about scared Sakura to death, he knew. She'd had to heal him and look at the terrifying wounds every time, praying he'd make it. It went far enough to make her cry on several occasions.

Sakura eventually gave up on Naruto when the chore of reviving him became too much- she was one of the few he hadn't expected to be a pebble. But not even she, a girl he considered his sister, could do it. Not when he kept coming into the hospital barely able to stand on his own without collapsing right there and then, battered and bloody with fatal injuries and lacerations that should have been impossible to recover from. When had anything ever really been impossible for that boy? That being said, Naruto did recover, albeit at an immensely slow rate.

But even so… this was putting it to the extreme. They were more like suicide missions than anything else, and he'd done enough to be considered half-dead already. He absently placed a hand against the throbbing spot on his stomach, his mind too far away to register the pain.

Naruto desperately needed someone to save him from himself. The only time he did smile as brightly as when he was twelve, or laugh like he truly meant it, was around Sasuke. That added what felt like the weight of the entire Fire Country onto his already heavy heart, because Sasuke was Naruto's everything, and that was so wrong. Well, to everyone else it would seem wrong, as well as contradictory. He didn't love Sasuke in the brotherly way he was supposed to.

No, he was in love with him. It made him want to have a total meltdown, knowing that his love would forever be unrequited. Sasuke was straight as a senbon... Wasn't he? He wanted to revive his clan, and you obviously needed a girl for that. Regardless, the former avenger didn't play for both fields like Naruto himself, who didn't care where it came from because it was love and love wasn't supposed to have limits or boundries. Sasuke'd find the fact that his teammate loved him disgusting, look at Sakura, he'd already found the fact that a teammate had loved him disgusting, and she'd had the entire 'reviving the clan' thing advantage! No, Sasuke'd hate him. And Naruto couldn't bear to know the one and only person he actually wanted to risk letting into his heart loathed him.

So the blonde had been sure to never give even the slightest hint of his sexuality. Well, with the exception of when he was around Sai. That was complicated, in every sense of the word, as he constantly flustered Naruto with his vulgar comments. The biggest reason that it would never happen though, in Naruto's mind at least, was that he couldn't imagine Sasuke pining after someone as ugly and broken as himself. Scarred, abandoned, outcast, monsterous...

Who could love a monster, after all? He'd already gone through this very same thing with his other teammate, but Naruto's affection for Sakura was ancient history. He'd realized that he loved Sasuke when he regained consciousness after their fight at the Valley of the End, and losing him was like being stabbed with a rusty kunai a million-and-two times. Naruto thought that if he confessed, he was doomed to rejection. That was the truth of it; a fact: Sasuke would never love him. The villagers cursed and abhorred him, and for once he knew that becoming Hokage wouldn't change things in the slightest. How could he ever have been so naive as to think otherwise?

But even though to anyone else it would have seemed like all of this was the nine-tails' fault, that wasn't the case with Naruto. He'd never even think of blaming Kurama for the harsh treatment, even if the fox had destroyed the village of his own free will, which Naruto knew wasn't the case; it wasn't like the demon had chosen his vessel with the intent of ruining said Jinchuuriki's life. Every so often they overheard bits of not so pleasant conversations, rude whispers, and muffled yells as the silent duo continued aimlessly down the dirt road.

Oddly enough, the fox would actually apologize to him for it, but Naruto would brush it off and tell Kurama it wasn't his fault. After all, this was the most exciting part of his birthday, hands down. Unless, of course, the villagers decided to take action and hit him a few times rather than simply speak about it. It wasn't like it'd never happened before, quite the contrary actually. They normally pulled him aside every other year and proceeded to make him wish he'd never been born (not that that took much), and gave him such a makeover that he wouldn't come out of his house for days at a time. And if that didn't happen, as was common knowledge; rocks to the head were always a nice birthday present.

"That brat will kill us all one day, just you wait! My daughter is gone because of him!" an old man yelled hoarsely to his companion, failing to keep his voice down. And so it began.

Naruto couldn't help the mental sneer. Yes, because on the day I was born, I went on a rampage through the village, killing dozens.

"Disgusting. Why is it still breathing?" was the next growl. Naruto just sighed and shook his head, disappointed that in all the years, they still hadn't come up with any new ways to insult him. It was growing dull, honestly.

"Look away dear, that thing's horrible face is too revolting to bear…" that one was nastier, but he'd heard it before, too. Cheap shot lady, maybe next year. Naruto thought and briefly glanced at her grimacing face as she clutched a young girl's hand.

"He'll never be Hokage. There's got to be a law against it," someone said behind him. Comments like that always amused him. Naruto knew his abilities already rivaled a Hokage's, maybe even exceeded.

"That's no hero. It's a monster in disguise." Remarkably, that one stung a little bit. It wasn't exactly new, but their tone was practically dripping with malice.

"Repulsive demon… I wish we could kill it ourselves. Maybe we can get away with beating a lesson into its thick head about the way to act around humans." Now that was an insult. Even better, it was a threat. Thanks for the warning. Naruto acknowledged in his mind, smiling bitterly. The thing was, he knew that if someone actually followed through and attacked him this year, he wouldn't struggle against them at all. After all, he did deserve it... Didn't he? Isn't that what everyone said: that he deserved whatever cruel things they did to him?

"Who could ever love him? The answer is so obvious… not a single person in the world!" This was accompanied by a chorus of laughter that boomed in his ears. Oh, it was a group of girls his age. Nothing like teaching the next generation how to hate properly.

Naruto winced, hands balling tighter and tighter until nails broke the skin of his palm, but he didn't care. What they'd said… it instantly reminded him of Sasuke. They were right, if he was being totally honest with himself, there wasn't a single person who could love him. It suddenly became harder to breathe and Naruto rushed to the forest, craving solitude. He leaned against the sturdy trunk of a large tree and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the horrible laughter ringing in his ears and catch his breath at the same time.

"Look what we have here… a crying demon! It's pathetic," a gruff male voice made him practically jump out of his skin in fright, and only then did he even notice the tears that coursed down his cheeks. Naruto's eyes widened as he noticed that the two men were ninja, Jounin level. He was definitely strong enough to take them on, but he'd sworn he wouldn't hurt any of the residents in Konoha, no matter what the circumstances.

Besides, it was his own fault that he was just unlucky enough to be caught alone. Naruto had the feeling he was royally screwed this time, and he knew it, knocking his head softly against the tree and muttering curses under his breath. Looked like he was going home either drenched in red or beaten black and blue, possibly both. He just had to wonder, though, was this going to be an annual event? It had happened last year, too, so that was probable. Naruto wished someone would save him, but knew immediately that it was a wasted thought. They were shrouded in trees. Far enough away from the village that, more than likely, people wouldn't hear his screams, and no one was liable to come rescue him even if they did.

"Aren't you going to greet us? Or are you too inhuman to do even that?"

The boy merely snuck a glance at them and immediately hung his head after, still refusing to speak. But the Jounin wanted a reaction, and their patience was wearing thin. When more time passed without Naruto so much as looking up again, one of them snapped.

"You stupid brat!" the man bellowed, charging like an angry bull. Naruto looked up just as the attacker grabbed at his neck. He didn't miss. Naruto's back slammed into the tree's hard wood (Sycamore? Ugn. No, oak.), a strangled gasping noise climbing its way out of his throat as the air from his lungs whooshed out. His back was sure to be tremendously bruised when he checked, if the throbbing there was anything to go by.

However, the abuse didn't stop there. They kept coming at him, laughing like a pair of overly excited hyenas when he gasped or cried out. Naruto kept as quiet as he possibly could, but still made no effort to stop them. And dammit, it hurt ten times worse than it should have since, of all things, he'd gone on an S-ranked mission yesterday and hadn't had any time to recover from the normal injuries, 'normal' which, in comparison to average shinobi like the ones tormenting him, were quite severe; that were hidden by his jumpsuit. For crying out loud, he'd been stabbed in the stomach, then carelessly patched it up himself to prevent a visit to the hospital, and these people wanted an encore of how much it'd hurt? Apparently so.

The next thing Naruto knew, he was on the ground, gloved fists and booted feet seemingly everywhere at once, making him see stars, possibly entire planets. Blows rained down anywhere they could possibly reach until every direction had been thoroughly covered. What was odd, though, was that they only hit his face once, and it wasn't delivered particularly hard compared to ones elsewhere. Perhaps they knew he wouldn't tell anyone that they beat him within an inch of his life, and it would be easier to hide the bruises if his face was left alone. Or maybe they wanted him to see just how much they enjoyed hurting him and would get to his face last, it was hard to tell.

Naruto felt himself growing numb all over, so dizzy he couldn't tell which way was up, down, left, or right. He could still hear their whispering occurring somewhere around him. He tensed up when a voice spat out, "Now then, I suppose we shouldn't let you forget what you are… that would be so cruel of us!" A weight settled on top of him, effectively preventing him from escaping whatever plan they'd formed. Then a sound rang out, one that Naruto and every other ninja was all too familiar with. A small chink of metal. It was unmistakable... the drawing of a kunai.

Panic engulfed Naruto, his heart beginning to beat at an astonishing speed. What are they going to do with that? Are they finally going to kill me? And why do I even care if they do? It wouldn't matter... He was jerked out of his thoughts when he felt his right bicep enclosed in an iron grip, a hand coming up to roughly rip the sleeve of his jumpsuit off at his shoulder, then move to clutch his wrist and extend his arm to where it was straight and exposed.

"Don't you dare mess this up, demon-brat."

And then a searing pain was coursing through Naruto's veins, his shrieks of pain replacing the night's eerie silence. He just couldn't stop the awful noises he was making, the tears squeezing their way out of his eyes. They were writing on his arm, like it was a mere sheet of paper, starting at just below his shoulder and going all the way down until it reached his wrist. He didn't know what it said now, but he'd certainly find out later since -dammit!- they apparently weren't going to kill him after all. The knife was digging in so deeply that it would scar even with the nine-tails healing him, which didn't seem to be happening, for whatever reason. He made a mental note to ask the fox later.

Naruto was losing way too much blood, and Kurama whispered for Naruto to release him so they didn't die. He refused repeatedly as the animal continued, now yelling and actually pleading for him to stop his nonsense. If it went on for too much longer, he would inevitably pass out from the complete agony or lightheadedness (he was hoping for the latter, but was willing to take what he could get to escape the pain). Naruto eventually stopped screaming, breathing out in quick ragged pants instead as the kunai was removed from his newly marred skin.

"What the hell's up with all this screaming?" a smooth, deep voice alight with annoyance, and what might have been the slightest tinge of worry, spoke after an unknown amount of time passed. Naruto was surprised he even heard it over the buzzing in his head. How had he not passed out, again? So much for that plan, or had it been just a desperate, and very bad, idea? That voice sounded so familiar, too, but Naruto just couldn't tell who it was. He was fading in and out of consciousness, on the brink of what could be accurately described as death. Then the name slapped him in the face, hit him like a brick crashing through his window on Christmas morning. Naruto's throat was almost too raw with pain for him to speak from the previous screeching. His voice came out impossibly quiet, strained and hoarse.

"S…Sa-suke?" was all he got out before the ninja above him stopped and jostled his arm, making the blonde restrain a scream that was fighting to be released from its prison deep in his throat.

Sasuke was just plain confused, he knew them? He didn't really recognize the person by their voice, not when it was muffled, and terribly scratchy. Sasuke could see that they were being pinned, lying underneath one of the Jounin that seemed like they were about to piss themselves in utter terror. He watched as nervous eyes glanced quickly between the body beneath them and back to him. Sasuke still couldn't see. Their face was being blocked. Only a pair of legs peeked out, and they were covered in a dingy orange - wait, orange? There was only one person he knew that wore such an obnoxious color and wasn't a girl.

If he was right about what was going on here, there was a seriously high chance of someone dying tonight. In a matter of seconds, Sasuke was roughly tossing the man away from the injured person so he could identify them. The boy's heart sank, his face drained of color, skin feeling cold and clammy as his fears were proven right. Then he was falling to his knees beside his best friend, mind already going into a frenzy of panic and anxiety with frightening thoughts. He's not going to die, right? No, he won't. He can't. He can't just leave like this, not like this, it's impossible.

"N-naruto… " Sasuke's breath caught in his throat momentarily at the horrific sight of his half-dead teammate. Forgetting the other ninja for a moment, he pulled Naruto onto his lap with more caution than he'd ever used around the boy, unconsciously intertwining their hands. That made Naruto smile a little bit, despite it all. "What is going on here?"

"My… birthday party," Naruto elaborated, almost jokingly. Sasuke had to lean in to hear him speak; and it was still just barely audible. The quietness in itself was enough to make his heart jump in concern. The blonde then lifted up his arm that was still oozing blood. Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw how deep the wounds were and what was spelled out, carved permanently into the blonde's flesh. "See, Sasuke… e-even got a gift from the villagers this year. Hmm, I'm tired 'suke… I'll tell you… 'bout it later…"

"Hey- no, don't fall asleep on me, you i-idiot!" Sasuke tried, feeling powerless and scared as his friend's eyes fluttered closed.

And just like that, Sasuke felt Naruto's whole body fall limp and he was out cold. Sasuke frantically checked for a pulse, sighing in relief when he found that tiny, slow heartbeat. He didn't know how much longer Naruto could hold on. Why wasn't that damn fox healing him? Gazing at Naruto's unusually serene and pale face, something inside him snapped. Sasuke was absolutely livid, sharingan coming alive and spinning dangerously. He scowled menacingly at the men watching the scene unfold, gingerly putting Naruto on the ground before he shot to his feet. The ninja jumped and recoiled. It was truly a mystery: why they hadn't run away when they had the chance.

"I'm going to make your lives hell for doing this to him… you're the demons, not Naruto!" Sasuke shouted, his normally passive face contorting with rage and fury. Sasuke took a step towards the petrified Jounin who had gone ghostly white. One started to talk a mile a minute, desperate to get out of this situation, but everything that was spilling out of his mouth was more berating jabs at the unconscious boy. It was a very stupid decision, really. Did he want to die?

"Hey, look, it's not like the brat didn't deserve it. He struts around the village like he's the damn Hokage when he's nothing but a waste of space. A total loser! Nobody would even care if that thing went and di-"

"Shut the hell up, that's complete bull! And the only person that can call Naruto a loser is me!" Sasuke growled, burying a powerful fist into the man's stomach. He'd heard enough.

Sasuke hadn't even known the villagers thought so horribly of Naruto. A tremendous amount of unexpected guilt washed over him, emotions hitting him with the force of a Chidori to the chest (Is this how Naruto felt all those years ago?), and he didn't fight to evade it. He felt like he deserved it. Just how long was this going on without Naruto telling anyone? Contrary to what Naruto believed, Sasuke did notice how depressed he was acting lately. He just didn't know how to go about asking what was wrong.

Really, how would one confront someone about something as serious as that? He couldn't exactly just walk up and go, "You seem depressed man, the hell's wrong with you?" No, a person just didn't do that, and especially not with the person you lo- your best friend! Yes, best friend. That's what Sasuke was thinking.

Sasuke took his confusion (self-denial a dark part of his brain taunted) out on pummeling the offending pair of ninja with combos of punches and kicks, practically overflowing with murderous intent, but showing a profound amount of self control for not using any jutsu on those who dared to lay a harmful finger on his blonde, let alone a knife.

He couldn't afford too much time in disposing of these pieces of trash, not when Naruto was still bleeding-out behind him. After all, Tsunade would kill them herself when she found out about this and everything would be right in the world. The poor forest looked like the scene of a massacre, both Jounin lying incredibly still on the red-stained grass. Nope, as expected, he didn't feel bad about their inevitable deaths in the slightest.

Moving on from that rather unsettling moment, Sasuke contemplated whether or not it was safe to pick Naruto up, to carry him in his arms like he would a child. It wasn't like he'd ever actually desired to hold him like that… Sasuke was only fearful of hurting the boy further by merely slinging him over his back on the way to Sakura's house for obviously necessary medical treatment. Sasuke wasn't sure if he should go to the hospital, they might not help Naruto if all the villagers really hated him that much.

So he swallowed his pride, for Naruto's sake, and picked him in his arms ever-so-carefully, as though he were handling a glass doll. Thankfully, Sakura's house wasn't that far away from where they were so they arrived in a few minutes. Sasuke knocked on the wood rapidly, for once anxious to see the girl who always pestered him. Naruto needed her help. The raven haired boy continued to stare at Naruto until the light from inside flooded out of the house onto the door-step, illuminating the bloody duo.

"Sasuke-kun? What're you doing here this la- oh my god! Is that Naruto?" Sakura gasped as she took in the sight, hands flying up to cover her gaping mouth as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Sasuke just sighed and nodded, hoping that she could compose herself so she didn't start bawling like she would have several years ago. He began avoiding Sakura's emerald gaze, somewhat blushing, as a knowing smile suddenly split across her face after noticing the apprehensiveness that took over Sasuke's expression when he repeatedly peered down at the blonde resting in his arms. The small smile magnified when she saw Sasuke's suspiciously bruised knuckles and how close he held their teammate.

His intense eyes were trained on her face now, and Sakura realized that she hadn't invited him in yet and Naruto was probably dying right on her doorstep. She stumbled back into the house, spluttering and gesturing wildly. Sasuke did an awkward side-step through the door, clutching Naruto's body closer to avoid ramming the boy's head on the doorframe. The last thing he needed to be was careless with how unnervingly fragile the blonde seemed tucked in his arms like this.

"Put Naruto on the couch, Sasuke-kun. You should go take a shower while I heal him, you're covered in blood," Sakura commanded, voice ringing through the house as she rummaged through drawers and cabinets, seeking out the right medical equipment. Oddly enough, Sasuke did as he was told and disappeared in the bathroom down the hallway. The screech of the shower's knobs turning was heard in the background as Sakura made her way over to the unconscious Naruto.

The girl began zipping down his jumper, stopping to pull off messily wrapped bandages soaked scarlet as she went, to reveal skin painted in ugly, dark bruises of all different sizes. In addition to those, there was a long gash that began at the middle of Naruto's back and stopped just as it reached his ribs, which brought her attention to a shockingly deep puncture wound located in the center of his stomach. Both injuries were leaking red in generous amounts, to the point where it was more than a little frightening, as it made the threat of this boy actually dying right now much more imminent.

She shook her head and sucked in a shaky breath, closing her eyes momentarily. Sakura made quick work of wiping Naruto's messy body until it was, at the very least, decent, and then placed her glowing hands over the boy's torso. The marks slowly vanished, and she moved onto Naruto's arm that was completely caked in blood. Sakura scrunched her face up in confusion, wondering what caused so much bleeding (how was he not dead yet with so much blood loss?), and began to clean the area with some wet rags gently.

"What is this?" she whispered, once the markings were visible. Shakily reaching out and taking the limp arm in her capable hands, she gaped at the single word carved there. Another onslaught of tears rushed down her face, that horrible mark would no doubt be scarred on Naruto's skin forever. Sasuke chose that moment to step into the room and Sakura's pained expression told him she'd seen it, the thing that made even him cringe.

"S-sasuke-kun… he didn't- Naruto didn't do this to himself, right?"

"No, even he's not that stupid."

Sakura sighed in relief, "Good."

"The… a few villagers did, and I beat the crap out of them," Sasuke answered further, moving closer to his comrades and taking a seat on the floor beside Naruto's head, resisting the urge to touch him all the while. He turned his head towards his best friend. "So… is the dobe going to be okay?"

Sakura let out an exasperated sigh and began to explain. "Well, he's got a few broken ribs and his stomach is still a bit bruised, and those large gashes around his stomach aren't fully healed yet, either, but they all will be eventually. That one cut on his arm should be fine as well, but it will heal slowly and form a nasty scar because the nine-tails isn't helping him… which is strange, to say the least. I haven't gotten to examine his legs or back yet, and who knows how bad the damage there is."

With that, silence resumed and Sakura tugged Naruto's pants off, revealing more bruised flesh. This time, his other friend was there to see it. Sasuke nearly punched a hole through Sakura's floor when he pounded his fist onto the hard wood, angry again. The girl could only listen sadly, still healing Naruto as he began to shout and curse, obviously blaming himself for their friend being hurt so badly.

"Dammit! Why couldn't I have forced him to spend the day with me or something? I-I'm… we're his friends! We're supposed to do shit like that… aren't we? He could have said something about the villagers treating him like this..."

Yup, well... TBC? It's entirely your guys' choice because, seriously, reviews are my only motivation to write aside from a special someone who bothered to beta this for me (You know who you are!) Therefore, I shall now thank my amazing friend a million-and-two times. Anyways, goodbye for now, you lovely readers~