Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto I would inject a huge dose of logic into Madara because he desperately needs some. But since I don't, he's probably going to stay stupid along with everything else in the manga that seems to make less and less sense to me.
Warnings: Alternative Universe, so be aware of the OOCness waiting ahead (A talkative-ish Gaara and non-jerk Sasuke OMG what did I do to them O.o) Un Beta'd – word spellchecker is my new best friend. That's all for now, the rating applies to later chapters :)
-:- The Hidden Sides -:-
Part one: Sympathy For The Dead
Chapter I: Caught by the rain
Heat. The floor is warm, unnaturally so, underneath his small body. It's coming from downstairs, seeping through the wood and into his skin. He presses his body tightly against the floor underneath the bed, trying hard not to make a sound. His gaze is fixed upon the door that might open up any second, his arm hurts but he is afraid to look anywhere else but the door. It might burst open any time, he can't afford not to pay attention. The moment his eyes leave the door it will open and it has to stay closed, his life depends on keeping the door closed. Sharp smells are overwhelming the air and his body shakes as he slowly takes them in. Ashes and smoke, all around him there's fire, everything burning except for this room. He is quivering; to afraid to even cry and his small heart hammers loudly against his ribs. The sharp smell of fear is everywhere. Everyone was so afraid, they told him to hide so he did, and now he is all alone. He's all alone with no one and nothing to keep him company except for the smell of fear and burning. And the screams. The bitter smell of pain fills the air as the screams reaches him accompanied by the decaying stench of burning bodies.
Then suddenly a different sound reaches his ears, it is faint at first but steadily growing louder. Menacing growls and threatening howls are moving towards him. The smell of fear is getting stronger by the second and he is afraid, so very afraid, as he stares at the door. The sound of sharp claws scraping the floor comes nearer and nearer before reaching a sudden stop and he knows. He knows that the monsters are on the other side of the door just waiting for him to make a mistake and give up his position. Faster and faster tics his little heart and he knows that the second he loses sight of the door it will all be over. Then something grabs him and pulls him backwards, away from the room and away from the door. He tries to fight it, to be free so that he can keep his eyes on the door, but something covers his eyes. The wood creek as the door slowly opens and he fights desperately to get away from the thing holding him. The grip tightens painfully and there's nothing he can do except for one thing.
He screams.
"AAAHHHH!"
The feeling of a scream being ripped from his throat woke Naruto up just in time to hear a loud screeching noise and feel the powerful yank as his body suddenly propelled forward. Then he hit the floor, hard.
"Oi, what's going on back there. Is someone hurt?!"
Quick steps walked over to Naruto and he looked up into an unknown face that was clearly worried about him.
"Hey, kid, you ok? What happened?"
Naruto was confused and it took a couple of seconds for his dazed brain to function again. The first thing he realized was that he wasn't in a burning house, nor his room, in fact when he looked around he came to the conclusion that he wasn't even in a house at all. Instead his mind supplied him with the information that he was currently laying in the middle of the floor on a bus looking up at no one other that the bus driver.
Naruto sat up and scratched the back of his head nervously; this was going to be awkward.
"Heh, well I guess I had a nightmare…" he smiled sheepishly at the driver whos face was quickly changing from worry into confusion and then anger.
"A nightmare?"
Naruto laughed nervously "Well I fell asleep and then-"
"You made me step on the breaks and risk a traffic accident because of a nightmare?! Get back to your seat and make sure to stay awake. And wear the goddamn seatbelt!"
Naruto crawled back into a seat as he watched the driver angrily stalk back to his seat. As the bus started to move again he looked around and immediately wished that he hadn't. Everyone in the bus was staring at him one way or the other, some were laughing quietly and others glared at him. Naruto shrank in his seat and opted to look out through the window instead but outside the rain was pouring down so the sight was nearly zero. He struggled not to fidget in his seat under the eyes of the other passengers but failed. It was almost as if he could feel their eyes crawling on his body like insects, it sort of itched and it made him restless. He suddenly felt a great sympathy with the animals at the zoo being stared at day in and day out. No wonder they were constantly pacing back and forth, seeming stressed behind the glass. After rearranging himself in his seat for the seventh time he decided that he couldn't take it anymore and unless he wanted to make another scene by yelling at the other passengers he had to get off as soon as possible.
The next stop couldn't have come sooner and Naruto drew a deep breath of relief and sipped up his jacket to keep his t-shirt dry as long as possible. He calculated that he probably had a twenty minutes walk until he got home, turned his head up towards the sky and smiled widely. Naruto had always liked the rain; it was like the rain reloaded his power and his chest felt like it was going to burst from all the energy in the air. The tar like smell of asphalt felt fresh and clean and the constant drumming of water against the ground challenged him to try and shout it down. A bit further down the alley on his left side a big puddle was starting to form and after a quick check to make sure that no one was nearby Naruto charged it. He put every ounce of power behind the jump and let out all that building energy in a victory shout before landing.
"woohooo!" he did a little victory dance for himself, that splash was epic. It had reached almost halfway up his chest and Naruto laughed as he felt the rush of excitement fade away. It was such a childish thing to do but he just couldn't help himself. Naruto had a firm belief that adults would feel at least ten times happier about the rain if they would allow themselves to do a really big splash once in a while. He let his gaze wander for the next target and found it next to the corner where the alley was doing a sharp turn to the right; he grinned and took a few deep breaths before charging again.
'Uzumaki Naruto is coming down the homestretch and he's moving fast. Only a few meters left before the jump and this is looking good. Ladies and gentlemen we might be witnessing a new world record. He's approaching quickly and getting ready for the big jump, he-'
Iihhhh!
The high pitched scream immediately snapped Naruto out of his imagination and as he turned the corner he froze.
The first thing that registered was the umbrella, a red one and it was lying upside down on the ground. Then there was someone wearing a hooded jacket, back turned towards Naruto, holding a pair of hands in a tight grip up against the wall. Narutos eyes followed the hands down and found a face twisted by the attempts to break free. It was a girl and her fear was so strong it hit Naruto with the force of a physical punch. The whole alley was saturated with it and combined with the expression on the girls face it made Naruto feel sick, the feeling much too similar to that from his nightmare. Then suddenly their positions shifted a bit and she saw him. She stared at him as he stood there without moving a muscle and Naruto could feel her desperation as if it was his own. Her eyes were screaming for help and Naruto reacted without even a second of thought.
He rushed forward charged by a sudden feeling of anger, a strong current of hot anger telling him that he needed to protect that girl, he needed to save her. The back of the hooded person came closer and Naruto aimed a powerful punch at the head.
He swung his arm but there was nothing there for his fist to connect with and he found himself falling face first towards the ground. He winced a bit at the pain when he braced himself with his hands on the wet asphalt but quickly turned around to face his enemy again.
What he found when looking up into the hooded face was nothing like he had expected. Where he thought there'd be the hard face of someone from the local brute squad there was instead a pale face of a young boy seeming to be close to Naruto's own age. Two large green eyes stared down at Naruto in shocked surprise and slowly the grip on the girl eased up. She yanked herself free and the rapid tap, tap, tap of her high heels quickly disappeared. The attacked didn't even seem to notice that his prey had gotten away, his eyes still staring at Naruto.
He was all alone with the attacker now and Naruto was starting to get really uncomfortable under the intense gaze directed at him. What the hell had he been thinking just rushing in like that? He could at least have called the police first, but no, of course not. Naruto cursed his impulsive nature and swallowed loudly, he was all alone with a guy who just tried to… well something to a girl and there was no one that knew where he was. But he couldn't afford to be afraid and somewhere in the back of his mind a voice reminded him of the energy he had felt earlier. Naruto closed his eyes and focused, if he couldn't be afraid for his own sake then he'd just have to get angry for that girl's sake again, after all offense is said to be the best defense.
He stood up and pointed an accusing finger in the other boy's chest.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing!?"
The attacker blinked at him a couple of times and Naruto could see the confusion quickly morphing into anger in those green eyes.
"I's none of your business, you shouldn't have interfered."
The voice was cold and hard and Naruto had to steel himself not to be afraid, this kid was dangerous.
"And if I hadn't that girl would be- whatever now. What were you going to do to her?"
"Dead"
"Huh?" The short word temporarily threw Naruto of balance and he tried to step away from the other boy only to find himself backed up against one of the walls.
The attacker directed a cold glare at Naruto. "If you hadn't interfered she'd be dead by now."
Naruto was desperate, he needed to get away from the wall and he needed to get away from this guy as soon as possible. He aimed another punch and leaped forward.
"You fucking monster!"
A burst of pain shot through Narutos arm as his fist connected with the other's jaw line.
"No. I'm not like that!" The pale face of the attacker was twisted with anger and Naruto could feel the rage rolling of him in huge waves. Naruto gulped, he was so screwed right now.
Naruto could see the tension gathering in the other's body before the punch and braced himself for the punch that would come. Then suddenly his attacker whipped around in the direction of the other end of the alley and froze. His body was still tense but his was another kind of tension. Naruto knew what that tension meant. It was fear.
"You need to get out of here" the voice was calm again and betrayed nothing of the worry Naruto could see in the other's body. In the distance faint footsteps could be heard and Naruto saw the other boy shiver at the sound.
"Who's coming?" The words left him in a whisper and the other turned around to look at him again.
"I told you to get out of here. Go."
Naruto opened his mouth to say something but was cut short.
"You don't want to know. Just run away."
The footsteps became louder and Naruto could hear the other guy curse under his breath as he turned towards the sound. From around the corner a man calmly stepped into the alley and towards them. He was quite tall and the t-shirt he wore showed off a well muscled body beneath and the dark blue tribal covering the upper part of his left arm. Dark shoulder length hair complemented his sand colored skin and his chiseled face. He was young, somewhere in his mid twenties and would have been handsome if not for his eyes. The area surrounding the iris was completely black and the eyes themselves a cat like yellow, his pupils strangely diamond shaped. As those eyes wandered over Naruto he felt his skin crawl from the malice clearly visible in them. The man paid him no real attention however and Naruto felt himself release a breath he hadn't realized he was holding as the man turned to the other boy in the alley.
"The girl is not here."
The boy lowered his head to the ground and his voice was not much above a whisper as he started to answer. "I-"
"-You let her get away." The man's voice was sharp like a whiplash and his face clearly pleased as his hand connected with the side of the boy's face.
"You idiot, now they know we're here." Then he turned his head to Naruto again and his face changed into a grin.
"But, you know kid, if you felt like a boy you could have just told me from the beginning." His eyes slowly roamed up and down the length of Naruto's body. "At least you seem to have found a good replacement there. He looks absolutely delicious." The man licked his lips "Heh, he's pretty maybe we can have some fun with him."
He started to move closer to Naruto but was stopped as the boy grabbed his arm.
"Cut it out, he's just a kid"
The man's face momentarily seemed surprised before he yanked his arm free and grinned at Naruto again.
"You're new to this kid so let me show you. There's no harm in playing a bit with the pretty ones. Take your chance and have some fun while you're at it… just a little fun before they die."
The man raised one of his hands and reached towards Naruto who was totally frozen. He wanted so badly to run away but his legs just wouldn't move. He wished he had listened to the other boy and run away when he was told to, he didn't even know why he had stayed there was no reason for him to do that. He wished that he hadn't entered that alley at all, he wish he was back at the bus safely on his way home. But most of all he desperately wished that the man wouldn't touch him, every fiber of his body felt sickened by the thought of that hand on his skin.
Don't touch me, Don't Touch Me, DON'T TOUCH ME! His mind was screaming at him. He opened his mouth to let those words out in the open but the only thing that left his lips was a frightened whisper.
"…don't…" he felt so weak right then so weak and afraid. The man's hand kept coming closer and he closed his eyes in a last attempt to keep it away.
"Hey are you deaf!" the man's hand was harshly swatted away by the other boy who pulled Naruto in behind his back in a protective gesture. "He said he doesn't want you to touch him."
The surprise Naruto felt was reflected on the face of the man who just stared at the two boys for a moment before laughing.
"Hahaha, I get it. You want to keep him to yourself. I can understand that, he certainly is a fine specimen. I'll just go correct your earlier mistake then, have a good time with your little toyboy."
The man started to walk away but turned to glare at them before he left. His voice was filled with anger as he spoke. "But make no mistake, you will be severely punished for this. And I strongly recommend that you remember to come home tonight. It would bring your family much pain not knowing where you are."
For a long time the two boys just stood together in the alley listening to the rain that was still pouring down upon them. Naruto waited and listened intensely but as the man didn't appear to be coming back he felt a great wave of relief coming over him. His hands were scraped, his knuckles bruised, he was soaked to the bone but he was still alive. The coldness of the rain that he hadn't noticed before was overwhelming now and his body shook from it.
The green eyes looked at him filled with concern and two hand landed on his shoulders. "Hey, are you ok?"
Naruto nodded and forced himself to smile at the other boy. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just cold that's all."
The other boy nodded and took off his jacket. He held it out to Naruto who could do nothing but stare for a couple of seconds. Underneath the jacket the guy turned out to have a really thin body and Naruto was surprised by the fact that such a small guy could have the strength he had seen before. The most surprising thing tough was the insanely red hair that covered the other's head, he had never seen anyone with that kind of hair before so he just had to stare at it.
The redhead seemed to take his silence as hesitation because he held out his jacket again. "I know it's not much but please take it. That way you won't be cold anymore."
Naruto hesitantly took the jacket and put it on. "Thanks. For the jacket and for… you know."
The guy nodded. "It's the least I can do."
He started to walk away and had almost reached the end of the alley when Naruto shouted after him.
"Where are you going?"
"Home."
Naruto didn't know if it was the way his eyes looked when he said it or if it was something else but right then he felt that he couldn't let the other guy leave. For some reason he wanted the other to stay around. He ran up to the other and grabbed his arm.
"That guy before, he made you go after that girl right?" there was no answer but by the look in the redheads eyes Naruto knew he was right.
"Then there's no way I'd let you go back to him." Just thinking about that other man made Narutos skin crawl, there was no way he'd let anyone go back to that person if he could prevent them from doing so.
The green eyes were sad as the boy pried himself loose from Narutos grip. "I have to."
Before he had a chance to think things through Naruto ran forward and blocked the redhead's way.
"You can come with me! I have an apartment not too far from here; you don't have to go back there."
The redhead just shook his head and shoved past Naruto who reached out and grabbed the other's arm again.
"Please! Don't go back there" it was a stupid thing to do, inviting a guy you just recently met into your home. Especially if you met said guy while he was attacking some innocent girl and if said guy had a companion that tried to kill you. Naruto knew it was stupid and dangerous and all that jazz but he also knew that he didn't want the other to leave. Weird as it may be but Naruto just knew that the other would never hurt him and that he didn't want the other to be hurt either.
For a moment they both stood still and the redhead looked up at the sky. "The rain stopped." He was right. The sky was still steel grey but the rain had cleared up almost completely without either of them noticing. He frowned slightly before nodding "ok, I'll go with you."
Naruto smiled at him and pulled his arm.
"Come on, it's this way. I'm Naruto by the way, Uzumaki Naruto."
The redhead turned his head to look at him and seemed to hesitate before he replied "I'm Gaara."
As they entered the building Naruto noticed him frowning and being very much on the edge. He could understand why, the house wasn't exactly the nicest of places and as they stopped in front of his apartment he suddenly felt very nervous. For some reason he didn't want Gaara to think badly of him for the way he lived so he put his hands behind his head in a confident gesture before unlocking the door.
"It's not much but to me this is home." He waited for Gaara who seemed very hesitant to enter, nervous almost, and bowed deep before he invited Gaara with his best 'circus-director-voice' in order to try and cheer him up.
Carefully he stepped inside and Naruto had to force himself not to laugh at the sight. The confident, angry guy from earlier had been completely replaced by a lost, wide eyed child that seemed to have no idea of what he was supposed to do next. Gaara's red hair was plastered to his face and his wet clothes were stuck to his thin frame, it made Naruto want to take care of him and a warm feeling settled in his stomach as he grabbed Gaara's hand and dragged him towards his room.
"Let's go find ourselves some dry clothes and a pair of towels."
After drying themselves Naruto gathered all of the wet clothes in his arms and turned to leave the room. "I'm just going to put these in the dryer, you just stay here and make yourself comfortable, I won't be long."
Gaara looked at him a long time before slowly nodding and looking out through the window. Naruto flashed him a smile before he ran out and down to the laundry room. The warm feeling in his stomach was pleasantly spreading as he thought about Gaara waiting for him in his room. Something about the redhead made Naruto want to take care of him and knowing that Gaara was now comfortably dry and warm thanks to him made Naruto smile and increase his pace as he raced the stairs back up to the apartment again.
When he flung the door to his room open he was greeted by darkness and Gaara sitting curled up in one of the corners. Worry stirred in his chest as he slowly approached and sat down next to the dark figure.
"Hey, Gaara… you ok? Why all the gloom and doom in here?" He gently nudged Gaara's shoulder.
"Just a bit of migraine, it doesn't go well with the sunlight so I had to cover the windows to stop it from getting worse… sorry about that."
Naruto looked up at the closed curtains and smiled at Gaara. "No worries, it's kinda cozy like this anyway." He paused and looked over at Gaara again. The redheads eyes were closed and his breathing sounded heavy, Naruto could clearly feel how uncomfortable he was right then and it worried him. "Can I get you something, aspirin, water, maybe something to eat?"
Gaara opened the eye closest to Naruto and slowly shook his head. "No it'll be ok. Just stay here."
Naruto nodded and shuffled a bit closer to Gaara who leaned his head against Naruto's as a pillow.
"Naruto?"
"Hmm"
"Tell me something about yourself." The almost-whisper made Naruto smile widely and he started to explain his love for rain in a low voice.
Gaara was a good listener and although Naruto quickly learned that it was more like a monologue than a dialogue between them he didn't mind. He never had a problem with talking but somehow it was different with Gaara, he found that he wasn't just talking for the sake of making a conversation but he really wanted to tell Gaara about himself. Things he never imagined to share just rolled off his tongue and he didn't even worry about it. He explained everything about his background, how he grew up at different orphanages and foster homes because both his parents had died when he was really young. He told Gaara about his brother Sasuke, that he shared the apartment with. He told him how Sasuke wasn't really his brother but they had been together for as far as Naruto could remember, they had been at the same orphanages, had shared foster families and attended the same schools. It didn't matter what other people said, they were family and nothing would ever change that. It didn't matter if he was explaining his everlasting love for ramen or talking about the band he was playing in with his closest friends, Gaara listened to everything he said with genuine interest, making it seem like there was nothing more to the world than the two of them sitting at the floor together, one talking and the other listening. The hours flew by without Naruto noticing until Gaara suddenly straightened up and walked over to the window, opening the curtains. Naruto walked over to him and looked out over Gaara's shoulder, it was getting dark outside and just a hint of orange was still lingering by the horizon.
"I have to go." Gaara's almost monotone voice sounded tired and immediately the need to protect his new friend returned full force to Naruto.
"No, I am not going to let you go back to that guy." He grabbed Gaara's arm to make his point clearer. There was just no way he could let anyone, and Gaara least of all go back to that man. Naruto fought down the cold fear trying to get a grip of him, just the memory of that guy was enough to make him frightened.
Gaara sighed heavily. "I have no other choice."
"Of course you have, there's always another choice don't be stupid Gaara. You don't need to go back there." Naruto was getting frustrated with him, why would anyone willingly return to someone so horrible? There was no feeling of evil from Gaara, just fear, worry and sadness, not like that man who reeked of cruelty and malice. Naruto just couldn't let Gaara go back to that, not when he knew that he had a chance of stopping him.
Gaara turned around and Naruto found himself facing the same cold green eyes from earlier.
"You don't understand, he takes care of me Naruto. I need him to take care of me because otherwise I have no idea of what to do with myself. I'm not like you."
For the umpteenth time that day Naruto acted without thinking and wrapped his arms around Gaara in a protective embrace. "I will take care of you, you can stay here with me and Sasuke and I'll take care of you. Just don't go back there."
Gaara gently pushed him away and sent Naruto a hesitant smile. "You are too kind Naruto."
Naruto felt like performing a small victory dance, he had succeeded in convincing Gaara to stay. He was just about to promise Gaara that he wouldn't regret his decision when he heard the front door open.
"Oh, that's got to be Sasuke. I 'm just going to go get him, promise you'll stay here until I come back? I really want you two to meet each other."
Gaara nodded slowly and Naruto raced into the kitchen to find Sasuke unpacking groceries. His brother paused, looked up at him and raised an eyebrow before continuing unpacking. "What did you do this time?"
"who says I did anything?"
Sasuke turned to look at him again and handed him a bunch of vegetables. "I do. You have that guiltily exited look on your face again. Rinse these will you? they're for supper."
Naruto made a face at the vegetables and put the down in the sink before grabbing Sasuke's shirt and pulling him away from the kitchen.
"Fine, you win. Come on there's someone I want you to meet in my bedroom."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him again and stopped. "If there's a naked person in there I'll stop buying ramen for a month."
"What?!?!"
Sasuke smirked. "You are too easy Naruto, So who is it I'm supposed to meet?"
"It's just a friend I met on my way home, his name's Gaara." Naruto smiled and opened the door.
As soon as he did tough his smile faltered, Gaara was nowhere to be seen. Sasuke stepped into the room and turned to look at him.
"So… I'm just going to assume that this Gaara person is really small or invisible"
Naruto was still a bit shocked not finding Gaara there and looked over to the window, it was standing slightly ajar and it made him frown. He was sure it had been closed earlier.
"He must have climbed out the window…"
"Tch, yeah right, the guy escaped through the window and climbed down a flat concrete wall, with nothing to get a grip on, eight floors before running away." Sasuke closed the window and walked back to his groceries.
"Just so you know, I'm going to add this Gaara person to the 'imaginary friends list'. " Sasuke shouted to him from the kitchen. It made Naruto angry.
When he was younger he had had an extremely vivid imagination and he used to see things no one else saw. Where others saw big boulders he could see huge frogs dressed in armor. One of the supervisors at his third orphanage had white and blue snails in her pockets and two slug horns on her head so he called her the snail princess. Talking trees, a boy made of bugs, nothing was too weird for him and he told Sasuke all the amazing stories of the things he saw. As he grew older the figures started to fade away and the last thing he remembered seeing was a half-fish half-man person. After that incident Sasuke had decided to write down all his imaginary persons on a list just in case Naruto would turn out to be schizophrenic or something, Sasuke liked to be prepared for all possible future scenarios.
But Gaara wasn't like that, Naruto was sure. He was certain that if he would go down to the laundry room he'd find all of Gaara's clothes still in the dryer. Gaara was nothing like the fish-people, Naruto hadn't made him up. Gaara was a real person in some kind of very real trouble. Naruto sighed and leaned his forehead against the cool glass of his window as he looked out over the dark streets of Konoha. He knew almost nothing about Gaara and still he worried about him. The stranger's creepy eyes flashed in his memory and Naruto felt a cold shiver run up his spine. He desperately hoped that Gaara hadn't gone back to that man and wondered about what Gaara had said. 'I need him to take care of me' It made no sense to Naruto, no sense at all.
Outside the window the first streetlights flickered to life and he reluctantly turned around to go help Sasuke in the kitchen.
Author's notes: That bus thing happened to me in real life...
anyway, I posted this together with chapter two so to make me happy just click the forward button and keep reading ^^