A/N: From this chapter on, A/Ns will always be at the end of the chapter, unless it's super important and it must be read before the story. Guest reviews will be answered accordingly under a heading labeled 'Guest Reviews', and account reviews will be PMd in response. Any questions as to what certain terms mean-whether they be fan fiction lingo, Japanese names, or anything else-will be answered in an author's note before the story, in the chapter after the one the review is posted for. Note: This is the only time this A/N will be posted, so refer to this chapter for future reference.

Summary: Naruto Uzumaki is fourteen years old, and he is facing the hell-hole known as high school. Everyone hates his guts, and to make it worse, the school's number one idol, genius, prodigy, etc. is his worst enemy. That in itself isn't that hard to handle, who needs those hormonal teens anyway? But, the fact that he has problems at 'home' makes the whole thing nearly unbearable. When the number one douche bag starts paying attention to him, his life spins out of control, and he finds someone who actually gives two shits about his life. Too bad Sasuke Uchiha, who is said idol and enemy is the one to discover all the crap he's going through at 'home'. (Serious/Smart!Naruto. Friendship!Naruto/Sasuke. Alive Uchiha Clan and Good Itachi, Modern AU)

Rating: T for now; may go up because of violence, NO LEMONS OR LIMES OR SMUT AT ALL! (Go read something else because there are literally thousands of other fics with that kind of stuff, if you're here for that then leave because there isn't and never will be that kind of stuff)

Genres: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Family(ish), Angst.

Warnings: Bullying, violence, language. Don't read if that stuff offends you, warnings are individual per chapter. This is going to be pretty angsty for a few chapters, so don't read if you're already depressed, or you just don't like angst. NO YAOI, YURI, SHOUNEN AI, SHOUJO AI, SLASH, OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT! (Once again, go to the other ten thousand and one fics that support those pairings, I don't write that...sorry. By the way, this goes for all chapters, so there won't be any of that kind of development)

Pairings: None, maybe minor NaruHina (NO NaruSaku, NaruIno, NaruTema, NaruTen, or anything besides NaruHina), SasuSaku, ShikaTema, TenNeji. FRIENDSHIP/BROTHERLY Naruto/Sasuke, small bits of friendship/parental Kakashi/Naruto and little bit of friendship/parental Iruka/Naruto. Friendship Shikamaru/Naruto, Naruto/Sakura (sorry NaruSaku fans, I myself support NaruHina), Gaara/Naruto (sorry Gaara/Hinata fans, once again, I support NaruHina all the way), etc.

Shout Out: To Pencilfreak 17 who has been in the Naruto business (not literally) much longer than I have, and who has lots of awesome stories, check her out!

Disclaimer: I own no part of Naruto; it all belongs to that rich guy in Japan, Masashi Kishimoto.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Flashbacks/ emphasis on words/ Sound effects

Time skip

A/N: Author's notes (shouldn't occur too often)

Regular Text

Which Hell is Better? Chapter 1: The Chest Grows

By: DemonDragonQueen

Someone was crying. It was soft, nearly inaudible, but it was there. It sounded... familiar for some reason...why was that? Oh. Right. It was him crying, how interesting. Was he so numb now that it took him five minutes to recognize that it was he who was crying? Damn. He'd fucked up today, but in all honesty, it wasn't completely his fault that he was crying, the damn hormones were kicking in. Great. Now he sounded like a fucking girl on her damn period. (1) Fuck. Where was he anyway? It was dark, and it was quiet, all sniffling aside. Hm, judging by the small space he had been crammed into (Or had he come in here by himself? Fuck, memory loss was not a good sign), it was most likely a closet of some sort. He drew in a deep breath, only to wince as his ribs twinged. Ah. His ribs.

Remembering that they were injured and possibly even broken brought back memories of why he was in here in the first place. Fantastic, fourteen was a great age to be stuffed into a small space. Even though he looked younger than fourteen, sometimes he felt older. Unfortunately, he seemed to have a real talent for pissing off his patron, no matter what his age was. He fumbled in the dark for the cheap watch that should have been on his wrist. Click...four o'clock. Four o'clock in the fucking morning…that certainly explained his aching body, all injuries not included. Being stuck in a small and cramped space for the past eight hours would do that to a person.

Hm, school was in four hours, was it worth trying to sneak out? It would mean that he would be less stiff, but it also came with the threat of possible punishment for attempting to escape his prison. In the end, he decided to stay. Stiffness be damned, he did not need a broken wrist, ankle, or whatever the hell else that bastard put his hands on, before school. He had a hard enough time getting around already without a movement-impairing injury. No...he would just have to sit here for the next four hours until the drunk let him back out with a light beating, before being sent off to another hell, albeit of a different kind.

'Home' was where there was a torturer and a jail keeper as one person, while school was filled with a hoard of mini-demons that - while they did less damage - still managed to give him a couple of bruises anyway. Still, school was a more preferable hell to this place, because school was a hell he could escape from of he needed to, but here there was no escape. There was no reprieve or time-outs; no fighting back; no mercy; and above all else, no emotions. At school, at least, he could try to get angry, even if he knew it wouldn't work. But here, here the idea of snapping back was laughable; here there were weapons for the other side to use. Knives, bats, sticks, belts, lighters, cigarettes, name it and it could be used - he had the scars to prove it. At least at school, there were only books, pencils, pens, backpacks, walls, doors, and other people. No real weapons. Those makeshift things were easy enough to defend against, but he didn't bother because that would mean being bothered again later.

He finally managed to fall asleep, sinking into an uneasy doze, lost in thoughts concerning how he was going to get through the next day.

...

Exactly three-and-a-half hours later...

"Get up brat!"

Naruto jerked awake to the sound of fists pounding on the door of the closet. "Come on! Get your ass out, I need my shoes. You have exactly three seconds to wake up, get out, and stay out of my way before I come in and kick your ass out for you!"

Naruto scrambled up and shoved the door open, before darting out of the way of his Keeper. "Tch. Go away before I get sick just by looking at you, clean yourself up, you look like shit fucked you up."

Naruto immediately ran for the bathroom, where he proceeded to shower and 'clean up' as his Keeper so elegantly put it. His Keeper wouldn't normally care, but if Naruto went to school looking like he had, questions would be asked which would lead to trouble. Just as Naruto was sliding on a black jacket with a hood, the bathroom door was kicked open. In stormed his Keeper wearing a stony expression.

"What the hell is this?!" He hissed angrily, holding up a crumpled twenty dollar bill. Naruto's mouth went dry.

"I-I found it, I swear." He managed to get out.

"Did you now?" His Keeper asked mockingly. "And why the hell didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Well, I thought it would be better to give it to you when you weren't...um...drunk." Naruto replied carefully. His Keeper gave him a hard look, and then he shook his head.

"Arg, I don't have time for this! I'll let you off the hook for now, but if I find any missing money that I can't account for, you're getting it. Clear?" His Keeper grumbled. Naruto nodded instantly, hardly believing his luck. His Keeper shuffled out of the room, taking the bill with him. Naruto didn't care, he had been found with money and there hadn't been a punishment, it was unheard of. The world was ending. Whatever.

Naruto quickly brushed his teeth, ran a broken comb through his hair, and - grabbing his backpack - he left the house and locked the door behind him, before sliding his hood up and walking to school.

The walk to school wasn't eventful, which wasn't surprising considering his reputation. Street fighting really helped keep idiots off of one's back when in a bad neighborhood. He had earned the name 'Demon Fox' thanks' to his speed, intelligence, and brutality in battle. The six matching scars on his face only reinforced this name. People on this side of town already knew to stay away from him; no one bothered him after the first three groups tried. He didn't deliberately seek fights, but if someone tried to mug him...well...all that could be said was that they didn't try again, and that they had scars as reminders. Growing up on the streets with gangs and in the system where assholes were the majority of the population, one quickly learned how to fight and defend one's self from whatever the hell the world and streets alike sent your way.

There were four 'ranks' in the street life. Those in charge, the weak and worthless, the pawns, and those that no one messed with, but didn't lead any group. Naruto happened to fall into the latter category, which was impressive considering he was only fourteen, but looked younger.

The looking younger thing wasn't his fault, considering he got one-and-a-half meals a day, unless he was punished - which happened more often than not - and because of this he was rather short and thin. This caused mistaken judgments on the parts of strangers that he was an easy target. He made them regret that miss-preconception. His arms and legs were thin, but they were strong as well, which meant he could pack quite a punch. He trained himself at 'home', and he taught himself moves that he had seen other people do. He could only get so far by himself, which was why he had been more than happy to try out his new moves on groups of obvious newbies that thought they owned the world, and that tried to threaten, steal from, or bothered him. He nearly smiled at the thought, but he quickly shoved back his emotions at the sight of his school. Just because he could show emotion at school didn't mean he wanted to. He preferred to be emotionless like he was at 'home', the previous night had been a combination or nerves, hunger, cold, stress, and a nightmare, all of which had led to a rare show of emotion.

How long had it been since he had shown something besides his blank face which served as a mask for the long since buried ocean of feelings? Hm...several years at least, a decade at most. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed, let alone smiled, he seemed to have forgotten how. He always shoved his emotions down into a little space deep, deep inside himself. He had locked that Chest long ago, and the key had disappeared, along with the rest of his emotions. The Chest grew as it was forced to contain more and more of the emotions he hid away every second - of every day of - every week - of every month - of every year. It was enough to break a person. Or, it would have been enough if he wasn't already broken past the point of repair. But, none of this was shown in any aspect of his life, he made sure of that. His eyes, while blank, didn't show the darkness that consumed his soul, and they didn't show the pieces that his heart had shattered into.

No one knew, and no one would. He turned into the path that led to the doors that were connected to Konoha High. It was interesting that his thoughts had carried him through the fifteen-minute walk from his 'home' to his school. People jostled him as they too went to class, talking and laughing as they did so, ignoring the shattered boy in their midst. He honestly didn't care, he didn't want their attention because attention meant ridicule and its constant companion, pain. Hoods were allowed to be on at school, which was something of a mixed blessing. The good thing was that it drew less attention to him as the black wasn't noticeable in the sea of teenagers. The bad thing was that someone could take him by surprise as the hood slightly limited his vision. Fortunately for him, he had trained himself to not only fight with a hood on, but to utilize his other senses in order to determine if someone was sneaking up on him.

The first time someone had tried to pull his pants down, they had met the resistance of his belt, and a sharp glare with a flare of KI. Naruto had managed to immediately suppress his anger, but the damage was already done, and the person had bolted with a terrified look on his face. Interestingly enough, the person had been several years older him. Wuss. After that, Naruto had extensively trained himself not to react to situations like the aforementioned one, and the previously mentioned student hadn't talked.

Naruto made his way to his locker, where he withdrew several books. He had just closed it again when he heard screaming, cheers, and a large amount of noise in general, which caused his hypersensitive ears to ring. He almost sighed, but caught himself in time.

'And now for the miraculous appearance of the "popular people"' he thought.

Sasuke Uchiha, Sai, Neji Hyūga, Kankurō, and Kiba Inuzuka entered the hallway to much screaming. Sai was an artistic genius; the guy could draw or paint literally anything and make it look good, though his social skills left something to be desired. He was always carrying around a book and spewing social advice to those who cared, seriously, Naruto had no idea what the hell that was about. He was pretty sure that one couldn't learn crap from books, but considering his own nonexistent social abilities, he wasn't able to criticize Sai at all. Neji was studious, smart, stern, and his eyes and hair drove girls crazy. Kankurō could build anything with his hands, and his sarcastic personality somehow got girls to swoon and boys to laugh.

Kiba was a dog lover and probably owned a few dozen, the girls loved the rough and animalistic traits he showed on occasion, and according to them, his looks weren't half bad either.

As for Sasuke...well...rich, dark-haired and eyed, cool, tall and graceful. A genius in his own mind and, everyone else's as well; he was at the top of his class. He was extremely athletic, brilliant when it came to book work, and his looks took the cake. He was everything that Naruto wished to be and more. Naruto didn't resent him for it however - the world was unfair; that lesson had been learned long ago.

Naruto turned and left before he was spotted by the latter group of people, only to run into the sound of catcalls and whistles. Great. Here was the group of popular girls.

Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Tenten, and Temari.

Sakura was pretty, smart, and cheerful. Girls loved her brains and personality, while guys loved her looks. However, she was quite strong, and when mad her punch left a mark, making her quite impressive all around.

If Sakura was pretty, then Ino was drop-dead gorgeous. Platinum hair and a body envied by every girl, she was the queen when it came to looks. Her personality wasn't bad either, if somewhat stuck-up.

Tenten was so well versed in weapons that it bordered on insane. The girl was an idol when it came to those girls and guys out there who loved weapons and girl-power. Her looks weren't bad either.

Temari was tough, loud, and sarcastic, but people loved her anyway. With an awesome body to rival Ino's, beautiful white hair, and an attitude to overpower her brother's, she had a following of girls who looked up to her toughness. Being a sibling of Kankurō was an added bonus. Her social skills were also pretty much nonexistent considering those that pissed her off ended up with either a broken nose or a few loose teeth. Somehow though, despite her temper and brashness, people admired her anyway.

...

Naruto didn't feel like dealing with either of the two groups, so he accordingly ducked into another hall which would loop around to his first class. Five minutes later and he was in his seat at the back of the room when his classmates began to trickle in. The only other person who had been in the class before him, besides the teacher, was a boy named Shikamaru Nara, who was currently napping. His black pineapple-shaped hair was pointing towards the ceiling as he slept on, oblivious to the noisy people entering. Naruto wished he could do the same, but he didn't dare sleep in the class, that would have to be reserved for later. As it was, Naruto simply pulled his hood further over his face and he looked out the window, wishing he could just jump through the thin window.

"Oh my God Sasuke-kun! You totally should have been there!" A girl yammered on as she entered the classroom. Judging by the high pitched squeal of a voice that it was, the girl was none other than Sakura Haruno, who had a notorious crush on the Uchiha.

"Hn." Was the response.

Naruto had learned how to read people's attitudes over the years, and Sasuke sounded bored and annoyed. Not good for Little Ms. Hopeful over there.

"Back off Forehead!" Another person cried angrily.

Naruto knew that voice to be Ino's.

"Get your hands off of him; can't you see he doesn't like it?"

"Shut up Ino-pig!" Sakura snapped. Naruto could feel massive amounts of KI radiating from where they were, but Naruto ignored it. Their KI level was pathetic compared to a good amount of other people's, including his own.

"Settle down." Asuma ordered in a bored tone. The two girls quieted and everyone sat down as the bell rang, signaling the start of the school day. "Alright, I'll call role." Asuma sighed. Naruto tuned out the names until the list reached his own. "Naruto Uzumaki?"

He raised his hand, not bothering to speak or look around. Whispers filled the room at the sound of his name, but they were quieted by Asuma. "Alright...get out your homework from last class; did you remember that we're having a quiz today?" He asked, to the groans of his students. "I'll take that as a 'no' then. Ten minutes to study, starting...now!"

There was a flurry of movement and papers rustled as people rushed to get out their notes and books, the only exceptions being Sasuke, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Naruto.

Sasuke and Sakura most likely already knew the material, Shikamaru was asleep and would probably ace it anyway, and Naruto just didn't care. He knew it, but would deliberately get a grade lower than an eighty, just to keep attention from him.

No one knew this, but Naruto had an eidetic memory, which allowed him to glance once at something, and then remember it for as long as he wanted later. He could also force himself to forget certain things, but it took a lot of effort and time, neither of which he was willing to give.

Ten minutes later, the quiz was handed out and quiet fell over the room. Naruto glanced at the paper and then at his History teacher. He sighed internally and he wrote down his answers, getting enough right to get an average grade. Some people were nervous, though he couldn't see why because the quiz was so easy, and their auras were affecting those around them. Naruto lay his head down on the desk, and in spite of his earlier choice of not falling asleep in class, drifted into a light doze.

...

He woke up an uncertain amount of time later, feeling disoriented. He didn't like sleeping during the day, and he didn't like sleeping at school. He looked around and glanced at the clock. Five minutes left until class ended. He had slept for nearly an hour. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, sleeping at school was only something he had done once before, and sleeping during the day usually happened when he had gotten little to no sleep the previous week.

He furtively checked his reflection in the window to make sure no one had messed with his face. Satisfied that he looked the way he had when he had entered, he waited until the bell rang for the end of class. He was the last one out the door, and he leisurely made his way to the gym where Sasuke was, once again, swamped by fan girls.

"Oi! Clear out unless you're in my class, I won't deal with crap so early in the morning!" Ibiki roared, shooing the girls out. Naruto slipped passed the crowd of disappointed girls, before heading to the locker room where he changed. He knew that everyone else wore shorts and t-shirts, but he didn't care. Sweatpants and a sweatshirt suited him just fine, despite the heat. Ibiki put them on teams, and then told them to play soccer for ten minutes before switching with the other set of teams. Naruto watched as people ran around, thankful that his team wasn't first to go. At the ten minute mark, his team was called forward and he reluctantly went to the center of the field, ignoring the stares that followed him.

"Hey look, it's that freak."

"Oh my, poor Sasuke-kun, being stuck with someone like him."

"Great. We have this guy, we might as well forfeit now."

Naruto was new that year, and the year was only three months in. Three months was apparently enough to earn the reputation of a freak, a loner, a weirdo, a worthless person, an idiot, and a whole bunch of other names that he had made himself forget because remembering them all took up too much space. No one had heard him talk, no one had seen him smile or laugh, barely anyone had seen his face, and no one was his friend.

He didn't care, friends were useless anyway, they couldn't help him solve his problems, so he saw no need to have them. He would've been considered a wallflower, but there was too much animosity directed towards him for that to be the case. The reason why was standing right in front of him with a cool glare on his face.

"Uzumaki." Sasuke muttered. Naruto ignored him. Why the guy spoke to him was out of his neural comprehension, and he wasn't going to strain himself trying. All Naruto had ever done was beat him in one test, that was it. One. Fucking. Test, and the whole damn school was in an uproar. Sasuke Uchiha, the school prodigy, had been beaten by a nobody? It was unheard of, impossible even. And yet...the scores didn't lie. Naruto, who hadn't even been trying, had forgotten to make sure to get a lower grade as he was distracted with his recently-injured ribs, and as a result...he had gotten a perfect score on a test while Sasuke got a low ninety.

Ever since then, Sasuke had hated him, which caused the entire school to hate him. Has it been mentioned that it was one test? Naruto made sure to never do it again, not for Sasuke's sake (he literally gave no shits about the dude), but because he didn't want to deal with the unwelcome attention. People eventually convinced themselves that it had been a fluke, and that Naruto had gotten lucky. They still hated him though, for unknown reasons, but he figured that because Sasuke hadn't forgiven or forgotten the test, the rest of the school was entitled to do the same.

"Oi! Sasuke was talking to you, what's the matter? Are you deaf?" Another voice barked angrily. Naruto ignored him too. Kiba was the source of that voice, he decided. He had just reached that conclusion, when something shoved him hard from behind. He stumbled a few steps, but managed not to fall down. "Don't ignore me!" Kiba yelled indignantly.

'Make that someone shoved me.' Naruto thought dryly. He walked away from the other boy, inwardly wincing as his ribs flared in response to being pushed. The air whistled behind him, and he turned around, only to instinctively duck as a fist flew towards him.

"Bastard! Stop ignoring me, who do you think you are? Huh?!" Kiba snarled. He threw more punches, which Naruto easily dodged, the guy had clearly never been in a serious fight before as his stance was sloppy, and he was letting his emotions take over. Naruto debated whether to fight back, but he decided against it as he felt it wasn't worth the trouble.

He would have continued to evade Kiba's increasingly sloppy attacks, but his ankle - which had been injured earlier by a certain drunk - decided to give out at exactly the wrong time, and his face dropped to the right level for Kiba's next punch. Gasps were heard as Naruto's head snapped back, and he toppled to the ground, ankle flaring angrily at the sudden increase of pressure. His hood thankfully managed to stay on his head, so that was one less thing to worry about. He made sure nothing in his mouth was loose, ignoring his ankle - he'd get to that eventually - and the people around him.

"W-whoa, are you okay man?" Kiba asked, suddenly worried. Sure he'd been pissed at the guy, but to his credit - he hadn't meant to punch him in the face - the shoulder or stomach sure, but... Naruto stood up, gingerly testing out his ankle. Meh, it would hold until he got home. Something trickled down his mouth, and when he brushed his hand against it, the something proved to be blood. Kiba and a few others saw the blood and Naruto heard the intake of breathe that usually proceeded a large amount of noise. Before this could happen however, Ibiki strolled over.

"What's going on?!" He demanded. No one answered. "Well? Was it a fight? I was only away for five minutes; can't you all do anything by yourselves? Geez, is anyone hurt?"

Kiba started to say something, but Naruto shook his head once, firmly. He didn't want to make a big deal out of nothing.

"No? Excellent. Let's start, shall we?" Ibiki didn't wait for any answers, but he blew his whistle and the game started before anyone realized what was going on.

...

Class ended and Naruto was the first one out of the locker room, not wanting to stick around to face Kiba or anyone else who might want to either yell at him, get into a fight with him, or something else as tiresome. Biology was next, and unfortunately that class had every single one of the 'popular' boys in it. Neji wasn't so bad considering he was actually quiet, but he was arrogant, which cancelled it out. Sai was decent seeming, if not loud, too friendly, or both. Kiba seemed to be making up for socking Naruto in the face as he wasn't loud and obnoxious like usual, and Kankurō was a loud and rude jerk that seemed to take a special delight in trying to get a reaction out of Naruto, who ignored him. Sasuke was quiet, but his fan girls were not, and he also seemed to enjoy trying to provoke Naruto.

The class went by with Sasuke and Kankurō trying - and failing - to get Naruto to react in a negative way. The teacher either didn't know, or didn't care, which encouraged the two to try harder. Naruto had long since decided that Orochimaru was an ass who didn't deserve a sliver of respect or attention. As such, Naruto zoned out until the bell rang for his last class, which was (thankfully) free of any of the 'popular' people.

When the last bell rang, Naruto walked out of the class, and he was just walking past an empty hallway, when he heard a whimper.

"Shut up bitch!" Someone snarled, the sound of a smack was audible. Something hit the floor hard. "Stupid girl!" The guy muttered. Naruto silently walked into the hall, where he saw a girl with dark blue hair and white eyes tinged lavender was on the ground, shaking and whimpering. Another person stood above her, the boy had dark hair and green eyes, which were narrowed in annoyance. He swooped down, grabbed her wrists, and proceeded to roughly haul her up.

"S-stop p-please." She stuttered pitifully. The boy glared and was about to slap her already red cheek with his free hand, when another hand closed in an iron grip around his wrist. The boy looked around.

"What the hell?" He angrily asked. Naruto gave him a hard look.

"Let her go." He said quietly. Something in either his face or his voice made the boy shudder.

"Y-you can't tell me to do anything!" The boy blustered, obviously hiding his fear. Naruto said nothing, merely tightening his grip until the other howled in agony and released the girl, who collapsed to her knees in relief. Naruto released the boy and watched him run away, yelling threats and curses over his shoulder. Now that Naruto could see her, the girl looked vaguely familiar.

"Hinata!" Someone shouted. Naruto glanced around to see Neji approaching with the rest of his group following. Ah, yes. Hinata Hyūga, cousin of Neji.

"Get away from her, Uzumaki." Neji commanded coldly. Naruto obliged, not caring that glares were being directed at him by everyone from Neji's group, he was too used to glares to be affected. Neji knelt down beside his cousin. "Are you okay? Did Uzumaki hurt you?"

Naruto felt something rise inside him at this last comment, but he successfully squashed it back down. Hinata looked at her cousin in disbelief.

"U-Uzumaki-san d-didn't h-hurt me. He s-saved me." She corrected him.

"What?" Neji asked. He looked over at Naruto who had started to walk away. "Uzumaki!" Neji called. Naruto stopped. "Did you save my cousin?"

Naruto debated whether he should answer, but gave a mental shrug and nodded. Neji seemed to have caught it, despite the fact that Naruto was wearing a hood. "Oh...I see. I apologize for my former accusation then." Neji said awkwardly. Naruto shrugged and continued on. The eyes of everyone in the group followed him until he turned a corner and was out of sight.

...

Naruto walked out of the school, already planning ways of avoiding his Keeper until night. He could always...or there was that place...no, not there...

His musings were cut short by someone calling out to him.

"Uzumaki! Wait up!"

Hm...that sounded a lot like Kiba...was it worth waiting for the guy? Eh...whatever, it wasn't like he had anywhere to be, and the more time spent away from 'home', the better. Naruto stopped and turned around. Kiba jogged up to where he patiently waited. "Er...listen, about earlier..." Kiba started, scratching the back of his head sheepishly "-I didn't mean to actually hit you in the face like that. I thought you'd dodge like you were before." He blurted out. Naruto shrugged and nodded. "So uh...we're cool then?"

Naruto nodded, if it meant that Kiba would stop bothering him, then sure. Why not?

"...So…why didn't you?" Kiba asked after a short pause. Naruto cocked his head sideways in a confused gesture. "Why didn't you dodge my punch? You were doing fine earlier." Kiba elaborated. Naruto pondered for a suitable answer, but he ended up shrugging. Before Kiba could say anything, someone shouted his name.

"Yo, Kiba! Why the hell are you talking to this loser?" Kankurō shouted, coming down the steps, followed by the rest of their group. Both Naruto and Kiba turned to look over at them. Neji seemed to disagree with the previous statement, but said nothing. Sai was smiling as usual, and he bounced over to Kiba.

"Hello Puppy-san!" He said cheerfully. Kiba growled.

"What have I said about calling me that?!" He asked angrily. Sai pursed his lips and pulled a book out of his backpack.

"Did I name you wrong? Do you not love dogs enough that you sleep with at least three every night?" Sai asked, leafing through his book. Kiba rolled his eyes.

"That doesn't mean that I want 'Puppy-san' as a nickname!" He replied indignantly.

While the two argued - Kiba did most of the arguing - Sasuke and Neji watched Naruto who - after listening to several of Kiba's choice suggestions about where Sai could stick his books and nicknames - decided to walk away.

"Hey!" Kankurō shouted. Naruto kept going. "I said 'hey'! Uzumaki!" Naruto halted with a barely stifled sigh.

Couldn't they just leave him alone?

"So, about Neji's cousin...why'd you save her?" Kankurō questioned. Naruto shrugged, even though he had a reason, he didn't see the purpose of telling them. "Was it so we'd owe you? 'Cuz that's pretty disturbing. But you're a freak, so it doesn't matter." Kankurō was clearly trying to rile him up, so Naruto ignored the bait and started to walk again. Kankurō got frustrated with the lack of response.

"Fucker!" He said angrily. He walked up to Naruto and grabbed his shoulder - only to end up facing the sky as he was flipped over Naruto's shoulder, and onto the ground. His breath whooshed out of him as he landed hard on his back. Naruto released his arm.

"Don't touch me." He said quietly. He stepped around the winded Kankurō and he walked away from the gaping mouths and wide eyes. Hm...his Chest seemed to have shrunk a little bit...peculiar.

"Was I the only one who saw that?" Kiba asked quietly in shock. The others shook their heads and Kankurō got to his feet with a groan.

"Damn him. My back hurts like a bitch now." He grumbled. What he didn't mention was the fact that he had seen Naruto's eyes. Clear blue, and scary as hell. Sai began to rifle through another book muttering about behavior and triggers while Sasuke said nothing, but his eyes followed the now distant figure.

Interesting, Naruto Uzumaki had some fight in him after all.

...

Bang! Naruto was thrown against a wall. He barely managed to duck as a knife flew over his head and impaled where it had been seconds ago.

"STUPID lazy-ass child! Can't you do ANYTHING right?!" His Keeper roared, picking up a textbook and throwing it at the blond, who barely managed to raise his arms time to defend himself. "GOD! I should just KILL you now!" Naruto ducked another projectile, and he heard the shattering of glass, before feeling shards rain down on his head. Shaking his head to hopefully rid his hair of the bigger shards, he inched out of the corner he had been thrown in. The Keeper's words didn't bother him; getting death threats twenty times a-day for over ten years did that to a person.

A hand grabbed his arm and he was slammed into a piece of furniture, most likely the bookshelf judging by the way he heard multiple heavy items hit the floor. Another hand took hold of his face and it slammed his head into the hard wood behind it, causing his vision to temporarily fail. As much as it hurt, Naruto knew his Keeper was far from done; this beating would most likely last another few hours. Resigning himself to another collection of injuries, he retreated far into himself, blocking out the shouting since he couldn't block out the pain.

He noted with slight interest as a chair struck him and made him topple over, that his Chest - which had shrunk earlier that day - was growing again.

Interesting.

A/N: And that is the end of chapter one, it's my first Naruto fic, so I'm a little nervous about how it came out. I know Naruto is OOC, but that was intentional otherwise this fic wouldn't work out. How about the other characters? Thanks for reading! Drop a review if it catches your fancy so I know how I did, or if you caught any mistakes. This won't update incredibly often, probably once every two weeks, or when I feel like it. Reason is because I have two other fics I should be working on, but this one was just dying to come out. Thanks again!

(1) Yes I can say this because I am a girl who knows that periods are little bitches, so I can therefore write about them.

KI- Killer Intent