Welcome to installment number two of Naruto's New life down a new path! I have little success in trying to make it easier to read so please if you know how do tell. Enjoy.

Naruto's New Life Down a New Path

Chap. 2

It took all together 5 minutes for our female shinobi to gather her composure only to feel guilt ridden and pangs of hurt striking and tugging at her deepest chords. After quickly apologizing to the owners of the store and paying for whatever damages she sped out of the dango shop and ran down the road to catch up to the only person she felt relatable to and his perverted yet powerful teacher. All the while he and the same teacher were engaged in a conversation regarding the speeding kunochi. Not wanting to interrupt she hung back in the trees to hear what they were saying being that it was about her...

"You know she didn't mean that right, Naruto?" the sannin asked. Once again besides emotional pain and suffering devoid of emotion he replied, "I find that angry people tend to speak their hearts and nothing but the truth, wouldn't you agree Jiraiya?" Both Anko hidden in the trees and the sannin winced upon hearing that irrefutable logic but rerouted their attention back to the masked ninja hearing that he was talking again. "You know when she didn't know I was me… she looked at me with want, lust, curiosity and every other emotion I was denied growing up. For once, I thought to myself "maybe there is one who doesn't find me repulsive. One who doesn't spit in disgust or shake with rage upon hearing my name or seeing that I still live. But after hearing the first syllable of my name I could see that such emotions that I were denied quickly evaporated and I bore witness to her facial contractions of hate and rage." When Naruto had finished speaking Anko again had found a hard time to keep her emotions in check because being the student to the traitorous snake sannin she too was look upon and had dealt with same hatred among the village. Names like Snake Mistress, and Orochimaru's Snake Slut came back to haunt her. Once again snapped to reality but this time by the pervert teacher that groped her ass in the dango shop he spoke, "Naruto. Are you telling me that you were… happy?" The sannin asked questionably and shakily as if this was ice, which shocked Anko because from the tone of his voice he sounded like that, idea was shocking. Naruto sighed and spoke with his same defeated tone and said, "Does it matter? The only love a jinchuuriki will find in this world is that of the embrace of a grave. Cold as the ground may be it would be no colder than the glares from the people that I protect as a shinobi and the life I've been forced to live. Death would be a welcoming sight but as the irony of the situation is as I jail the Kyuubi, he too jails me and keeps me bound to this hell. Not allowing me death and keeping me in my prison of responsibilities as a jailor to the nine-tails and scapegoat to the villagers. It's come to the point that I feel putting on my headband burns my skin and inflicts countless amounts of painful irony. I am risking my life, although chances are I wouldn't die, for people who put my life at risk when I am home." This made the toad sage stop in his tracks and clutch his heart as if he was being stabbed through the heart with a heated katana and Anko to speed ahead hoping if she runs fast enough she can escape the tears flowing freely down her cheeks. She needed to speak to Kurenai badly so she rushed to her house. All the while the masked shinobi continued on his way walking in through the gates leaving behind the elder sage. The two guards spoke sharply, "Halt. State your business." Naruto without batting an eye spoke his name and told them he was returning from his training and was going to see Tsunade-sama. Both the guards stared uneasily from his tone of voice and reminded them all too well of gara's as if he had been betrayed by his own siblings. They simply nodded and watched him walk off. One of the guards named Kotesu asked the sannin who was behind, "Did something happen to Naruto?" and the sannin merely shook his head and said, "More than you could possibly know." After that he followed after Naruto.

Anko soon reached Kurenai's house and banged on the door sobbing for her to open up. Even as a ninja nobody has ever moved as fast as Kuernai did when she heard Anko's pounding accompanied with sobbing. When she opened the door she immediately embraced her in a hug and used her motherly instincts patting her head and shushing her calmly. After the sobs were minimal and they were both inside sitting on the coach Kurenai asked her while holding Anko's hands, "Whats wrong Anko-chan? You are distraught and I've never seen somebody this way. Especially not you." Anko looked up at her with watered eyes and a strained voice and began to retell her tale leaving nothing out and describing in extreme detail all her perverted thoughts and seeing the slight tightness in his pants all the way to what she had been told by the sannin and what she heard. After her tale was finished Kurenai was speechless. Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki had tried suicide not just once but multiple times and is emotionally dead! And wore a mask as if it was an S-Class Genjutsu. Not only that but she thought how it would crush Hinata to see her inspiration and role model was always living a lie. Even Kurenai was building up tears thinking about how she had done nothing to help the child even when he was nothing but a lost and sad kid. Such thoughts made her feel sick and disgusted with herself and felt that she would make a terrible mother. But her attention needed to go to Anko at the moment and so she asked her a question that she knew would only be given a half-answer to. "Why do you care so much?" and with that Anko snapped her head up and slapped Kurenai across her face. Immediately after she apologized profusely saying she is just to upset and that question came out wrong, after a long sigh and only a trembling lip she spoke, "I care because in some respects me and him can relate and you know how I was treated upon my return to Konoha." Kurenai only nodded and let her friend continue, "And if you met him you would see he is hurting, hurting so badly that it even hurts to look at it and acknowledge it." After a momentary silence Kurenai consoled her friend saying she needed to apologize and with that Anko only had time to hug and thank her and was out the door of Kurenai's apartment.

The elder sannin caught up with his pupil and told him to head home, maybe to Irichraku's for some ramen when they bumped into a rather happy pink haired kunochi. "Naruto!" she screamed. Having both the sannin and the masked ninja turn around and immediately put up his "mask" the blonde waved frantically at her calling her over as she jogged over to meet him. "how'd ya know it was me sakura?" Naruto asked while rubbing the back of his head and giving her an eye smile. Sakura not missing the fact that he didn't add chan at the end of her name didn't pass her by but she decided at the moment it was unnecessary. She smiled back and said, "I'd recognize that blonde hair anywhere, but you seem totally different! The clothes, the height, muscle, and appearance… you better be careful or I might actually find you attractive!" she joked although in the back of her mind she saw him in a totally new light. She chuckled and told Naruto that Hinata would have a massive nosebleed if she saw the new you and the two youths laughed, but all the sage could do is frown for he knew it was nothing if not a lie with the way he acted around people. But Naruto waved his goodbyes and said he was heading home when he decided to drop off at Irichraku's to say hello to the workers that showed him small acts of kindness and shared his adventures with them over a bowl of his much loved ramen. This was one his sole vices left and oh did talking with Teuchi and Ayame feel good. He laughed and and smiled and hugged them both before leaving and setting a date for tomorrow. Now heading back to his apartment in the slums he felt the eyes once again. The whispers and eyes that seemed to follow him until one shinobi spat on his cheek. He was about to turn to see who it was to find out if he should feel betrayed or not but much to his surprise he saw Anko beating the shit out of him and then into him as well. After restraining Anko by once again sitting on her and much of her squirming led only to blushes on both parties remembering back to what her squirming did. And it was Anko who broke the silence first by speedily saying I'm sorry to Naruto but he didn't understand her because she was talking rather fast. Anko then sighed and inhaled slowly saying out each syllable this time, "I'm. Sorry. Naruto Uzumaki. I didn't mean to sound as if you were a disappointment… could we go somewhere? I'd rather not linger he longer that shinobi I just ravaged is quite known for his mind possession jutsu." Naruto merely nodded and after getting up lent his hand to the purple haired kunochi to help her up. Anko readily accepted it and was heaved upwards being brought once again inches from his face but instead of seeing deep intelligent pools of blue all she saw was her on reflection yet again she lost her train of thought and her voice was slowly trailing off. Naruto looked back in her eyes and saw an all too familiar pain, but at the same time longing. However Naruto didn't know for what or for whom it was for all he was sure of was that it wasn't him. Breaking the silence he said in a cheery tone, "Well Anko-san I was on my way back to my apartment when you so gallantly came to my rescue we can talk there if you want." Giving her an eye smile all the while Anko in response blurted out a "yes!" Naruto could only chuckle and then placed a hand on her shoulder, but before anko had time to scream and call him gaki in a yellow flash, they stood in front of Naruto's apartment. Anko frantically looking around to see her surroundings saw a dirty hallway with the walls covered in graffiti with slurs like "DEMON BRAT" or "YOU KILLED MY DUAGHTER!" nko quickly looked away and redirected her attention to Naruto when he said, "don't worry about that, the sting of the words are all gone. I just am too lazy to wash them off the walls." Naruto gave his fox grin while rubbing the back of his head and said, "Hey Anko-san." Naruto said sheepishly. "Whaddya want gaki?" the snake jounin asked. "I haven't been here for two years it might not be clean… mind waiting outside while I have my boys work on it?" the blonde teenager asked. Anko had a confused look on her face and asked, "Your boys…?" with that Naruto produced half a dozen clones and gave them their orders and on the double. It took all together 10 minutes and when he had the clones dispelled he opened the door to find a most unexpected sight. Anko's eyes went as wide as saucers and her jaw dropped all Naruto could do was twitch his eyes.

Hokage's Tower: Tsunades office

There Jiraiya recapped everything that had happened over the course of her favorite knucklehead ninja, although she was happy he mastered sage mode and began to control the Kyuubi she felt her heart rip in two upon all that her old perverted teammate told her. Shizune was quietly sobbing when she looked up at her mistress with a tear-streaked face she asked in a strained voice, "Tsunade-sama… please you must go to Naruto. Surely you can help him and bring him back to us!" the last of her words came out as a strangled cry when she openly broke down. Tsunade felt a tear roll down her right cheek and after wiping it away, it was followed with a cascade of them. She spoke with a defeated tone,"Shizune you of all people know of my medical prowess, but what Naruto is coping with is far out of my skills… he needs someone to mend his heart… he needs a lover. But there is truth to his logic, many in this village if not all people would rather slit their throat then show kindness to that knucklehead." After sighing, she said Jiraiya and I will go and talk to him right away. Maybe we could tell him of Hinata's love for him and he could find the person to mend his shredded heart. Shizune looked up hopefully at her hokage saying that was a fine idea and they should depart immediately and she will take care of any lingering paperwork for her. Nodding to that arrangement she went to grab her coat telling Jiraiya with a determined look laced with hope in her eyes "Lets go."

Well that concludes Chapter 2 thank you for all your reviews. I had not expected to explode like that due to the odd pairing. Hinata will have a role in this but it won't turn into a harem those just seem so ehhh. Anyway I've been looking for a solution to making the paragraphs easier to read but let me tell you I'm hitting dead ends on every turn. No matter what I do it just smashes all the words together. Please if you know how to fix it tell me and keep reading I plan to make this a long series.