Me: Hey Guys, miss me?

Itachi: Yes, where the hell were you? You took forever to write this story.

Me: Harvest time, work, and grilling my older sister to tell me what she wanted for her birthday. Still didn't tell me, jerk. _ Oh well, I tried with her gift and I would have this done sooner if SOMEONE didn't call me in to work for her yesterday. Grr...

Naruto: What happened?

Me: Someone in her family did something stupid and broke his nose.

Naruto: Ow. _

Me: Yep. *sigh* Let me get to the disclaimer and warning.

Itachi: About time. *gets hit on the head* Ow!

Naruto: Behave or I will make you sleep on the couch for two weeks.

Itachi: 0/_\0 *small voice* Okay.

Naruto: =^_^=

Me: Okay let's begin. *clears throat*

Warning

This story contains Yaoi, so if you don't like Yaoi then what the hell are you even doing here in the first place? If you like Yaoi, then enjoy!

Also, you might need tissues for this chapter. Just saying.

Disclaimer

I don't own Naruto and characters. They belong to Masashi Kistmoto.

I just own this story's plot.

Itachi: And I own Naruto's ass. *evil grins*

Team 7 continued to run on roof tops until they reached Naruto's apartment. Both Sakura and Sasuke have never been to Naruto's apartment before so they were shocked at how run down it was. Most of the windows are boarded up, pipes can be seen with a spider web of wires wrapped around and above them, rats can be seen running across the threshold of the building with small beady red eyes, the paint looks like it is starting to peel away in strips, some of the tiles on the roof are either hanging on by the corner or missing, the stairs look like that it could fall apart just by touching it, and the door looks like a mob of people tried to kick down the door more than once with scratches around the lock of the door.

'Naruto lives here? How can he stand to look at a dump like this, much less live here?' Sakura thought as she continued to walk towards the apartment.

Meanwhile Sasuke just stood outside of the rundown apartment with his jaw on the ground in shock.

'Why would Naruto live here of all places? There are better apartments in the village. So why…' Sasuke thought before realization hit him.

He remembered a few years back during his genin days when Naruto confessed some things to him when he saw some of the villagers beating him in an alley one day and Naruto wasn't putting up a fight. Once the villagers left, Sasuke ran up to the beaten Fox and demanded why he would let those villagers to beat him like that. What Naruto said to him still shocked him to this day.

Flashback Time!

Sasuke was walking back to the main part of the village from the training grounds to pick up some things before heading back to his quiet house.

'Let's see… I need to pick up some tomatoes, milk, bread, and noodles and if I have money leftover I can drop off some of my kunai for some sh—' Sasuke thought before he noticed something from the corner of his eye.

A small group of people were all gathered around in an alleyway, throwing fist and any objects they could find at something in the middle of the circle. Now normally Sasuke would have walked away from the scene, but something was keeping him from walking away. Looking closer to the thing in middle, he noticed some things about the thing. For one thing, the thing was a human, a small human at that. Second thing was this human was not raising a fist against the people that were hurting the being, which means that the person was used to the pain and abused. Lastly, the human being looked familiar to him.

'In fact, if I did not know better, I think that being looks a little like Naru-,' Sasuke's thought was cut short when the human looked up at his attackers with wide sad blue eyes and his blond hair was covered in blood and grim.

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat when he looked into those sad blue eyes. Never had he saw those beautiful eyes looked so sad and so broken before now. He couldn't believe that anything would make those eyes look so broken with the bright smiles that the Blonde light up on his face. As the thoughts raced around the Raven's mind, one of the attackers brought out a short, thin sharp knife from his person and grabbed the sun-kissed hair of the Blonde, causing Naruto to expose his neck bare to the attacker. The villager lowered the knife so it is barely touched the Blonde's expose neck, causing the blue eyes to widen in fear.

"Time to die, you monster," the man said with a wicked smile on his face and started to press the knife on Naruto's throat.

Sasuke snapped his attention to the man and saw red when he noticed the knife on Naruto's neck. Before he could think, Sasuke rushed in and forced the knife away from the Blonde's neck, causing the man's wrist to break from the force Sasuke gave. The man screamed in pain before he was pushed away from his attacker and into the wall. The other villagers started to run away from Sasuke, their eyes widen in fear of the Raven, but glared at the Blonde, promising that they are not done with him yet.

Sasuke glared at the villagers before turning his eyes towards the Blonde. Naruto looked worse for wear with his clothes torn in some areas, his jacket completely missing, scratches from the gravel and nails of the villagers with some of the scratches starting to bleed red crimson blood, dark purple bruises started to form on his scarred cheeks, his skinny arms, and most likely the rest of his body, and a small cut on Naruto's neck. Naruto gingerly touched the cut on his neck, making a small hissing sound from the pain. Looking at Naruto's injured form, Sasuke's anger raise even more, not at the villagers, but Naruto's willingness when the attack to happen. Sasuke's eyes changed from the normal brooding black eyes to angry red Sharingan eyes with the black commas spinning wildly as he glared down at Naruto.

"Why… Why would you let those people hurt you Naruto? You are a ninja so you know how to fight, so why did you lie down and took the pain without complain?" Sasuke snarled out from between his clenched teeth.

Naruto looked up at his Raven teammate with a sad smile.

"There's a law that states that I can't raise a hand to harm the villagers, even in self-defense." Naruto said as he slowly rose to his feet, dusting off the dirt that he picked up from the beating that he received.

When he demented it good, he looked back up at the shocked Raven. A sad smile was still on his face when he continued to explain to Sasuke.

"Even if I was allowed to, I wouldn't stoop down to their level. I cannot bring myself to harm someone, who is weaker than me. It is not in my nature to do so," Naruto said before turning away from the Raven so he won't see the reaction from Sasuke before continuing his story.

"All my life, I was beaten, abused, abandoned, and banned from everyone and everything since I was born. At first, I didn't know why the villagers would do that to me. Well I didn't know until I was twelve years old. But I can't tell you, even though I want to. That too, is against the law, even for me," Naruto finished his story before he walked away from the shocked Raven, never looking back.

"EARTH TO SASUKE! COME IN, SASUKE!" someone shouted, bring the Raven back to the present.

Shaking his head from old memories, Sasuke glared at the silver-haired jounin, who at the time was grinning at the angry Raven.

"So, what is so important for you to just stand there and daydream instead of coming to Naruto's apartment," Kakashi asked, teasing the chunin.

Sasuke snarled at his sensei before he pushed him away and walked up to Naruto's apartment. He wasn't in the mood to have his mind screwed over by some perverted jounin when all he wanted to do was to see Naruto and apologized to the Blonde for being so stupid. Cursing at both Kakashi and himself, he reached the top of the stairs and now facing the door that leads either to his forgiveness and love or his heart break and sadness. Pushing all thoughts out of his head, Sasuke raise a fist to the door and knocked on it. Now all they can do now was waiting for the Blonde to open the door.

So they waited.

And they waited.

And they waited some more.

Two hours have pasted before Sakura got impatient and broke down the door of Naruto's apartment by using the monster strength that she was taught and trained by her Sanin sensei, Lady Tsunade. Kakashi and Sasuke both stared at the broken down door before turning to glare at the pink ninja for inpatients and making it a lot harder for them to find forgiveness from the Blonde. Sakura, after clearing her head from anger, realized what she had done and now looked nervous for pulling that stunt without thinking.

Shaking his head in disappointment at the pink ninja, Kakashi stepped over the broken door and walked into what Naruto called home with Sasuke and Sakura following him in, the door creaked as it was stepped on.

"Naruto, are you here?" Kakashi shouted.

Only silence answered Kakashi's question. Shooting a worrying look at his remaining students, Kakashi spoke up again.

"Naruto, can you please answer me?" Kakashi asked, but again nothing.

Getting worried, Sasuke walked past Kakashi and continued to look for the Blonde with dread building up inside of him. With all the dread building up, he was starting to question himself.

'What if he isn't here? What if he left the village because of our stupidity or worse…? NO! Naruto is too strong to do something like that! He wouldn't do that… Would he?' Sasuke thought as guilt and dread filled his soul and the pain of his heart felt deeper than before.

He blamed himself for hurting the Blonde. If only he took the time to figure out the real prankster was instead of blaming Naruto. If only he didn't hurt the Blonde that night. If he did the opposite of what everyone did, he would have Naruto here still, in his loving arms. Now, Naruto was missing and he had to find out what happened to the Blonde. As all this was running through his mind, he had reached what he believed to be the Blonde's room. Wrapping his pale fingers around the door handle, he slowly turned it and pushed it open. What he first noticed was that Naruto's room was cleaner than he thought it was. He thought that Naruto would have ramen cups and bowls everywhere. Second thing was that Naruto was not in the room. Sasuke walked around the room, taking in what he was seeing, trying to see if he can find a clue to Naruto's whereabouts. As he looked around the room, he noticed a folded up paper sticking out underneath his bedside lamp. Grabbing the paper without ripping it in half from his hasted, Sasuke unfolded the paper and begin to read.

To anyone that gives a flying fuck about me,

Where should I start? I was hurt by the people of Konoha, in more ways than one. I was beaten, abandoned, abused, ignored, spitted on, and banned from most of the stores in the village and if I wasn't banned, I was forced to pay items that were overpriced while everyone else pay for items that were more reasonable than mine. I had to be forced into this type of treatment since the day I was born. In fact, the only reason that I have a place to sleep was because the Third Hokage gave me this place when I was kicked out of the orphanage at the age of five. In the beginning, I could never figure out why the people would do these things to me. I would wonder for hours to figure out what I did wrong to receive so much hatred from the village. That is until I was told when I was twelve years old. As it turns out, I have the demon, Kyuubi no Kitsune, sealed inside me on the day of my birth and by law; it was against the law to speak about what happened that day and never to tell even me about this piece of information. As you can see, I was the most hated person here in the village because of the demon and the price for sealing it into a newborn child was the life of the Fourth Hokage, my father. With this information, I realized that I may never gain the trust of the villagers because of what was sealed into me. Of course, I accepted that because of that point, I was used to the pain so I don't think about it too much and try my best to keep my head high. But recently, I have received a similar treatment from the people I thought I could trust with my life. The eyes that are so cold that could cut into my heart as a cold knife would do. Being ignored and pushed away from what I had once called my precious people hurt me worse than the villager's treatment would have in my life. It tore me up worse than being pulled apart from limb from limb. What was even worse was when I thought it was time to tell the one I had loved my true feels and it turns into a mistake to make as I was hit and have my heart broken into so many pieces that not even the Kyuubi can cure. It was the last straw; it was time for me to leave this hellhole before they would do something that I would have regretted if I stayed. I can't stay in the village that wants nothing to do with me and would like to see me dead than alive. That was when I decided to leave, never to look back and never have to face the people that I once thought that I could trust with my life. Don't worry about me. You didn't even care if I left or died, so why should you care now? Unless you needed to use me as a punching bag like before. Do me a favor and rip this paper up so no one would have to read what a disgusting demon has to write about. With all the love I have left for this hellhole, don't find me. If you find me, expect me to fight against you.

Goodbye and piss off,

Naruto Uzumaki

Sasuke was shaking in grief; he had to sit down as he continued to read the letter. Once he was finished, he dropped the letter to the ground and covered his eyes with his hands and sobbed. How could he have not seen that Naruto was suffering from all the pain that they gave him? How could he not continue to figure out on the day that Naruto confessed to him about what was happening? How he would be so blind to Naruto's pain when Naruto did everything in his power to bring a smile on his face when he was feeling down? All of these questions continued to spin around Sasuke's head before he lie down on Naruto's cold bed and continued to sob his blacken heart out for the one person he wished that he had in his arms.

"Naruto… I'm sorry…. So sorry…." Sasuke said between his sobs.

Sasuke blew it. He had blown it when Naruto confessed to him about his feels and he had blown it when this whole mess had started. When he had thought it couldn't be worse, Naruto had left the village…

And it was entirely his fault.

Sasuke continued to sob as Kakashi and Sakura entered the room. Three eyes stared at the crying Raven with disbelief and wondered what was making the Raven shred his tears for the first time since the death of his clan. After awhile, Kakashi noticed a small white piece of paper on the dusty carpeted bedroom floor neared the bed. Picking it up with is right hand, Kakashi noticed that it was a note and begin to read it. A few minutes had gone by when Kakashi lowered his hand with the note and his visible eye shined with tears.

'No… Naruto…' Kakashi thought as he continued to stare at the plain, cracked wall as Sasuke's sobs bounced against them.

How… How can he be so stupid? How could he be so blind at his student's pain? His sensei, Naruto's father, never been blind to his or his teammates' pain, but here he was, the sensei to his sensei's son, turning a blind eye to the blonde's pain until it is too late to realize it. Thinking back of his earlier sensei duties, all he ever did was pushing the hyper blonde away because it was too painful to look at Naruto without seeing his sensei in front of him, either giving Naruto to a different teacher during the chunin exams or ignoring him all together. And just when he thought that he couldn't get any lower, he was now one of the main reasons that chased away the blonde from what should have been his home. Kakashi remembered the very first lesson he taught to team 7:

AYE HOE FLASHBACK!

Kakashi looked down at the three twelve year-olds, the tied up blonde Genin between the pink-haired female Genin and the raven duck-haired Genin, both trying to feed Naruto.

"You disregarded my orders and dared to feed him!" Kakashi shouted, glared at the trio.

Kakashi thought he saw the Blonde flinched, but shake that thought from his mind as he continued to glare down the three of them.

The pink-haired Genin had set down her bento to the ground and clasped her hands together in front of her mouth with wide scared eyes while the Raven-haired Genin just glared at him, not that it bothered him at all. It was the blond-haired Genin that was bothering him. The blond-haired Genin stared at him with a shocked face, but when Kakashi looked closer to the Genin's eyes, they were blanked; no emotion was shown through them. Kakashi was taken aback by them. He had never seen anyone as young as this Genin to show no emotion; in fact it was unnatural to see this at all. Shaking his head once again, he continued to glare down on them.

"Well, what do you say about yourselves?" Kakashi asked in a sinister voice.

The pink-haired Genin started to shake in fear at her sensei's voice. Before she could speak, the raven-haired Genin spoke up.

"Hm, why should we leave our teammate to starve while we stuff our faces? It would be pointless to have two strong people while our teammate slows us down. All of us need our strength to defeat you and show you that we have what it takes to be ninjas." Sasuke said in a monotone voice.

The pink-haired Genin started to nod.

"That's right!" she shouted with fan-girl stars in her eyes.

Kakashi sweat-dropped at her remark, but decided to not to voice it. Instead, he continued to glare at them.

"Oh really now, huh, well, do you know what I think of that?" Kakashi asked in angry sinister voice.

Silence fell on the group as Kakashi stared down at his students.

"You…. You passed!" Kakashi smiled behind his mask and his eye closed.

"Huh?!" all three shouted with their eyes as big as saucers and their jaws dropped to the ground.

Kakashi quietly laughed to himself. He enjoyed messing with people's minds and right now, he was in heaven with his Genins' expressions. He couldn't wait to messed with their minds even more as time when by.

"Yep," Kakashi smiled at them.

His Genin sweat-dropped at their new sensei and leader and wondered if this was a good idea to stay as a team. Meanwhile, Kakashi dropped his smile before opening his mouth.

"It is true that a ninja, who doesn't follow the rules is scum, but a ninja, who abandon his teammates or friends are worse than scum. For you will never get through life without a helping hand of your friends and teammates," Kakashi said in a soft tone.

They continued to sit in silence, letting what Kakashi said to sink in before Kakashi turned his heel and started to walk away.

"Team 7 will be meeting at the bridge tomorrow at 8'oclock in the morning. Don't be late," Kakashi continued to walk and his special orange book out and his cheeks started to turn red and started to giggle madly.

The Genin looked at each other before the raven got up and started to walk away, with his hands in his pockets. The pink stared at the giggling scarecrow before noticing that the raven walked away, got up and started to run after the raven, leaving the blond tied up on the post.

"Hey! Are you guys going to leave me here tied up!? Guys! Hey Guys!" Naruto shouted after his teammates before sighing in defeat.

Wiggling the ropes around his wrist, he reached down to his jacket pocket and pulls out a small knife and slowly started to cut the rope.

"Good thing that I keep a knife on me at all times for something like this," Naruto sighed quietly as he continued to cut the rope around his arms.

BACK TO THE PRESENT! AWAY!

Tears started to run down Kakashi's eyes as the memories run past his mind.

'So much for following my own teachings,' Kakashi thought as a single tear ran down his covered cheek.

Sakura looked between a quiet Kakashi and a sobbing Sasuke.

'What's going on? Why are they acting so weird and where is Naruto?' Sakura thought as she continued to look at both Kakashi and Sasuke.

After staring at her teammates for a few minutes, she had enough of them crying their eyes out and she wanted to know where the hell her blond-haired friend was. She did what any of her teammates would have done if they wanted someone to answer their question; she gave them a good whack to the back of the head. Both of the males clutched their heads in pain before turning their tear-filled angry eyes at the only female in the room. Sakura ignored the glares with her hands rested on her hips and gave them a glare back at them.

"You guys have two seconds to tell me what the matter with you two is and where Naruto is," Sakura snarled with her eyes narrowed to slits in anger.

Both males glared at Sakura in anger, but they understand her anger. Both Kakashi and Sasuke would have done the same thing if they wanted to know something from Sakura or someone else in their group, especially Naruto. Tears gathered in their eyes and their heads lowered in sadness as they recalled the times that they hurt Naruto when they needed something from Naruto or when they needed get his attention so they can spar against him and relief from stress.

Sakura sweat-dropped when she noticed a dark cloud of depression had started to form above their heads, even raise an pink eyebrow when she a little flash of what looked like a small lightning bolt. Sakura sighed at this. She really hated when her teammates not only when they don't tell her what was going through their heads, but how easily they could turn into depression mode, especially Naruto. Sakura remembered a few times when she found Naruto lose his bright smile and the mad twinkle in his eyes when he thought that he was alone. Tears started to form in her sea-foam eyes, but refused to shed them now. Now was the time to find out what was wrong with her teammates and where was her blond-haired friend. Crossing her arms, she glared down at her remaining teammates.

"Well? Where is he?" Sakura said in a harsh tone.

For awhile, no one was willing to speak up on what was running around their mind, but it was Kakashi was the first to speak up.

"He's gone, Sakura. Naruto left the village," Kakashi said, sadness laced in his voice.

Sakura blinked her eyes and her arms loosen from the tight hold they were in when they were crossed in disbelief.

"What? No it can't be," Sakura said disbelief on what her sensei was saying.

Sasuke snapped his head up and glared at his pink-haired teammate in anger, his teeth bared.

"It's true. He left the village, thinking that we hated him. We drove him away! We, all of us of his so-call friends drove him away from what should be called his home, his safe haven! And you know what was worse? He thinks that we hate him because of the demon that was sealed into him when he was born! He didn't even know about the pranks or the real reason that we pushed him away! Even worse that MY reaction to his confession was what pushed him over the edge to his decision to leave! I pushed him away and broke him, it was my fault that he…," Sasuke started to shout before trailing off and started to sob again for his stupidity.

The tears that were forming but held back were now released, traveling down her cheeks. Sakura was crying now. She knew that something was off when Naruto was starting to drift away from them, but she just pushed it to the side like she did to Naruto. Now she regretted it. If she followed her instincts, Naruto might still be here with someone to have a shoulder to cry on and trusted. But she furiously wiped her eyes free from tears, now was not the time to cry and feel sorry for her-self. She knew that she hurt Naruto more than once, but right now was the time to go out and find clue to where her blond teammate went and to see if he was okay. She may have never been there for him before, but she will be damned not to be there for him now. With that thought, she marched over to Sasuke's sobbing form and slapped him, sending him to the floor. Dazed from the hit, Sasuke couldn't move when Sakura grabbed the front of his shirt and glared down at him with fire in her green sea-foam eyes.

"Listen to me and listen well. Just because Naruto isn't here don't mean that he is gone forever. He is out there somewhere, hurt and alone. If it was one of us that had left the village, he would not sit on his ass and feel sorry for himself. No, he would started to rant about how stupid we are before rushing off to look under every rock, every corner, and every village, leaving it destroyed in his wake until he finds us and when he does, he would kick our asses and drag us back to the village by our ears, ranting and screaming along the way, not feeling sorry until he knows that we are somewhere safe and gives us one of his bear hugs. Now are you going to sit there or are you going to find him and bring him home where he belongs?" Sakura snarled at the dazed and somewhat scared Sasuke in her hands.

Sasuke was going to snarl back at his pink-haired teammate, but he stopped. The more he thought about it, the more he understands and could see Naruto to do all of that without a second thought. Other pang of sadness hit him again as he looked at what Naruto would have done if he left the village and to what he was doing now. What kind of person was he if he cries at the moment of sadness when he found out that Naruto disappeared? Naruto would have waited until the person that had disappeared, but brought back when he was alone and started to feel sorry for him-self when he should have known that person was hurting and he didn't do anything about it. With his eyes determined, Sasuke glared at Sakura.

"I am NOT going to sit here, waiting for him to return. I am going to find him and bring him home wither he likes it or not and you can't stop me," Sasuke stated, his eyes daring her to disagree with him.

Sakura looked into his eyes before a small smile formed on her face.

"Good, I am glad to hear it, Sasuke," Sakura said before letting go of Sasuke's shirt, causing him to fall to the floor.

Groaning in pain, Sasuke glared at Sakura while Sakura looked innocent. Muttering under his breath about how he was going to get even with the pink ninja, he got off the floor and straighten his shirt before walking out the door of the bedroom and heading towards the door that leads out to the stairwell of Naruto's apartment. After he turned the corner and on the steps of the stairwell, a loud bang was heard and a loud yell was heard where Sasuke disappeared to. Sakura and Kakashi looked at each other before running out to see what was wrong with Sasuke. After turning the corner that leads to the stairwell, Sakura and Kakashi stopped dead on their tracks. There standing by him-self, covered head to toe with what looked like pink paint, was Sasuke in his now pink glory self with a sneer on his face as he looked down on him-self.

Two things happened when Sakura and Kakashi saw Sasuke in his pink look. Sakura placed her hands over her mouth and looked away from Sasuke, trying not to make him more mad by laughing at his new look. Kakashi, on the other hand, pulled out a camera and took a quick picture before Sasuke saw what he was doing, hiding the camera afterwards so he could show and make money off of it.

Suddenly, a loud wicked laugh was heard as a small dark shadow darted away and into the streets outside of the apartment building. Hearing that laugh made Sasuke's eyes red in anger and he vowed that he would get back at the pranker if it was the last thing he did. Once he did, Sasuke would beat the living shit out of the little fucker for all the pranks he pulled and making everyone think that Naruto was the one responsible for all the pranks pulled and causing him to leave his home. Snarling in anger, Sasuke gave chase to the little fucker with Kakashi and Sakura at his heels.

The race was on.

Me: Like I said before, they are dumbasses.

Sasuke: Why did you paint me in pink?

Me: Because in this story, I don't like you very much and I hate the color pink.

Sasuke: Ouch.

Raven: Next time, think before you do anything that causes Naruto pain.

Sasuke: Yes, Raven.

Raven: Good boy.