Disclaimer: Sadly, what I own consists of a composition notebook, a pencil, and my kitty-cat. I do not own Naruto.

AN: Yay. So many positive reviews. Makes up for the horrible week I have been having. Thank you, and many blessings upon your future generations (if any).

Pairings! In between writing this and work, I've been reading lots and lots of fan fiction. Some strange ones include ShinoTenten, and GaaraSaku. I'm not saying they suck. It was pretty interesting (And the shinotenten one was hilarious.), but it got me to thinking. I've got my main pairings NaruHina, ShikaIno, KakaIru(although this is more of a sub pairing..) but what about everyone else?

I'm expanding on my outline thingy (and to the reviewer who asked-you know who you are, I am planning on having altered scenes and original 'Foxie-sama created' scenes.), and I'm going to add in the pairings.

Instead of being bombarded with millions of different pairings to think of, I'm going to ask for who you think would best match up against the other in this sort of plot. But only three Naruto characters at a time.

For this chapter it will be the following people: Sakura, Sasuke, and Gaara.

Some of your favorite characters might not be paired up at all, sadly, because there aren't that many girls, and only a few of them I can squint and say 'maaaayyyybbbee he/she is gay.' coughOrochimarucough jk jk

Happy reading!

For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Four: To See Them Again Part 1

by Foxie

One of the most important things an Anbu needs to have is their mask. Carved as the animal that most fits their nature, and painted with the colors of their rank -red as elite, all the way down to blue as rookie, they'd become one with it. It protected their identity, their health, and most of the time.. their sanity.

The Anbu weren't the only ninjas with the need to wear a mask.

Hatake Kakashi was one, wearing a half mask to conceal his lower features. His reason for needing a mask was secret, the mystery around what he looked like underneath it all but legendary. Few had got the chance to see it off in a mere second. None he had taken it off willingly for.

Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke, two geniuses from the top two clans, also had the need to wear a mask. Although their masks were not in a physical form, they were there all the same. A mask of indifference. Of coldness. A subtle 'I am better than you. Stay out of my bubble.'

The only difference between the Uchiha's mask and the Hyuuga's was that after a while, Neji could lower his mask. He could act like a human being. He could feel. He could care.

Sasuke couldn't. After Itachi killed off his family, the mask became glued to him. It could not be removed. There was times it cracked from the stress of being used too much, but it still held.

Yet another.. was Uzumaki Naruto.

Instead of a shield of coldness to ward off evil doers, there was a bright and sunny smile. There was a prankster, looking out pleadingly toward his audience for someone to acknowledge him. There was a boy who had no choice but to carry the most infamous demon to ever roam the land. The boy who was all but ignored by the people he was supposed to protect, those who could not see past the shadow of the Kyuubi and dare hope to look in those crystal blue eyes. He was taunted. Insulted. All but the children hated him, and even they picked up that behavior from their parents.

Instead of crying or breaking into a thousand little pieces that no one could ever hope to glue back together, as they all wanted him to do, he got back up. He'd grin merrily at the person who just insulted him. Pull a prank or two. Grab some ramen and skip back to his home, humming a song underneath his breath.

After some time, even the people who hated him started to admire him for holding up such an unshakable facade, even comparing it to the Hyuuga poker face.

But Uzumaki Naruto's mask had a tenancy tocrack, and hecried when he reached his doorstep.

The dark haired boy was about an inch away from smacking the girl who was talking to him, but that would lead to so much paper work. She kept on talking, and talking, and talking! One would have thought so much noise would have a lethal effect on the listener.

The Academy was just ahead. The dark haired boy quickened his pace, eager to get there before another one of the parasites could cling to his arm.

This was an utter waste of time. He should have been training, not being stalked by a girl with limited stealth skills on his way to meeting where it would be decided which jonin he would train under.

It did not matter about the team he was put on. If they all stood off to the sideline while he completed the missions and gained rank, that is.

His brother wasn't going to fall on a fork and die, after all. It was up to him to avenge his family. And nobody was going to get in his way.

She noticed the change in pace and caught up with him, latching on his arm.

Damn.

Sounds of the girl's jargon passed unnoticed by the boy, when he locked his dark gaze with someone who annoyed him even more than the girl talking at him.

His rival saw him, and stopped walking. He turned pale and his blue eyes widened. His rival's companion, the white eyed Hyuuga girl, stopped and asked him what was wrong.

He glared at his rival. His rival just looked back with haunted eyes.

Of course his rival would be wary. He had pulled a prank on the wrong person. After coming back to the laundry mat to find all of his white shorts pink, a man would be murderous.

He wanted his rival to come at him. Scream. Yell. Insult him. Challenge him to a battle of wits or a battle of fists. Anything to get him away from his fan girl.

The blonde walked forward. The dark haired boy was tense, battle-ready. Just in case the blonde didn't announce his attack. The sunlight shone from his rival's forehead protector, blinding him for a moment. Huh.. he didn't know the blonde had passed.

The dark eyed boy's clingy companion noticed his rival and sneered at him, looking down the sharp curve of her nose at the other boy. He nearly cursed when he felt her grip on his arm tighten.

The blonde got closer, then walked right past, the Hyuuga girl following his footsteps. The blue haired girl threw a sharp glare at his fan girl, a surprising reaction from the shy girl. He paid no attention to either girl, just fixed his gaze on his rival's back.

He couldn't believe it. It was as sharp and as harsh as a punch to the stomach.

He, Uchiha Sasuke, had been completely ignored by the number one most hyperactive ninja of Kohona.

"Iruka-san.." Another one of the Academy teachers, a red haired, glasses wearing chuunin, peeked her head into his classroom. He looked up from making sure that everyone of the twenty seven graduates was organized on a team and assigned to a jonin.. "Akimichi-kun wants to talk to you." Chouji peeked his head around the chuunin, his mouth still chewing on some chips.

He smiled. It was so good to see one of his students, proudly displaying their Kohona headband.

"Come in Chouji." Iruka shifted some papers on his desk. "What is it you need?" Chouji edged around the woman, who promptly left when she realized she wasn't needed.

The plump boy looked closer at his old teacher and then reeled back.

"What happened to you!" he asked worriedly. The chuunin was covered head to toe in bandages. There was a purple bruise fading on his tan cheek. It looked like he had been in a war. Iruka rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, wincing when that brought a fresh wave of pain from the shuriken wound in his back.

"Ump.. I got in a fight." Wasn't much of a fight.. he thought privately to himself. Naruto took care of Mizuki without any help from me. His brown eyes warmed when he thought of the blonde. He had such a harsh life, being shunned by the villagers because of the fox. Yet he emerged from it all, like a phoenix rising from it's ashes. He went in without the knowledge of how to properly make a Bunshin, yet came out with the knowledge of how to perform a Kage Bunshin, the forbidden jonin jutsu.

He was so proud of Naruto. The blonde was going to go places, with that kind of raw talent.

But he had to question the Hokage's request to put Uchiha Sasuke and him together, and put them under a jonin named Hatake Kakashi, who had never passed a student. He frowned at the paper at the names listed under Team Seven. Did he want Naruto's fire to burn out so quickly?

"Uh.. Okay. I came here to talk about my Bunshin." Iruka focused on the boy in front of him.

"Your Bunshin was passable. Why do you want to talk about it?" Chouji toed the ground nervously, than performed Bunshin no Jutsu. Two Choujis stood next together when the smoke faded. The real Chouji stood back and looked at his Bunshin critically.

"I think he's too fat. What do you think?" Iruka backed up in his chair, a brief moment of panic crossing over his scarred face. There was no safe answer to that. Chouji would be offended if the teacher said it was perfect, and if he said he said it was too thin.. He did not want to face the famous Akimichi temper tantrum.

There was only one thing he could do. The trickiest and most low solution he could think of.

Distraction.

"Eh.. Oh, Chouji! They're serving breakfast in the teacher's lounge! Want to come with me?" Iruka crossed his fingers underneath the desk. The pudgy boy's face lit up.

"Like as in food! I am so there!"

And thus this is how the chuunin teacher Umino Iruka dodged another shuriken. Whooping happily, Chouji grabbed his old teacher's arm and dragged him to the teacher's lounge. The door slammed shut behind them.

A head popped up -popped down, apparently this person was upside down- in the window behind Iruka's desk. He grabbed the top of the window sill and righted himself by dropping down to the bottom. He attached chakra to his feet so he wouldn't fall down, then opened the window.

"Finally.." the boy complained. He was wearing a vest over a fishnet shirt, and wore his hair in a high ponytail. His vest had the symbol for the Nara clan on his shoulder.

The boy, for we all now know was indeed Shikamaru, spotted the paper with the teams written on it. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pen and a crumbled up piece of paper.

"Well copy away, Nara.." he grumbled to himself, then copied the paper's information on his own.

Naruto felt his heart stop when he saw Sasuke. The same old mask fixed in place. The same way his hair stuck out in the back and hung low in the front. Same old Sasuke. Naruto felt a burning sensation behind his eyes. Sasuke.. you bastard.

-Flashback-

The Atasuki and the Sound attacked Kohona from both sides, but were not allies. Apparently, Orochimaru had done something that had really pissed the group of missing nins off. But if one was weakened even in the slightest, things would look up for them. His mission was an S class one. A one Sakura called him insane for agreeing to. But hey, he was fifteen. He still thought he was invincible.

He was supposed to gather information about the Atasuki in a town they had been frequently sighted at. The instructions were easy. Go in as Naruko, his female 'Sexy no Jutsu' counterpart. Sneak around. Don't get caught. And if he was somehow captured anyway, kill himself before they could interrogate him.

He took off, a perfect alibi in hand, fake passports even. But when he got to the village, it was in ruins. He immediately ran to the closest inn.

"Hey! Is everyone okay?" It was a dumb question to ask, and the empty inn seemed to think so too, the question echoing off of the walls in a whiny tone. But he didn't expect an answer.

"No one's okay.. Naruto-kun." Naruto whipped around and stared at the man leaning against the telephone pole. He had blood red eyes, black hair, and wore a black cape with red clouds on it. His forehead protector was slashed.

"Itachi!" Naruto hissed out, his eyes turning a vague shade of purple, barely hiding the red beneath. "It was you! You killed all these people!"

The missing nin did not bother to lie. It was not in his style. He merely nodded, his eyes calm.

"Their sole purpose for being here was so that I could measure my power against them." he shook his head, wisps of black hair dancing around his pale, drawn in face. "I found them lacking."

"What right do you have to decide whether innocent people should live or die!" Naruto exploded. The hazy purple disappeared for a moment into a brilliant red, then died.

Itachi watched him carefully for a moment. "Ninjas kill people. For greedy and weak people who cannot do it themselves, and to prove their existence. I would have thought you'd know that by now, Naruto-kun.."

"Ninjas protect people! They protect them from people like you!" Naruto flipped the Uchiha off. "And stop adding calling me 'Naruto-kun!"

Cold amusement washed over the man's half hidden face. "What would you like for me to call you? Kyuubi? Future Hokage?" he sneered.

"Your executioner." The boy growled. His eyes became slitted, while the whisker like marks on his face stretched out. His nails became sharp claws.

For once, the Kyuubi's and Naruto's thought patterns were identical. Kill.

For an hour, the missing nin and Naruto just countered each other. Taijutsu against taijutsu. Flame against flame. Illusion against illusion.

There was a few times where it looked like Itachi's superior jutsus were going to win him the match. But Naruto jumped right back up, prepared to fight till Death had to wrestle him into the Shadow Realm.

A normal Naruto's stamina was insane. But a Naruto fused with Kyuubi power? That was plain nuts.

Itachi was slowing down. He was no longer playing. He aimed for critical points, points that could either kill of knock out opponents. But Naruto kept on blocking, still going at the speed he had started with in the beginning of the match.

He saw an opening. The angry boy powered up his hand for a rasengan. The pure white orb spun around in his hand, then buried itself in the man's chest.

There was no change of expression on Itachi's face, but Naruto could tell the missing nin was dead by the glassy look in his eyes and the awful stench of death in his nose.

He pulled his hand out of Itachi's chest with a squelching sound. The corpse fell, black eyes staring out listlessly. Naruto closed the missing nin's eyes with his unbloodied hand.

"May you rot in hell for what you did to your family and countless others..." he murmured, before falling back into the ground. His eyes faded back to a hazy blue.

He stared up into the sky, his eyes falling shut. All he wanted to do was sleep.. But Lady Luck wasn't smiling down at him today.

"Naruto." His name was spat out like a curse. The said chuunin stiffened. He knew that voice. He immediately jumped back up, cursing when the world spun around him a couple times.

He gazed at the newcomer, the blood trickling down from the wound on his forehead hindering the sight of his left eye.

"Sasuke.." he managed to get out. Somehow, the last Uchiha's eyes got even colder.

"You .. took away my reason for living! You selfish bastard!" Sasuke yelled, the curse seal activating, turning his chakra into a sickly purple. Naruto flinched at the harsh tone and backed up.

"But..Sasuke.." he tried to explain. It was sudden. He hadn't planned to kill his rival's older brother! It just happened!

"Naruto.." Sasuke's voice was sudden calm. "I'm.. going to kill you now. And I'm not going to retreat like the time we fought at the border." His hands cupped around each other and his palms pointed down. Electric blue energy zipped around his form. "Chidori!"

Naruto backed up a few more paces, nearly tripping over Itachi's body, rasengan forming in his left hand by habit.

His once teammate ran at him, sharingan eyes flaring up. Naruto slide into a defensive position, rasegan slightly in front of him. Then Sasuke disappeared.

"Shit!" Naruto whipped around to see the boy right behind him. The other boy caught both of his wrists before he could do anything, the rasengan still swirling in his left hand. Any chance of kicking free would be futile. Sasuke was much better at taijutsu than he was. Naruto had very high endurance and could take any physical attack thrown at him, so attacking in that form was useless.

But Sasuke's mind was far from fighting his ex-friend. He eyed the rasengan.

"You've gotten better.." he said unexpectedly. "You barely have to focus to get the form right.." Then the grip on Naruto's left wrist tightened. He was jerked forward.

For the second time that day, he smelt death and blood trickled through his fingers.

"Sasuke!" The Sound nin had shoved the rasegan through his own stomach. Naruto was afraid to take it out, not wanting to hurt him anymore.

"Thank you.. Naruto." Sasuke ripped himself free, and fell to the ground. Naruto immediately dropped down to his knees, his hands trying to stop the other boy's bleeding.

"Sasuke! Listen to me... You'll be alright.. Just hang on!" His arms moved to grab the boy and hoist him in the air, but soft spoken words make him stop.

"I don't want to live." Naruto stiffened. "I don't want.. this emptiness. This feeling of uselessness. And I don't want to do Orochimaru's dirty work anymore." Sasuke took a deep breath, then winced in pain. Blood coated his lips.

"You.. You're a coward! You can't face life just because you don't have a reason to live anymore! You're.. so dumb. " Naruto said, tears running down his face. A true smile came to Sasuke's face.

"I.. could never be as brave as you are, Naruto." He glanced over at his dead brother. "You know.. You were more of a brother to me.. than he was. I just wanted you to know that.."

Naruto's hand fisted over his heart. This pain of losing someone.. losing the 'precious friend'. Was this how Zabuza felt when Haku was killed? Was this what Inari felt when he lost his step father and the rest of his family? Was this how Kohonamaru felt when his grandfather died? Was this.. what Sasuke felt his entire life? More tears fell.

"You were.. a brother to me too." Sasuke nodded. He already knew.

"Tell Sakura.. that I'm sorry. I really did mean.. to.. come.. back.." The last Uchiha breathed his final words in the arms of his comrade, his best friend.. and most of all his brother.

End Flashback

Naruto had to get away from Sasuke. And now would be the best time to do so. Ignoring the cold look Sasuke's fan girl gave him, he walked past the Uchiha, and pushed open the double doors. He could tell from Hinata's steadily rising chakra that she was angry. Sighing, he veered to the left, pulling Hinata along with him.

"But.. N-Naruto-kun! We're supposed to go to room 7C!" she stuttered out. They were on the other side of the school. He found what he was looking for. An abandoned classroom. He walked in, and motioned for her to follow.

He closed the door behind her.

"W-what's wrong?" He needed to calm down, he realized numbly. He was scaring his only friend away. He took deep breathes, and willed the bloody images away. He insead focused on Hinata. Her scent, the way she kept twitching slightly, the still heightened chakra, like she wanted to push past him and knock the other girl's lights out.Naruto never knew that Hinata had atemper when it came to thingsabout him.

He turned around, a small smile on his face.

"Hinata-chan.. What am I ever going to do with you?" he murmured amused. She blushed, and started to poke her index fingers together. He caught them in the middle of the second poke.

"Don't do that." he said softly. She started to look anywhere but him.

He caught her chin in his other hand, and pulled her gaze to him. Hinata blushed even more. I think ..I'm going to faint..

"Don't get angry over what other people do to little ole' me. Besides, what goes around comes around. She'll end up having a bad hair day in a week's worth time, I guarantee it." he gave her a foxy grin. "Why, I'll even help it along!"

He got the reaction he wanted. The girl giggled and a wide smile took over the frown that was there before. Naruto let go of her. What did I ever do to get a girl like Hinata to like me, I wonder?

Vixens choose the strongest male to have pups with. The Kyuubi supplied helpfully.

But what about love? Naruto asked. He could feel the Kyuubi frown in his mind.

Another human invention. Demons kill. Demons mate. Demons breed. Then they do it all over again. Love is not needed.

For some reason, that made Naruto feel sad. Well, you guys don't know what you're missing. The Kyuubi had no counter for that.

He smiled at the girl in front of him. "Hinata.." he began. "Whenever you feel sad, think of me. I'm sure that aught to give you a laugh or two."

"I..I.." he was so confident when he spoke! Why couldn't she be the same? "I'll think of you.. when I'm feeling weak.. " His eyes widened in surprise. Her soft voice had become very strong at that last part. Naruto had a hard time trying to connect 'weak' and 'Hinata' in the same sentence without a 'not' between them. This was the girl who died for him, after all.

"..Because when I think of you.. I'm inspired to be stronger! To be just like you! Defy all odds.. and prove that everyone's opinions of me are wrong and based on false ideas!" Hinata covered her mouth her hand. She had been so energetic about it. Now she was embarrassed. He probably thought she was being weird..

Naruto whistled. "Go Hinata-chan!" He gave her a thumbs up. "Glad you feel that way!" Her cheeks burned red, but she was so happy.

"Shit!" Naruto had looked at the clock. "We spent too much time in here!" He grabbed her hand, marveling for a moment how small and pale it was compared to his own.

"Come on!" They burst out of the classroom, and ran to the other side of the school, their hands never parting.

"Well.. I'll be damned.." A woman with red eyes murmured behind her illusion. A potted plant suddenly transformed into a tall bearded man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"Kinda cute actually.." he said, dropping the cigarette on the ground, then stepping on it. The wall next to him shimmered, and then the woman from before appeared. She smiled at her companion.

"And I thought we were the only ones who wanted to hide out in an old classroom unsupervised.."

AN: My original chapter four was had a lot more than this to it, but I spent too much time on the Itachi v.s. Naruto scene. Oh well. Save that for next chapter. And I do know I spell the names of things wrong. I know I probably spelled Atasuki wrong (90 chance) and Rasengan wrong (70 chance.)

Remember! Tell me what pairings I should consider for: Sasuke, Sakura, and Gaara.