Now then onto the next chapter, here's the sixth chapter, I hope you all read, enjoy and review.
Naruto, not wanting to see the look on the Hokage's face when he was told he had stolen from a shop, quickly tried to rush past the shop owner who had him cornered. He was unable to do so, the man blocked his path, and he moved every time Naruto did. So he wouldn't be able to just rush past, so that meant he'd have to get physical once again. "Your not going anywhere ya little monster, come on let's get you to the Hokage!"
The shop owner grabbed a hold of Naruto's left hand, his hand around the young boy's wrist, and tried to pull him along. Naruto resisted for a few seconds, but he was still weak from the beating he had taken less than thirty minutes ago, he couldn't overpower the man at that current moment in time. So he really didn't think he had any choice, if he wanted to get away he was really going to have to get physical once more. Naruto quickly lashed out with a hard right jab, connecting with the shop owner's gut, causing him to hunch over in pain while letting out a yelp of pain as well. Naruto then took that chance to run, since the man's grip was considerably weaker at that moment. He broke free from the shop owner's grasp easily then and rushed off, not wanting to be brought to the Hokage so he could assign punishment. He raced out of the back alley, turned to his right and just dashed straight forward for several long moments, before slipping into another back alley, this one thankfully lacked a dead end though.
When the shop owner recovered from Naruto's punch, which took a few moments, he was even angrier. But he was also frightened, he didn't want to get too close to the demon again, lest something even worse happen. So he would have to report this to some shinobi and have them apprehend the monster.
Naruto waited in the back alley he had slipped into after he had gotten away from the shop owner for about fifteen minutes before he thought of leaving. He had been hiding in the back alley because most of them looked quite similar, besides trash that was littered about some of them that is, so all he really had to do was make sure you couldn't see him without entering the alley itself and he would be fine.
Before Naruto could leave the alley though three men appeared at the exits to the alley, one blocking the one to Naruto's left, and the other two blocking the one on his right. They all began to approach him, as they did Naruto felt fear and panic rise to the surface. "Who are you guys and what do you want!?"
The one who was standing by himself was the one to speak, "We heard you assaulted one of the Village's shop owners when he tried to apprehend you for stealing from his shop."
That's when Naruto noticed their headbands, they were Ninja, his fear and panic levels went through the roof. His voice became shaky, he was quite frightened. "I...I didn't know what else to do, I had nothing to eat, I would have died if I hadn't taken that food. I promise I won't ever do it again, just please don't take me to the Hokage."
The one who had spoken a moment earlier, spoke once more, a smirk tugging at his lips, ""Oh don't worry, we won't take you to the Hokage, we'll deal out your punishment ourselves, you little demon. You'll get what's coming to you for assaulting one of our kind villagers."
Naruto felt all the hope he held for getting out of this situation die right there on the spot. He felt tears beginning to well up in his eyes once more, these three were shinobi, he had no chance against them in a fight. Not to mention he was still weak from his earlier beating, so there was no way this was going to end well.
The three shinobi continued to advance upon Naruto, and soon enough he was trapped between the three of them. However, he was desperate and scared, and that made him dangerous. When something human or otherwise is cornered, that's when they become deadliest.
Naruto lashed out, he slammed his right fist and his left fist into two of the shinobi's guts as hard as he could, with even more strength than he could normally summon since he was so scared. These punches caused both of them to gasp in pain, however they did not hunch over. Naruto didn't notice this, because he spun around to face the third shinobi. And before the third shinobi could attack him, Naruto brought his right leg up fast and hard, slamming his shin with a good amount of force into the ninja's crotch. Which elicited a cry of pain from him before he doubled over in agony. The young blonde bpy then took that as his chance to make a break for it, and quickly booked it out of there. However before he could exit the alley one of the shinobi had made it to that particular exit, stopping Naruto flat out. Naruto then turned around to get out the other way, however the other ninja was less than three inches from him, blocking him from going that way as well.
The only upside to the current situation was that the ninja Naruto had kicked in the balls wouldn't be able to join in on beating the boy for a few minutes. Otherwise the whole situation was pretty bad. Naruto of course realized this and his tears began to fall once more.
Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow at what he saw, a group of ANBU Black Ops members jumping from rooftop to rooftop, obviously searching for something. They were gone in a matter of seconds, but Shikamaru had seen them and he couldn't help but be curious as to what they were up to. "I wonder what their searching for, it must be pretty important considering how focused they seemed to be. Eh, none of my concern anyway."
Shikamaru went back to watching clouds with his best friend Choji, not even telling the boy of what he had seen.
Sasuke rushed past the guards who stood by the entrance of the Uchiha compound, thankfully going unnoticed because he was able to be fast and quiet. He had snuck out of the Uchiha compound because he couldn't stand just sitting around while his best friend was out on the streets, fending for himself with no one around who even gave a damn about him. He had to find him and make sure he was okay, his Father's orders to stay in his room be damned. Once he found Naruto then he would take it one step at a time from there. He didn't know how he was going to help Naruto, all he knew was that he had to try, and he intended to. Sasuke realized he had no clue where Naruto could be, but he was determined to look for him, but it would take a while to cover the whole Village by himself.
He would need help, but he knew at least one person who would be willing to help, as well as two others who might be up for it. So that was his first goal, to gather up those people.
That meant his first destination was the Hyuga compound.
Hinata was still quite upset, she had been in her room ever since the incident with Naruto. Her Mother had gotten her Father to lay off the training for a while, so that she could be alone. She was grateful for that, because she didn't feel up to it at all. Of course Heather had no trouble in convincing her husband, Hiashi, to lay off. But it was even easier since she was six months pregnant, which meant Hiashi was even easier to convince, since he was always so cautious about his wife's health when she was with child. So Hinata would be able to be alone until she felt at least a little better.
That's when a noise pulled Hinata's attention over to her window, she just stared at it for a few moments wondering what had caused the noise, before she saw something small hit it and make the same noise. She got off her bed and approached her window, her eyes slightly red from crying. She looked out of her window just in time to see another small object hit it, which she recognized as a pebble. She looked down at who was throwing those pebbles to see Sasuke, she had not talked to the boy very much, and she barely knew anything about him, so she had no clue why he was here. Nevertheless she opened her window so as to see what he wanted. She was on the second floor, so she had to look down at him. "H..hello, S..Sasuke what brings you here?"
Her tone was hushed, knowing that it would be bad if he was caught.
Sasuke wasted no time, "We need to talk, its about Naruto."
Hinata was caught by surprise a little, however she nodded her head and replied, "I..I'll be down i..in a moment."
True to her word Hinata was exiting the main building of the Hyuga compound within a matter of moments, thankfully unnoticed. She made her way over to Sasuke to see what was up. "Yes?"
Sasuke was concerned and in a hurry, so he tried to be as quick as possible. "I know you were there when my Father said Naruto was to be put on the streets, and I know your upset over it. And since your one of the few people who actually care for him, I knew you'd be willing to help me go out into the Village and find him. He's got nowhere to go, and no one to help him, but we could help him, we could find him and make sure he's okay, and then we'll just take it step by step from there. But we have to go and look for him right now, because he's not safe on the streets by himself."
Hinata felt dread consume her, she spoke, her voice shaky, "Wha...what do you mean? H...how is h..he not safe?"
They didn't really have time for questions, "We can talk about that later, right now I need your help to find Naruto."
Hinata was more than just simply curious, she needed to know what he meant. "P..please, just tell me w..why Naruto isn't safe."
Sasuke's facial expression grew grim at that, "Because last time, when it was just me and Naruto out alone on the Village streets, a group of villagers chased us and tried to hurt Naruto, not me, just Naruto."
Hinata gasped, "W..what!? W..why!?"
She wasn't necessarily loud, there was just a lot of emotion in her voice.
Sasuke's grim expression didn't change as he answered, "I don't know, all I do know is that if we don't hurry up and find Naruto then he could end up getting badly hurt by some of the villagers."
Hinata understood why they were so pressed for time and nodded her head, and then she followed Sasuke as they raced off deeper into the Village.
There was one more place Sasuke intended to stop by before they began their search for Naruto, such a place was merely a twenty minute walk from here, that meant it was less than a ten minute run.
Shikamaru stifled a yawn as he stared up at the clouds beside his best friend Choji, his mind at ease and his body relaxed. However when Shikamaru heard the sound of people coming up the staircase he became slightly alert and sat up in time to see Sasuke Uchiha and a girl he recognized to be Hinata Hyuga, the girl Naruto usually talked about, come up onto the rooftop he and Choji were on. This was especially strange considering the lack of Naruto's presence. Hinata's eyes were filled with worry, her facial expression one of uncertainty. Sasuke also held worry within his eyes, however his facial expression was very serious, as if he was on a mission. This all had Shikamaru quite curious.
That's when Sasuke spoke, "We need you help."
That really got both Shikamaru's and Choji's attention. Choji put down his chips and paid close attention to Sasuke and Hinata.
Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow at Sasuke's request for help, "With what?"
Sasuke knew they didn't really have time to beat around the bush, so he was going to be blunt the whole way through. "Finding Naruto."
Choji quirked an eyebrow at that one, "What do you mean, did he get lost or something?"
"No, and we don't really have time to talk about it, we've gotta find him quickly. All you really need to know is that he's out on the streets alone, and that he's in danger because of that."
Both Shikamaru's and Choji's quirked eyebrows rose higher at that, their curiosities peaked. It was obvious they were wondering what kind of danger Naruto could be in. So Sasuke decided to just be blunt and honest once more, since he had learned from Itachi that it was the best method, at least most of the time anyways. "If we don't get to him first, then some of the villagers surely will. And last time Naruto was near too many villagers, and even though I was there, a group of them began chasing him. That's how we ended up here once. Later that day the same group of villagers cornered us, and they intended to beat on Naruto, not event thinking about doing anything to me, only focusing on him. I don't know why, but it seems like everyone hates him, and neither he or I have any clue as to why. So I are you guys gonna help us look for him or not!? Because we're running out of time as it is!"
Sasuke wasn't happy in the least, anyone could tell that. So his bitter tone wasn't that much of a surprise.
Hinata had to hold back tears as Sasuke spoke, not understanding how anyone could want to do something like that to Naruto, or how anyone could even dislike him. He hadn't ever done anything, yet he was hated, it made no sense to her. She downright idolized him, he refused to give up, he strived to become stronger and he didn't let anything get to him, and he was only five years old. She couldn't understand how anyone could even think about disliking someone like that, especially Naruto himself.
Shikamaru and Choji had similar thoughts to each other on the matter, that it made no sense once so ever that Naruto was hated. They were both worried for their friend, so they refrained from asking anymore questions and nodded their heads, agreeing to help find Naruto.
Sasuke nodded his head and led them all down to the streets, where they all split up and began to look for Naruto.
Sasuke of course couldn't rid himself of thoughts about his family. "Why does Father and everyone else despise Naruto so? It doesn't make any sense. Itachi knows why, but he still refuses to tell me, it's aggravating. What could he be hiding from from me, and Naruto himself for that matter?"
Choji couldn't keep his thoughts clear either, wondering just what was going on with Naruto. Nothing really made sense, so he couldn't bring himself to figure it out.
Hinata's head was clouded with thoughts of Naruto, "Why did this happen to Naruto? Nothing about any of this makes sense! Please Naruto, be okay."
Shikamaru's thoughts were actually quite organized unlike the others's, he was also piecing stuff together in his head. "It makes absolutely zero sense that Naruto is hated so. But Sasuke's claims match up with what I've seen. Naruto avoids being near villagers, that anyone could notice. Sasuke's claims also back up why they came onto the roof several months ago. And if the whole Village truly despises Naruto, then the Hokage would know about it. Which means he'd probably assign him some protection, but I've never seen anyone with him besides Sasuke and...Itachi. I see Itachi must have been his protection, he must be incapable of protecting Naruto as of the current moment, otherwise he'd be by Naruto's side right now. So the Hokage must have assigned someone different, which could explain the group of ANBU I saw no less than thirty minutes ago."
Shikamaru could feel a migraine coming on, "This is going to be such a drag."
Thirty minutes, Naruto's beating lasted thirty minutes straight. Five minutes into the beating the third shinobi had gotten to his feet and had joined in on beating the young boy. So three exhausted Ninja stood around Naruto, as he lay beaten, broken and bloodied. The shinobi who Naruto had kicked in the pelvis, his breathing ragged, spoke, "That's what you get, don't you ever lay a hand on one of the villagers again, or next time your punishment will be even worse you little monster."
The three exhausted shinobi then left the alley before anyone caught sight of them. Which was strange indeed, with how much Naruto screamed it was surprising no one had come to see what was going on. Not that it would have mattered, no one would have helped him.
Naruto laid there, curled up into a ball, his whole body in agonizingly horrible pain. His nose was even more messed up than before, more blood than before coming from both nostrils. A decent amount of blood filled Naruto's mouth, some of it leaking from the bottom right and left corners of his mouth, while his face was covered in bruises. The back of his head was busted open as well, blood leaking from it, covering his scalp and hair slowly with blood. His eyes were raw from all the tears also. His abdomen was covered in bumps and bruises, and several of his ribs were broken, he also had a broken arm and a broken leg. On the leg that wasn't broken, his right leg, his knee was badly scraped. Overall he was in critical state.
He couldn't stop crying, or yelping in agony, because every time he took a breath his whole body was wracked with pain. His life was hanging in the balance at that very moment and he needed someones help.
Kakashi led his group towards the sound of screaming, they didn't know how long it had been going on, or how long it was going to keep on, all they knew is that whether it was Naruto or not, they needed to see who was in such agony to scream like that. They were coming upon the noise fast, but soon enough it faded. They continued on, going toward where they had heard the noise coming from. And soon enough they came upon a back alley that was empty, except for one person, who was curled up into a ball in the middle of the alley. They were on the ground in a matter of seconds and racing towards the person. Kakashi was in the lead, so when he came to a stop so did the other ANBU following him. He scowled at the sight of Naruto, the young boy looked like hell.
Naruto peeked out when he heard footsteps, fearing the ninja had come back. When he saw they hadn't he stared at the ANBU members for several moments, before locking eyes with Kakashi's right eye.
Kakashi got down to his knees as he spoke with a calm and soothing tone, "Don't worry, we're here to help you Naruto. Everything's going to be okay, we'll get you fixed up, I promise."
Naruto could feel a few more tears roll down his face, his lip quivering as he nodded his head.
Kakashi nodded his head as wel, and scooped Naruto up into his arms, eliciting a small whimper of pain from the young boy. He then turned around, a grim look on his face that the rest of his squad had come to recognize even though the bottom half of his face was covered, they nodded their heads and set out. Kakashi then set out, leaping up onto a rooftop, and then beginning to jump from rooftop to rooftop, heading to the hospital as fast as he could. He felt horrible that he hadn't been there to protect Naruto, he spoke aloud, so softly that Naruto couldn't have heard him, "I'm sorry Minato Sensei."
Sasuke was looking everywhere he thought Naruto would be, at least everywhere he would be in the section of the Village he was searching, but he hadn't found a trace of his presence anywhere. That's when a noise caught Sasuke's attention, he looked up to see a few ANBU members jump from one rooftop to another, making the same noise he had heard a second earlier. Sasuke couldn't help but wonder why there were ANBU out and about so freely, however that thought was lost to him as he saw another ANBU member jump from one rooftop to another, in his arms a severely injured Naruto. The young Uchiha's eyes widened at the sight, he had to keep himself from calling out to the ANBU member and Naruto upon impulse. He turned around and quickly began making his way back, he had to find Hinata, Shikamaru and Choji and tell them about what he saw, so they could go after Naruto together.
Itachi hadn't stopped for a break ever since his group had taken care of the last target, he kept running at full speed, dead set on getting back to the Village as soon as possible. He had lost track of his group a few minutes earlier because they had to stop and take a break, but he wouldn't, he couldn't afford to. If he kept at this pace he'd be back at the Village within twenty minutes at most.
Within a matter of minutes Kakashi had Naruto at the hospital, being treated on the Hokage's order. Kakashi wasn't going to leave Naruto's side however, he would stay and make sure Naruto was protected from anyone who dared enter the room. He let the rest of his squad head over to the Hokage so as to give him the report on their mission so he'd be aware of the situation.
As Naruto lay unconscious in his hospital bed Kakashi sat in a chair in the right corner of the room, the one farthest from his bed, which allowed him the best vantage point. Now no one could enter the room, or move to any spot in the room without being watched. He could watch the window, the door and Naruto all at the same time while just looking straight ahead. He knew what he was doing, and he didn't intend to slack off. Naruto would be protected while he recovered.
