Thanks for the encouraging words some of you sent me! Especially the stuff regarding my health was nice to read. But it's really not like I'm constantly feeling bad or anything. I'm just not feeling my best.

NinetailFoxme9 basically asked me not to kill anyone. I can't promise that, to be honest. I'm just too cruel of a writer not to let anyone die. Although it'll take a while until I kill someone off. PayNoAttention also pointed out that I uploaded chapter 11 on 11/11/11…

I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. Both belongs to Kishimoto Masashi.

Chapter X
– Encounters –

Okay. This house looks pretty normal. Looks can deceive though, right?

Just walking up to the door was getting Naruto extremely worked up and nervous. He could feel his heart beginning to race and droplets of sweat covering his forehead. All he wanted to do right now was to run away as far as he could, until his legs went numb and until his lungs couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to escape so badly, but since his only two options were staying or leaving, and since staying was the lesser of those two evils, he didn't have much of a choice. Still, he didn't want to be here. He had never agreed to something like this. And once he was standing at the front door, he couldn't get himself to open that damn door. Luckily, someone else did that for him.

"It's good to see you, Naruto." Madara stepped aside and beckoned the teen inside. "Don't be nervous. It will be awkward in the beginning, but you will get used to it eventually."

Sure… Hands shoved into his pockets, Naruto avoided Madara's inquisitive look as he stepped inside. There just was something in that guy's eyes he didn't like. As if he was able to see through everything he said, may it be the truth or a lie.

Madara simply stalked off, expecting him to follow, which he did. Albeit begrudgingly. The tall man lead him down a few winded corridors and Naruto quickly took note of the many doors. All of them were closed, which made him wonder just how many other people there were. Then he spotted a door that was slightly ajar and chanced a peek inside. What he found was a surprise: there was a man sharpening knives at a large wooden desk, the metallic sound of metal hitting metal extremely grating to the ears. Only when said man looked up from whatever he was doing to stare at Naruto, the blond noticed how he had stopped walking to stare at him.

"What'cha looking at?" the grey-haired man barked in a gruff tone. Clearly, he wasn't in the mood to have some stranger stare at him.

Naruto pulled back out of the door, holding back his own glare. "Nothing. Was just curious." Before that man could bite back another response, he was walking back over to Madara, who was sending him a look.

"That's Hidan," Madara explained in a hushed voice. "He creates goods and sells them off." Seeing how the teen opened his mouth to ask the question he already knew would be coming, he cut him off. "Don't ask."

Naruto couldn't help but send him a curious look. What he meant by goods was quite obvious and Naruto was certain that selling off weapons was somehow illegal. It had to be. Madara being so hush hush about it only confirmed that assumption.

Soon, there was another open door and when Naruto glanced inside that one, he actually found a familiar face. "S-Sasori-sensei?" There, in a semi-dark room, sat his art teacher with sharp knives and tools, chipping away at what looked to be a huge wooden puppet. Madara pulled him away once his teacher noticed him, leaning down to whisper something into his ear.

"Yes, that is Akasuna Sasori, although I would advise you not to interrupt him when he's working."

Naruto felt tempted to ask what would happen if he did, but then he heard yelling from behind one of the closed doors and decided not to ask after all. After that, he silently stayed behind Madara, quietly taking in everything he was seeing. There were a few more rooms with their doors ajar and whenever Naruto glanced inside, he was met with people that didn't seem all that keen on getting acquainted with him, to say the least. He didn't even want to know what exactly was in the countless plastic bags in some of the rooms or why some of the people glared at him with those angry, bloodshot eyes.

After a while, they passed by a room that was brightly lit, piquing the blond's curiosity yet again. Inside the bright room, there was a guy that, on first glance, seemed even weirder than the rest. Mismatched eyes stared back at Naruto apathetically, one looking pitch-black, the other a strange reddish brown. A surgical mask covered the entire lower half of his face, leaving only that aloof stare. Dogs surrounded him, among them a pug and a weirdly large bulldog. The others seemed to be mutts. They struck Naruto as a bit odd, but the blond couldn't quite decide why. The look in their eyes seemed a bit too aware. As though they somehow knew what he was thinking.

"You must be Naruto then?"

The weird man was looking at him now with strangely friendly eyes. "Uh… yeah," Naruto answered, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"I'm Kakashi. Hatake Kakashi."

Keeping his eyes on the strange man and trying not to look at the even stranger dogs, the blond nodded. "Naruto." He couldn't help his curiosity and ended up eyeing the dogs again. Was the man smiling? Naruto couldn't really tell, since all he had were his eyes to decide on.

"I see you're interested in my dogs," Kakashi laughed.

Naruto could only nod, not quite sure what to think of the grey-haired man. So far everyone he had seen in this place had seemed like a thug or serial killer.

"You must be wondering why there are dogs in this place," he chuckled. "I guess I'm what you'd call a dog sitter." Suddenly, Kakashi dragged Naruto into the room. "I'll tell you their names."

Someone please tell me just why this guy seems so happy in a place like this. Only two or three steps later, Naruto was standing in the room and could see a few books and magazines that revealed just how much of a pervert this guy was. A few leashes and dog toys laid strewn about, making this room feel more like a private one. Perhaps Kakashi actually lived here. At least it seemed big enough for one person to live in without feeling cramped.

Kakashi then proceeded to introduce every single one of the dogs, seemingly ignoring the way Naruto looked ready to run away. He's even weirder than I thought, the blond decided, succumbing to his fate. Someone suddenly sighed behind him and when Naruto turned around, he saw it was Madara.

"Kakashi is also our doctor," the man explained, his earlier annoyed sigh betraying his calm attitude. "He'll take care of you whenever you might get injured or sick, but we always try our best to prevent such things from coming about in the first place." Madara walked off again, forcing Naruto to tear himself away from Kakashi with a small apology and follow. "There are rules not only for you, but also for our customers," the dark-haired man continued. "In case they hurt you in any way that wasn't settled in the contract made beforehand, they are banned from this house immediately. And just to clarify: you being here means that Mizuki had you checked up for any diseases, correct?"

"Yeah," Naruto replied in a monotonous voice, remembering how exactly Mizuki had gone about getting a blood sample from him. "He tried to stab me to get the blood, but missed. He still grazed my side though and it started to bleed again a while ago. Turns out I don't have any diseases." I'm so lucky.

Madara did nothing but nod.

Currently, Naruto wasn't sure what to think of this place. He had been expecting to see cheap-looking hookers and some horny old farts visiting them, but not a guy making weapons, then his art teacher making creepy dolls and a weird doctor slash dog sitter taking care of even stranger dogs. Just what the hell was this place? "Is it okay for me to ask what exactly is going on here?"

"You were expecting a filthy brothel, weren't you?" Madara answered, chuckling when he saw the blond's startled expression. "Well, let's say we are a company that does all kinds of things. Money can come from many places, as you might know."

That didn't quite answer Naruto's question. "So basically you're doing illegal stuff for money, but also legal stuff as a cover."

Madara looked Naruto over once, looking as though he was examining the teen. "You can be sharp if you want, Naruto-kun. I'm sure you know what happens when you share any of this with outsiders. Always remember: this is Akatsuki, not a sanctuary for criminals."

Taking the words to heart, Naruto noticed that they had finally stopped in front of a door. After Madara turned the golden knob and pushed the door open, he nudged the boy inside. The door shut behind Naruto with a thud and he couldn't help but glance back at it nervously. There were two other people in the room with him, both looking him over curiously.

"You're the new kid?" someone spoke up, making the blond turn his head to look at the other. "Naruto, right?"

Naruto nodded, taking in the boy's appearance. He was around his age, towering over him quite a bit; another weird one, Naruto quickly decided. Bluish-white hair, purple eyes – were those contacts? – and a weirdly toothy grin. There was another guy quietly sitting in the back reading. Pale skin, dark eyes, dark hair, around his age as well. He somewhat reminded Naruto of Uchiha. As soon as he saw the fake smile on the other's face, Naruto decided that the pale was one was equally as weird as the one with the weird eyes.

"I'm Suigetsu," the white-haired teen smirked. "That creep over there is Sai."

Who exactly is the creep here, huh? "Uh… hey." Naruto wasn't sure how to deal with this. He didn't know if these guys were petty thieves or even worse, murderers. There really was no way to tell in a place like this.

Suigetsu seemed to find Naruto's cautious and suspicious look amusing, since he suddenly chuckled. "The boss told you some weird stories, didn't he?"

"The boss?" Naruto asked with an eyebrow rising in question.

"Madara, our boss."

"Oh… Yeah, he really told me some weird stuff." The blond couldn't help but scratch the back of his head nervously, shuffling his feet a little. "He kinda said that there are lots of shady people here. Lots of criminals."

Suigetsu merely gave him an unchanging, apathetic look. Why was everyone giving him that look? "Well, that's kinda true."

Naruto gaped, staring at the other with disbelief. "What?! So… what did you… you know… do?"

"Me?" Suigetsu repeated, pointing at himself. "Uh… Nothing special, really. I just… kinda… stole an antique sword from a museum, but I was already here at the time. I've been here for so long, I don't even remember if I've ever been somewhere else before."

The blond tilted his head in curiosity, wondering how someone could blush like that while talking about major theft. "Then you never met your parents?" Naruto immediately regretted the question and cursed his overbearing curiosity.

"Nope." Suigetsu shook his head with his lips pressed together. It was obvious that he didn't like to talk about it; Naruto could see that.

"Sucks…" Naruto simply muttered, still feeling bad for asking. "My mom died when I was still too little to remember her and my ass of a dad won't ever tell me what happened to her or even what kind of person she was." It was weird for him to open up about his private matters like this, but he felt it was only fair to reveal this much after prying into Suigetsu's business the way he had.

"I'd rather have an ass of a dad than none at all," Suigetsu mumbled, his eyes suddenly darkening.

A scoff left Naruto's mouth before he could stop it. "I wouldn't be too sure about that. I'm only staying with mine cause I'd definitely die otherwise. There are so many times when I want to kill either him or myself, just to get away from him. Sometimes I actually start planning how to kill him. I've thought about so many damn ways where he'd die as painfully and slowly as possible without me being caught. He's an asshole and I'm sure there are enough other people that hate him, so no one would be surprised. He's also hiding what he does to me, so no one would have any reason to blame me once he's dead. No one would ever know."

Other people would have given him these disbelieving looks and considered calling those nice men in white. He would have been giving himself the same look, seeing how he had actually just said that. He had never been aware of how much he actually wanted his father to be gone, how intense his need to see him suffer for once was. But Suigetsu and Sai were looking at him with something like understanding. Not pity, not disgust, not fear, just simple understanding and no judgement.

Now Suigetsu was facing him with true curiosity. "Dads can really be that horrible?"

"They can," Naruto replied mechanically. "My dad's making my life hell. He's the one that forced me into this to earn money cause he was fired from his job. He keeps beating me up whenever he can and he…" He stopped himself there and stared down at the floor. He had shared more than enough, he suddenly realised.

"He what?" Suigetsu wanted to know. He got up from the floor to step closer to the blond. "Does he yell at you? Force you to earn money like this often? Rape you? Starve you?" He must've noticed how the other flinched at one part, since now he tilted his head and eyed the teen. "He's raping you."

Naruto backed away until his back hit the closed door. He couldn't decide where to look and kept rubbing his left arm, even clawing at it at some point. Dammit! Why do I always cry when this comes up? I can barely hold it back! The next time I blink, I'll… dammit…

An arm suddenly wrapped around Naruto's shoulders and when he glanced sideways, he saw Suigetsu right beside him. He wanted to slap his arm away, push him out of a window, run away, but he held himself back. Suigetsu didn't want to harm him, he knew that, but he still started to shake like a leaf in his hold.

"There's nothing weird about the way you're reacting. It's only natural."

Tears were running down the blond's checks and he didn't dare to look at Suigetsu directly. "What would you know?" he hissed.

Suigetsu sighed, his breath running over the other's shoulder. "It's happened to us too," he suddenly admitted. "With me it's some banned customers that see me outside of here and feel like forcing themselves on me. Most of the time I'm able to fight them off, but cause I usually wander around by myself, I don't always make it out completely unscathed. And Sai…" He quickly glanced at Sai, seeming to check if he was allowed to say. Sai nodded, so Suigetsu continued. "Sai was in an orphanage his entire life before he came here a few years ago. The caretakers there weren't the nicest people. Ever heard of Danzo?"

Naruto briefly remembered hearing about him on the news, so he nodded.

"Then you know how Danzo used his position as head of the orphanage and was arrested for child molestation, right? He didn't care that even the caretakers had their way with pretty much all of the children. The kids were told that if they said anything, they'd get their tongues cut of. Sai used to have someone there that was like a brother to him, so he was able to endure the abuse, but that guy died after being hurt too much after one of Danzo's attacks. From what Sai told me – he doesn't talk much about himself, you know – after his brother died, he didn't have anything to hold on to anymore and so he managed to run away. I think he was only twelve or thirteen at that time, but he was smart enough to give the police an anonymous hint. That way they actually caught wind of what was happening and started to investigate."

Naruto was looking at Suigetsu with wide eyes at this point. They both really had gone through things like that? "But… doesn't Sai get attacked by customers?"

"That's what makes me and him different," the white-haired teen noted, releasing Naruto from his hold, but staying pretty close. "My customers are all around my age and if anything, only about ten years older than me. Sai's customers though have a thing for younger ones. His are usually old and married and would never risk causing a scene and getting caught. Mine though… Mine get drunk and then feel like the kings of the world. I'm the only one of us able to handle them." He eyed Naruto. Again. "Let's see what kind of type you are."

"Wha–" His lips were suddenly on the blond's neck, nipping at his skin. It reminded him so much of what his dad usually did. Whenever he did homework, whenever he was getting ready for school, whenever he was just watching TV, his father was there to feel him up. Always. But he told himself that Suigetsu was different. He knew this pain, he knew how he felt. He wouldn't hurt him intentionally, right? Naruto couldn't hold back the moan that bubbled up from his mouth when Suigetsu moved up to nibble at his ear, then moved on to his jaw. He definitely wasn't as rough as his father. He always ended up with bruises after his father got his hands on him, but Suigetsu he… Naruto could feel comfortable with him. He didn't flinch back when he pressed his lips onto his, pushing his tongue into the teen's mouth, tangling it with his. For the first time, Naruto didn't feel disgusted while kissing someone and he almost didn't shake at all when hands cupped his face to pull him closer and deeper into the kiss.

Suddenly, Suigetsu pulled away just so much that their lips didn't meet, but stayed close enough for their noses to bump. His lips kept hovering around Naruto's, teasing him. The blond suddenly growled, grabbing the back of Suigetsu's head and shoving him closer again. Naruto plunged his tongue into the other's mouth, moaning.

This sudden rush of lust surprised Naruto. Especially after everything he'd been through. He knew that he was supposed to be disgusted by other peoples' touch, in his head he knew that, but somehow he suddenly wanted this. He couldn't help it. Naruto wanted to know what it would be like when someone saw him as a person and not just a fuck-toy. He needed to know, had to prove it to himself that he still had a free will, even if his shaking wouldn't stop.

Again, Suigetsu was the one to pull away. "Wow, you're pretty eager." That was enough to make Naruto blush and the white-haired teen knew that. "I guess you're kind of feisty. Maybe you can even take on my customers. That really would be a relief."

Somehow it made Naruto proud that Suigetsu trusted him and didn't see a disturbed and crazy idiot in him like everyone else. Perhaps one day Naruto could be like him and be confident in situations like this, despite everything he had been through. Naruto smiled at Suigetsu, even though he should have been yelling at him for promising to sick his weird customers on him after only this short time they had met.

The door suddenly opened, causing Naruto to jump in surprise. Madara was standing in the frame and staring at him and Suigetsu. Why did Naruto feel like he just had done something forbidden? Was it even allowed for employees here to be involved with each other?

"I see…" Madara mumbled to himself, glancing back and forth between Naruto and Suigetsu with a knowing expression. He suddenly stepped into the room to tower over the blond. "Naruto, you have your first customer. Let Suigetsu explain everything and prepare yourself. Be ready within an hour."

All Naruto could do was stare at the man in shock.

For a moment he had forgotten why he was here. For just a moment he had seen light at the end of this endlessly dark tunnel.

How easily that light had been extinguished brought Naruto back to the unpleasant reality.

I changed this chapter's title to something lame. I apologise. But I hated the old title, so I couldn't help it.