Warnings: Foul language. Alternative Universe.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this and I'm not trying to sell any of it.

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Chapter 12: That Chance

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"Damn teme!" Naruto cursed under his breath as he brought a pizza to his truck, about to go on his fifth delivery. The night was going by slowly and he couldn't stop thinking about Sasuke. 'First he's gone all day and making everybody worry and then he gets back and actually apologizes sincerely. Who the fuck does he think he is?" Naruto punched his dashboard quick, telling himself to leave the internal ranting until he was done with work. He grabbed his keys off the top of the delivery bag and threw them into the ignition, starting his truck. Before pulling out of the parking lot he glanced at the address printed on the receipt.

It was unusual for him to make a delivery to this part of town, but hey, rich snobby people like to eat pizza too, right?

While the manor that Sasuke lived in was located a mere few minutes outside of town, this specific address was located towards the edge of the city, where the city itself became obscured by a small prefecture threatening to become its own town. Not to say they were fighting to literally be their own town, but this section of the city was actually inhabited by the same one family. Smaller town houses and apartment buildings littered the outside of this mini-town. Farther into the heart of the district, the houses gradually grew bigger and more luxurious, with tall, neatly trimmed hedges, columns that stood alongside the buildings, porches, canopies, gardens, and large trees. It wasn't hard to pick out which houses were inhabited by the branch family as opposed to the main family.

And Naruto was going right into the heart of the prefecture. Right to the main house, owned by the head of the family that surrounded it. The entire time, thinking, 'this is so weird.'

He grabbed the bag and climbed out of his truck; awkwardly making his way up the marble steps to the tall wooden double doors where he rapped his knuckles timely.

Several seconds later, the door was slowly pulled open and a shy Hinata peeped her head around the door, blushing extensively. "H-hello Naruto-kun. I d-didn't realize you were the one who'd be delivering the p-pizza… … … …

"…

"…

"… w-want to come in?"

Naruto stifled a laugh. Hinata was so weird. "Actually, I'm enjoying it out here a lot. It's a nice night and the scenery is great." In reality he just wanted to avoid her family; not that he didn't care about them or whatever, he just wasn't dressed to impress and hated the idea of being judged by them over his unruly hair and delivery-boy uniform. "You want to come out here?"

Hinata turned her head right and then left, as if checking to see if anyone inside of the house was watching her. Then she nervously squeezed herself through the small opening she had made with the door, before quietly shutting it behind her. They stood staring at each other for a few uncomfortable seconds before Naruto plopped himself down on the steps; he could take a small break from work. They were dead anyway, and besides, Hinata decided to join him, sitting down on the completely opposite side of the step as she could.

"So, is this your pizza?" Naruto said, lifting the bag off the ground an inch to indicate it.

Hinata shook her head. "N-no; it's Neji-niisans."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Not that I've ever really tried to understand the guy, but Neji is just a branch member of your family right? Why would he want his pizza delivered to the main house?"

Hinata looked down to her feet, which were wrapped in a cute pair of sandals. "W-well he actually lives here. I-It's kind of complicated, but, yeah…" She tilted her head up to look at Naruto, an expression of confusion mixed with embarrassment on her face, as if she just didn't know how to explain everything in simple terms. "All and a-all, we took him in."

"You guys aren't like, betrothed are you?" Naruto chuckled. He put his arms behind himself and leaned back.

"Wha? No! Oh goodness no!" Hinata said, reacting a little too strongly.

Naruto laughed harder. "I was kidding; it was a joke!" He leaned over to her and lightly shook her shoulder a few times while he laughed.

"O-oh, okay…" Hinata smiled, even more embarrassed, red covering her face.

"Well, if this is his then I'm helping myself to a slice," Naruto said. He pulled the pizza box out of the bag, opened it up, and grabbed a slice; it was a plain pepperoni pizza. Before shoveling the first slice into his mouth, he asked if Hinata wanted any, but she politely declined.

"N-Naruto-kun, y-you seem so much happier now," She said. He looked at her oddly while chewing on his slice. "I-it's just, you looked upset about something w-when I o-opened the door, but you don't anymore."

Naruto swallowed loudly. "Oh. That." He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his black and orange hoody. "Sasuke just pissed me off again."

Hinata faced away from Naruto a tad. "I don't mean to question your judgment, but why are you friends with someone like him?" Naruto gave her a stern look, nearly glaring at her. "I-I just… I just mean… You're so nice, and he always seems to cause you pain. When I see him, I just think of that day when he-"

"When he told me he never wanted me to come near him again?" Naruto wasn't looking at her anymore. He had reached into the box to grab another slice of pizza and now appeared to be studying it ominously. Hinata nodded her head this time. "Honestly. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, scared awake by the thought of him doing it again."

She looked at his eyes earnestly. If only he could see that, but he was too busy looking at his pizza. "You can go on," she almost whispered, earning a quick glance from him. She leaned forward a little and carefully, almost gracefully, opened the box before pulling out a slice for herself.

The atmosphere broke a little from her decision to grab a slice of pizza, allowing Naruto to relax enough to continue.

After Sasuke had started that fight, no one would talk to him anymore. His classmates openly ignored him. In the cafeteria, in the school yard, during gym; he was lucky to get someone to at least yell or laugh at him, let alone talk to him. Sasuke himself didn't speak to him for a whole year, maybe a little longer. And when he did finally start talking to him, it was nothing but insults made in front of their peers. They fought more than they talked, and Sasuke always won.

Whenever they were put into the same team during gym, Sasuke left Naruto out if he could, if he couldn't he would try ignoring him. If it was critical that Naruto actually play, then Sasuke would refer to him as nothing but 'dobe'.

If they were partnered in a class together, Sasuke would do all of the work himself and hand it in. Even writing Naruto's name on the paper for him just so that he wouldn't have to physically walk over to him and hand him the paper long enough for him to do it himself. The teachers noticed this but allowed it anyway. Naruto's grades dropped terribly following the breakup of their friendship, he simply stopped caring about school, and so it was actually common for a teacher to partner the two of them up with projects so that Sasuke's flawless work could bump up Naruto's grade enough for him to pass the class.

Towards the ending of fifth grade and the beginning of sixth grade, Naruto had made some friends. He never shared a bond with them that was as strong as the one he had with Sasuke, but at least he had kids to play with again. The group primarily consisted of Kiba, Chōji, and Shikamaru. Still, the older he got, the more he realized that the three friends he had were three more than Sasuke had.

Even though Sasuke surrounded himself with a large crowd and was always hanging out with the popular kids at school, Naruto noticed that the smile he gave off was never sincere; that after school, Sasuke always went straight home. Naruto didn't mean to study Sasuke, but he couldn't help it. He was always left wondering why Sasuke had cut him off like he did; especially if he wasn't even going to make real friends.

Iruka told him, when it first happened, that Sasuke was just going through a hard time in his life, which was understandable, and that eventually he'd be ready to be friends again. But after almost three years had gone by, Naruto was worried that it would never happen the way Iruka said it would, and would he really want to be Sasuke's friend if Sasuke asked anyway?

Iruka was worried too.

Then, at the start of the fourth quarter of sixth grade, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were thrown into a group together, under the guidance of Kakashi.

Sasuke and Naruto began fighting more than ever. Left and right it seemed that one of them had punched the other or had started an argument. No matter what though, Sasuke was the one who won, and Naruto was the one who was left with his face in the dirt, or the cement, or the linoleum, or a tree, or a wall, or any other place Sasuke so kindly chose to leave him.

Sakura never understood why Naruto was so willing to fight Sasuke when he always lost. It was because of the attention! And Sasuke was finally starting to talk to him on a regular basis, even if it was generally rude and standoffish.

The group project extended into the summer and only disbanded once they entered seventh grade. It wasn't unusual for the three of them to hang out near each other during school or to walk a small distance home together. The other two groups were doing it too. It was a bond and it was a habit that just wasn't willing to break yet.

A few weeks into seventh grade, Naruto entered his classroom a little earlier than normal. All the desks were lined up in groups of three, and this time he was planning on sitting in the middle chair so that Sakura would have to sit by him only; a plan so ingenious he was surprised he'd come up with it on his own.

Sasuke was already there though, which, on one hand, it wasn't too out of the ordinary for Sasuke to arrive early, but on the other, it was odd that Sasuke was there that early. He was sitting off to the side though, so Naruto didn't care because it meant his plan would still work. He walked to the desks and plopped down in the chair next to Sasuke's.

"My brother's back."

Naruto gaped at Sasuke. Sasuke wasn't looking at him, but he had actually started a reasonably conversation with him; no 'don't sit next to me' or 'scoot over' nonsense. Just a casual conversation about his-

"Wait! What? Back from the dead?" Naruto asked shocked. Since Sasuke had cut him off out of the blue, and since no one really talked about the ordeal around the kids, Naruto had always assumed Itachi had perished with the rest of the Uchiha's.

Sasuke shot a glare at him. "Not from the dead you idiot; from Juvie."

"Well jeeze. Sorry that you failed to clue me in on all of this," Naruto said sarcastically. Sasuke decided to ignore him, but Naruto didn't want that, this was the most progress they had ever made in repairing their friendship. "Shouldn't you be happy?"

"He's the reason my family is gone, and now he's trying to take me from the only family I have left."

Naruto wanted to proclaim is shock at never realizing Sasuke was living with a family member, but he felt it would make him seem too stupid. He couldn't believe he never questioned who Sasuke had been living with this entire time.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He could tell what was going through Naruto's head as the blonde fought himself from saying his revelation. "The man's name is Madara. He's an outcast of the family and lives in that large manor outside of the city."

'Holy crap, Sasuke's been living in that mansion?' Naruto thought to himself.

Sasuke continued. "Itachi thinks that now that he's back he can just take me away from there. That place is my home now. Itachi can go fuck himself."

Naruto winced. He wasn't used to Sasuke not calling his brother by the affectionate 'nii-san', and hearing him talk so coarsely about Itachi was weird. "I'm sure Itachi can't gain custody from Madara anyway. He's fresh out of juvie right? Who in their right mind would give him, a seventeen-year-old might I add, custody of a child?" Naruto offered.

Sasuke nodded his head. "That's what I've been thinking."

"So then, what's the problem?"

Sasuke sighed and leaned against the back of his chair, his head falling back as he faced the ceiling. "There's a lot of tension in the house. Madara and Itachi basically hate each other."

Finally, a chance for Naruto had come. "Well if you'd like, you could always come to the skate park with me and the gang to get away for a little bit…" Sasuke noticeably cringed so Naruto changed his plan mid sentence, "… or, I could come over and break the tension a little."

"I think I'd like that."

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Naruto and Hinata had finished Neji's pizza by the time Naruto's reminiscing was done. A couple of hours had gone by. "Even though Sasuke had caused me all of that pain, when he reached out to me, it was one of the happiest moments of my life," Naruto finished.

"I have a new 'happiest moment of my life' every time I talk to you, Naruto-kun," Hinata said. Naruto whipped his head in her direction. What was she getting at? "You're so brave, and you're always willing to give someone a second chance. You're a fun person and you're easy to get along with. It's selfish of me to want to be with you when there are so many others, like Sakura, who would be better for you." She had been looking at him but with her last word she faced her cupped hands, which rested just off of her knees.

"Hinata," Naruto said. "I've noticed you watching me. I know you're the girl who ran out of the room to get Iruka to break up the fight I was in with Sasuke that day. I know that you wanted to come talk to me when we were younger but that you were too shy." He paused for a breath. "Even though we've never really hung out before, I have always felt a special connection with you too, like the rest of my friends."

Hinata's eyes were intense and longing. She was staring at him intently and he wasn't sure what to do. Where was Jiraiya's How to REALLY Deal with Women book when he needed it… not that he had ever read it, but still.

He shied away from her. "H-how much do I owe you?" She asked once she realized she was making him uncomfortable.

"Nothing, this ones on me," he said, smiling as he stood up off the steps, his delivery bag in hand. He knew he was fired anyway. He'd have to find a new way to pay Itachi for his truck.

They were about to have an awkward goodbye when Neji slammed the door open.

"I saw you two talking so I thought I'd let you chat it up a bit, but damnit you can talk Naruto. Give me my…" he caught site of the empty box and a vein, caused by annoyance, started protruding from his forehead. "You ate all of my fucking pizza? Damnit Naruto!" Neji was about run out of the house but Naruto laughed, said a quick 'bye' and then dashed to his truck.

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Earlier, back when Sasuke had finally come home…

Sasuke entered into the manor, quickly greeted by Tobi.

"Sasu-chan! You better run; Itachi is super angry," Tobi said. Itachi pounded out of the kitchen, towards the front door, scaring Tobi into hiding behind Sasuke. "Oh no, he's gonna kill you."

"I believe you have some explaining to do," Itachi said flatly.

Sasuke had to think quickly, knowing that Itachi would need a tangible answer, but still trying to keep his secret a secret. "Sai and I went to visit someone."

"That's not good enough!" Itachi seethed at Sasuke. There was no getting out of this one. Sasuke had never seen Itachi this angry before, not even when he and Madara had first met.

"I'm sorry nii-san, but that's it. I know it was wrong not to call, or to ditch school, but really, we were just visiting someone."

Itachi grabbed Sasuke's shirt collar and hoisted him onto the door, Tobi ducking under Sasuke before running out of the room, saying "Take the kid but not me!"

"You are not to leave this house without permission again. Not to school, not to Naruto's house or the skate park. In fact, you can't even step out into the garden without asking me first. From now on, you come home right after school, and you leave here to only go to school. Understand?" Itachi was talking in a low, deep voice. He was glaring so intensely that Sasuke was sure one of the vessels in Itachi's eyes would pop. He could see Tobi peeking his head around the corner.

"You're condemning me to his abuse if you do this," Sasuke said solemnly.

"And you still refuse to tell me what's going on?" Itachi said. Sasuke nodded his head yes, earning him a smack from Itachi. Itachi dropped him and turned away to head back to the kitchen. "Go to your room."

"Mom's slaps were harder," Sasuke said.

Itachi turned back to him. "Now."

Sasuke grumbled as he made his way up the stairs. How much longer was he going to let Itachi control his life? Wasn't he old enough to make his own decisions now?

Tobi ran to the base of the stairs. "You really grounded him?"

"It would appear so." Itachi walked back to the kitchen as his phone started to ring. 'Why is Sakura calling me?' he wondered as he answered the call.

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AN: I was looking over chapter 11 when I realized that I said Sasuke and Naruto had their big near 8th grade. That's wrong. I wrote that because I was thinking they'd both be close to 8 y.o. at the time, so actually they were close to 4th grade. I've gone ahead and fixed that in the last chapter in case anyone is confused. Time to go and edit chapter 3. See yous next chapter.