A/N: Sorry guys! I didn't mean for the update to take so freaking long!

This chapter is dedicated to: Red ChopSticks (you are trying to kill me with that riddle of yours), MaliceArchangela, Waymirec, WaterKonoichi13, We-Say-Nevermore (thanks again for the thesaurus), SakinaTheCursed, chumble, AnimeCrazed121, SparkDazzleDuez, evil-tea

I'm glad for the positive responses to Light. Personally, I love him too. I'll try to draw a picture of the twins as soon as I can. I failed on the last attempt...meh...Light looked too old.

And this next bit is a bit important. I have only had four voters vote on what story they want next. That's four out of the ten or so people who review on a regular basis (a guessed average). It's not that I'm a bit hurt by it (actually I am) it's just that it seems as if you guys don't care what comes next. I mean, sure some of you were in this just for The Fifth Element, and you want The Fifth Element to keep going, but things must end sometime. I can't keep writing The Fifth Element for the rest of eternity. It doesn't work that way.

Chapter 44: Family

Itachi sat hunched over several sheets of paper and was scribbling on them on occasion. His hand moved frantically across the paper as he tried to get his ideas out before he lost them. It was amazing what a dream could do. Itachi had had a dream about falling off a cliff, and he woke up with a start, sighing with relief as he realized he was still alive.

Then it just came to him. He thought the words "over the edge" and it literally just spiralled into being. A song. Another song.

Completely excited by this, Itachi leapt out of bed and ran straight up into the living room where he turned on a single lamp so he didn't wake up the rest of the house. One look at the nearby clock almost made him laugh. Two o'clock in the morning. Even Neji didn't get up this early.

Itachi had completed the lyrics, melody, bass and drums and was now harmonizing three guitars with the lyrics which were also harmonized by five o'clock that morning. This song was for both Neji and Itachi to sing. And this time around, Neji would be singing with a guitar. Three guitars, two singers, one bass, one drum set. The balance was a bit iffy, but Naruto would enjoy playing louder this time around. Besides, volumes could be turned down.

Itachi's head snapped up as the living room light flicked on. He expected it to be Neji, but instead, he saw Rukia frozen in the door.

"Morning." He greeted with a small wave of his pen before turning back to the paper in front of him. Itachi could sense her there. He didn't know what she wanted, but he guessed she was trying to get up her nerve to talk to him. He was too busy putting pen to paper to worry too much about it, but he did wish he wasn't so busy so that he could say something to her to at least relieve the tension.

He was scratching the last notes on the three guitars when someone thudded down the stairs from upstairs. It wasn't much of a surprise when Light walked in, but it was surprising that Neji hadn't gotten up yet.

"Wow, Itachi you're an early riser!" Light commented.

Itachi shook his head. "No. I'm not, actually. Neji's the early riser."

"Yeah?" Neji walked into the room. Surprise, surprise.

"I was just saying that you're the early riser." Itachi pointed the pen at him.

"Yeah I was going to say. Why are you up?" Neji asked.

"I had a dream last night, and when I woke up, I had an epiphany." Itachi held up some of the sheets for the song he wrote in just several hours.

"What is it?" Neji asked, stepping towards him.

Light followed him, his face laced with curiosity. Itachi stood up and blocked the papers from his view.

"Can I see?" Light asked.

"No." Itachi stated.

Neji took the paper and looked it over. "Wow. You wrote this?"

"Yeah. Just this morning. Does it weigh up to your standards?"

Neji looked over the lyrics again. "Wow. You did a good job."

"I'll discuss it with the rest of the band when there aren't any eavesdroppers." Itachi shot a look over his shoulder at Light who was trying to listen in.

Light grinned innocently.

"I would show you what I did, but I can't." Itachi stated.

"But what is it?" Light whined.

Itachi piled the papers on top of each other and slid them into his hoodie; protecting them from prying eyes, and whatever else could potentially destroy the masterpiece. He wasn't being mean to Light by not showing him his newly made song. The fact is, so many people lost their ideas by voicing them and someone else picked up on it, and turned that idea into something. Now here's the catch: those people claimed full rights over it. He wasn't going to share a composition with the general public because there was a chance that someone would copy it and use it as their idea, and bye-bye song. Paranoid, maybe. But Itachi felt it was necessary.

Neji pulled the tie out of his hair and attempted to tame his case of bed head with his fingers. Itachi shifted his eyes to Light's unkempt morning hair and found nothing hilarious about it. He would think that people with long hair have worse bed head than those with shorter hair, but usually that wasn't the case. Light didn't have it in the ponytail he wore, so it hung in one messy shoulder length stream.

Neji finished smoothing out his hair and tied it back in a lazy ponytail to keep it out of the way until he could brush it out. It made him look like Itachi, but it wasn't worth tying his hair up the way he usually did when he was either going to bed, or he just got out of bed.

"Itachi, what the heck are you doing up?" Tenten asked, stepping into the room. She did the messy pigtails in the morning. Honestly, Neji thought it looked adorable.

"I'll tell you later." Itachi stated. "When the whole band is together."

Tenten nodded and took a seat on one of the couches. Rukia had turned on the morning news and was watching it.

Dark stepped into the room at that moment, yawning and wrapping himself in a sweat shirt.

Itachi laughed at him. "Nice hair."

"Shut up." He muttered.

Sora dragged herself in around that moment. She flopped down on the couch, her eyes still glazed with sleep. Admiring bed heads was only fun when they looked spectacular, like Dark's. Sure, his hair was normally messy, but in the morning, it made his normal hair look like a well kempt lawn. Dark almost looked like he had stuck his finger in an electric outlet, except it wasn't as symmetrical.

The Kuchiki family was quickly identified as early risers, because Byakuya and Mr and Mrs Kuchiki came downstairs.

"Who's up?" Mrs. Kuchiki looked into the room and took in every face.

"Everybody but most of the band." Renji trudged in from downstairs. He took one look at Itachi and shook his head. "I have no idea what he's doing up, because he's usually one of the last people to wake up in the morning."

Itachi grinned. "You want to see what I've been up to?"

"Oh no..." Renji face palmed. "What did you do?"

Itachi stood up and left the room with Renji to show off his song. Mrs. Kuchiki looked over the group again. "So are we going to wake everyone else up?"

"They don't take well to noisy intrusions." Neji stated. "It works, but they don't like it very much."

"Ooooh, can we do a trumpet fanfare?" Sora perked up a bit.

Dark chuckled.

"Renji used a frying pan to wake us up when we arrived in Kamiko." Tenten stated. "Neji's right. Nobody liked it very much."

"Naruto threw a Frisbee at him, and there was a lot of grumbling." Neji shrugged.

Mrs. Kuchiki crossed her arms. "So how do you get them up then?"

"Neji's pancakes." Itachi stated, walking back into the room. Renji followed him with a satisfied look on his face.

"Pancakes?" Mrs. Kuchiki seemed disbelieving.

"He's not kidding." Renji stated. "Those pancakes smell so good, everyone gets up no matter what."

Neji held his calm face. He was used to the complements of his pancakes so it wasn't all that awkward. Even so, if Mrs. Kuchiki allowed him to enter her kitchen and make pancakes, he would jump at the chance.

"Oh and just a fair warning..." Renji piped up. "Some of my crew are kind of insane in the morning."

Neji, Itachi and Tenten laughed.

"Kind of insane?" Itachi questioned. "You call half asleep Sakura versus Sasuke 'kind of insane'?"

"No that's on a whole different level." Renji stated. "You guys are going to want to watch out for that. It's chaos between those two until Sakura wakes up."

"I'm starting breakfast." Mrs. Kuchiki announced, leaving the room. Not too long afterwards, Sasuke stepped into the room, glancing over his shoulder warily. He sat down on the couch and sighed in relief.

"Got out of there?" Itachi asked.

"I got out of there." Sasuke agreed.

"She's going to kill you when she realizes you're gone."

"Yeah but at least I have a chance this time around."

"Even so, she's going to kill you."

Sasuke grumbled something incoherent.

"What are you talking about?" Light asked. "Who's going to kill you?"

"SAAAASUKEEEEE!"

Sasuke took on the form of a deer in the headlights from the cry downstairs.

"Run, Sasuke, run for your life." Itachi laughed as Sasuke dove behind the couch just as pink-haired Sakura came into the room still half-asleep.

"I know you're here, Sasuke! Stop hiding!" Sakura stated, marching towards the couch Sasuke was hiding behind. Sakura must have a sixth sense for Sasuke's location, because there was absolutely no clue that Sasuke was even in the room in the first place.

Sasuke too must've had a sixth sense for the location of Sakura because by the time Sakura had gotten to the couch, and looked behind it, Sasuke had jumped up and taken off back out the living room door with a yelp that rivalled a wounded canine.

"SASUKE! COME BACK!" Sakura cried, pursuing Sasuke.

"NO! GET AWAY!" Sasuke yelped.

"Does this happen every morning?" Light asked, his eyes wide.

"Yup." Tenten stated.

"Pretty much." Neji sighed. "We should put a stop to it, don't you think?"

"OW! SAKURA LET GO!"

"Yup, we have to save Sasuke." Itachi stated, standing up.

"KNOCK IT OFF! BOTH OF YOU!" Shikamaru looked furious as he came up from downstairs. "This isn't the bus! This is someone else's house! For goodness sakes, respect it!"

"Wow..." Sora stated as Sasuke and Sakura walked back into the room, heads bowed in shame.

"Yup...Shikamaru doesn't like to be woken up with loud noises." Temari joined the pack. "It ruins his whole day."

Shikamaru flopped down on a remaining spot on one of the couches. "Man...what a pain..." He sighed.

"What of the others?" Neji asked. "Are they up yet?"

Shikamaru grumbled in annoyance. "Five o'clock? You're freaking kidding me..."

Temari laughed at him. "Poor Shikamaru."

Azimora arrived in the room looking confused before spying Itachi sitting in a chair.

"What the heck are you doing up?" She asked.

Itachi shrugged. "Got a problem with it?"

Azimora scrunched up her face in a way that resembled a pout, but looked a bit more like a grimace than anything; as if she wasn't sure whether to act upset, or act angry to give Itachi some kind of guilt trip.

Naruto and Hinata sashayed in at that moment, Naruto rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Why are we up so early?" He sighed.

"No idea." Shikamaru stated sleepily. He looked like he was about to fall asleep again.

"Stay conscious, Shikamaru." Temari advised.

Shikamaru merely groaned and surrendered to sleep again.

"Did he conk out?" Light asked.

"Yeah he conked out." Temari stated, poking him in the arm.

"I wish I could fall asleep that fast." Byakuya stated.

The room laughed.

"Breakfast!" Mrs. Kuchiki called.

"Food." Naruto said in a creepy voice.

Temari shook Shikamaru awake again.

"Go away," Shikamaru groaned.

"Fine, but you're going to miss breakfast." Temari stated.

Shikamaru perked up a bit at that and stood up.

"So does the same thing happen every day for you guys in the morning?" Dark asked. "You seem to have it all planned out."

"Well, yeah. Except Neji usually makes breakfast." Naruto stated, shoving a chunk of sausage into his mouth.

"Whoa, Neji actually cooks?" Light asked. "Dude, that's swag!"

"Yeah..." Neji focused on his plate for a second. "Nobody's ordering pizza on my watch."

"I'd rather eat Neji's food than pizza any day." Shikamaru muttered.

"You would think rock stars didn't cook." Byakuya stated.

"Neji's our male housekeeper." Sasuke snorted.

Neji shot Sasuke a look of pure disdain, causing the table to burst out laughing.

"Yeah...I cook, I clean. I hate to break it to you, but you guys wouldn't survive a week without me."

"I hate to break it to you Neji, but we already have." Itachi grinned.

Neji frowned for a second. Then he remembered the weeks he spent in the hospital, and nodded in remembrance.

"Yeah, by running to Tenten's house." Neji said smugly.

Tenten laughed. "You guys would all perish without us."

"Yeah you're probably right..." Itachi sighed.

A few people around the table chuckled.

"You know what I just realized?" Sora piped up.

"Uh oh." Dark grinned. "Here it comes..."

Sora elbowed Dark in the ribs.

"Ow!" Dark cried. Surprisingly, Light cringed too.

"Do you guys feel each other's pain?" Itachi cried from across the table.

"No, I just had an idea of what he was feeling." Light stated. "That would be pretty swag though. No wait...Dark gets hurt a lot so that wouldn't be too swag."

Dark elbowed Light who cried out before smacking Dark in the back of the head.

"Boys! That's enough!" Mrs. Kuchiki cried.

"Sorry mum." They said in unison, grabbing their forks in perfect sync and shovelling food into their mouth, also in perfect sync.

Itachi shook his head slowly. "You are the freakiest twins I have ever laid my eyes upon."

"Well that's not-" Dark stopped talking upon realizing that Light was talking as well.

"Very nice." Light finished, his cheeks tinted pink a bit as if a huge secret had been revealed.

"You guys are totally synced." Shikamaru muttered.

Sora cleared her throat. "So you want to know what I just realized?"

"Go for it." Dark stated.

"It sounds like your lives are pretty interesting." Sora stated, eyeing the band.

"No." Sasuke stated.

"No it's not." Shikamaru said at the same time.

"Not really..." Naruto trailed off at the end. It had blended together in a way that made it come out like 'no it's not really.' This caused the band to erupt into laughter.

Light grinned. "That was so trippy!" He laughed.

Neji thought about what Sora had said. When he thought about everything that had happened in his life so far, he realized that it would make one heck of a biography.

"What's your point?" Itachi asked.

Sora shrugged. "I'm just saying."

"You know she does have a point..." Dark stated.

Light nodded. "I mean, you guys are probably just like everyone else in nearly every way, right? You're human too."

The band looked at each other with smirks on their faces. The hell they'd been through and back made it tough to call them 'normal' anymore.

"What are your families like?" Light asked suddenly.

Naruto stiffened at the same time Neji's eyes became distant, and Itachi and Sasuke just looked like they were in a state of half shock.

Shikamaru placed his fork on his plate and leaned back in the chair with a sigh. "My mum's a nurse, but she's a real pain at the best of times. My dad's more laid back, but he's a lawyer so he still works hard." Shikamaru stared at the ceiling for a moment. "I had to really try to convince them to let me be a part of the band, but when they saw how much fun I was having, they just let me go gung-ho on the whole shebang."

"Huh..." Sora seemed a little surprised. When you meet a celebrity, you usually expect moments of glory, but Light really was right. They were human too.

"What about the rest of you?" Light asked, looking around at Naruto, Sasuke, Itachi and Neji.

None of them answered right away. Itachi glanced at Sasuke who looked back at him. Sasuke sighed, but nodded.

Itachi looked back at the group. "About a month after I moved out, there was a gas explosion that set the entire house on fire. They died."

Everyone stared at Itachi.

"But if you're wondering what they were like, they were probably..." Itachi trailed off.

"They were the best parent's ever." Sasuke finished in a monotone.

Itachi nodded. He glanced away to hopefully hide the few tears that were coming to the surface. They really were great parents. They were encouraging, yet at the same time they set rules and kept them on a leash. They always gave them enough slack to prove themselves trustworthy, and punished them when they did something wrong. They were fair, turning a crappy thing like chores into something fun. They didn't care how they got it done, just as long as they got it done.

Itachi smiled. When they were younger, they did the dishes together. Sasuke had put a bit too much dish soap in the sink, causing soap to pile up into a soapy Mount Everest that they just couldn't resist throwing around at each other. Their parents walked in just when they had finished up and saw the chaos in the kitchen. Sasuke had thrown bubbles at both of them and booked it. They had just laughed and asked if the dishes got done, and had them clean up the mess they had made.

"Neji?" Dark asked.

Neji's gaze was still distant. He focused on the group, remembering what they wanted.

Neji sighed. "I never knew my mother. My father was everything to me." Neji's gaze hardened. "He was murdered when I was six. Then I lived with my uncle who was a control freak at best,"

"Oh Neji." Hinata laughed.

"And my two cousins." Neji finished, ignoring Hinata. "That's all I'm going to say to that."

Everyone's gaze turned towards Naruto who had his head bowed.

"Naruto?" Shikamaru frowned at him.

Naruto looked up, his eyes glassy and dull; very much unlike the normal Naruto.

"What's your family like?" Light asked.

Naruto's eye twitched as the hand on the table clenched into a fist. He stood up so quickly, his chair went flying. Sasuke stood up immediately afterwards as Naruto headed for the door.

"Oi!" Sasuke cried. "Naruto! What's-"

"Don't have any."

The room went silent, as if unsure they had heard that from Naruto.

Neji frowned. There was no way that voice came from Naruto. It was too dark...too quiet...

"Naruto...What are you-"

"Don't have any!" Naruto glared over his shoulder at them before whipping away. Not even three seconds later, the front door slammed shut.

Sasuke sank back into his seat, a look of shock on his face. His fist clenched, his knuckles white.
"He's...He's never talked about his family..." Shikamaru whispered. "No wonder...I get it now..."

"What?" Sasuke spat.

Shikamaru shrugged. "How possible is it that Naruto's an orphan?"

There was a sharp intake of breath in the room.

"No way, that can't be true. He had to have some kind of guardian." Sasuke stated. "He went to public school. As far as I know, orphanages have their own schools."

"Unless he booked it." Shikamaru murmured.

"What do you mean by that?" Sasuke cried.

"He decided he hated the place and just...left." Shikamaru stated. "Crawled out onto the streets to make a life for himself."

Hinata trembled for a few seconds before getting up and running to the door.

"Hinata," Neji warned.

"I'm getting Naruto, and you can't stop me!" She cried. The door slammed shut again.

Neji was blinking in surprise. What the heck was that? He thought. He wasn't going to stop her, he was just going to tell her to be careful and that Naruto might want to be left alone for a bit.

Neji rubbed his face and placed his hands in his lap.

"Well...Now what?" Shikamaru muttered.

"We wait." Itachi sighed, leaning back in his chair.


Hinata stopped to catch her breath, leaning on a sign post and thinking about what to do next. She hadn't really thought about where she should look for Naruto. She looked up and scanned the suburbs that the Kuchiki family lived in. There was no way Naruto would go into the cities heart, would he? Unless he wanted to get to the bus...

Hinata shook her head. The bus was locked. Even he would know that. Besides, to get there, he definitely would have to go through the city. And if her hunch was correct, Naruto wanted to be alone, and he wasn't going to find isolation in the city.

Her eyes spied a park across the street that was bordered by forest. She quickly crossed after checking for cars and ran into the park.

"Naruto!" She called. Thankfully no one else was there, but it was still early in the morning, so why would there be?

"Hinata, what the bloody hell are you doing?"

Hinata could've cried. "Naruto! I was so worried!" She ran into his arms.

"You freaking idiot! What are you thinking? It's still practically night out here!" Naruto scolded.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "But I was worried..."

Naruto sighed. "Come on then." He took her hand and led her to a quiet, secluded area of the park and sat down with her. The first rays of sun were poking up through the buildings of Karakura's city center, creating a dazzling display of the skyline.

It went unnoticed by Naruto and Hinata who were curled up against each other.

"I'm sorry." Naruto whispered.

"Why?"

"I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." He looked down at her. "I'm really glad you followed me. Thank you."

Hinata pressed her face into his neck. "Do you really have no family?" She whispered.

Naruto sighed. "Yeah. I've never had anybody." He ran his fingers through her hair, causing her to shiver slightly. Naruto took this as an excuse that she was cold and pulled her closer. "I grew up in an orphanage, and nobody adopted me."

"Why not?"

"Hell if I know." Naruto muttered. He sighed. "That's just...the way it was..."

Flashback

Every time a pair of adults came onto the campus, everyone in the orphanage who hadn't gotten adopted would hold their breath, and hope that they would be picked.

Naruto was a cute kid with his blonde hair and bright blue eyes, but he was always considered a retard baby, not moving too much and not actually speaking until after his first birthday. Because of this, nobody had put him up for adoption, fearing mental illness.

That wasn't the case, however. Though it was many years ago, Naruto could still clearly remember everything in his life from the third year onward. He was very intelligent, considering things and being able to work things out on his own most of the time. He observed and watched as his friends and peers were all adopted. When he was five, he clued into the fact that the kids who stood out got adopted.

So maybe if he stood out, he would get adopted.

Whenever parents came in, Naruto would run up to them and immediately introduce himself. He would then start following them around, asking them questions. He did this for five years, and still. Nothing.

When Naruto was ten, the workers at the orphanage decided enough was enough and put him up for adoption.

Thus, Naruto's struggles began.


Naruto crossed his arms and frowned, sitting on his bed. Why didn't anyone want to adopt him? He glared at the mirror on his puny dresser across from him. Mrs. Tanaka had always said he was cute with his blonde hair and blue eyes, and that if he was just patient, he would be adopted.

Naruto gritted his teeth. He had been waiting ten years to be adopted. Why didn't anyone want him? Naruto had given up on making friends. They just went off with their new families.

With a growl, Naruto flung himself off his bed and went to hunt down Mrs. Tanaka. He wanted to know: what had happened to his parents? Why was he here in the first place? He shoved his door open and went to hunt her down. He didn't expect to get more than he had bargained for.

"-very intelligent boy, yes he is. But there are a few problems..."

Naruto's ears pricked up. It was Mrs. Tanaka.

"What's wrong with him?" It was a woman's voice. Naruto assumed it was a parent coming to adopt a lucky orphan. Naruto crouched by the door, listening in.

"He's...difficult to control at best." Mrs. Tanaka stated. "He's very loud and disrupts the class on a regular basis."

"Oh but I think he's sweet, don't you think dear?"

"He's a boy." A male's voice answered. "That's for sure."

"I would love to see him go to a good home, but Naruto has some...needs..."

Naruto's heart leapt from his chest. A grin split his face. He was going to be adopted!

"What needs exactly?"

"He needs someone who can guide him in the right direction. As I said before, he's quite difficult to control."

"What are his circumstances?"

Naruto was smart enough to know that that meant 'what happened to his parents'.

"I'm not really sure myself, but..." The sound of a filing cabinet opening met his ears. A few more seconds later, Mrs. Tanaka spoke up again.

"His father died before he was born, and his mother died during complications in childbirth. She was alive long enough to give him his name, and that was it."

"What was his mother's name?"

"Kushina Uzumaki."

Naruto smiled. Uzumaki...Naruto Uzumaki... He liked it.

There was a shuffling of papers.

"It's written here that...you suspect him of having ADHD," the woman stated.

"That's correct."

"But, have you diagnosed him?" The man asked.

"No. It's just an assumption from a few of the psychologists who work here."

"So if this kid has ADHD, then he's never been properly diagnosed or treated?"

There was a moment of silence. It was broken by a pair of sighs. Naruto bit his lip, still hoping that they would take him. Anyone. Just as long as he could go to a place he could call home.

"Very well then. We will consider this."

Naruto heard the scraping of chairs and quickly took off, not wanting to be caught snooping. He practically flew onto the bed after launching himself into the air, landing and bouncing a few times. Naruto wiggled with excitement. He was going to be adopted! Finally! A new home!

The days went by, turning into weeks. Naruto wondered what had happened to that family. In his spare time, he looked up ADHD just to find out what it was. The words were too big for him to really understand, so he gave up.

After that, the weeks became months, and still the family hadn't returned. A year went by, and Naruto realized that they weren't coming back. He couldn't stop his disappointment from clouding his mind. He didn't focus on what he was learning in class as well as he should, so he began failing.

When he turned twelve, he switched areas, joining the teenage group. Naruto still thought about that family on a regular basis. He still remembered Mrs. Tanaka's words.

One of the teenage boys scoffed, cutting the whispered silence in the room.

"We're not going anywhere, Takahashi." He stated. "Face it; we're dogs. Nobody wants dogs, they want the puppies. We're not going to get adopted. You may as well just blow this place and start making your own life before it's too late."

"Hiro, what are you saying?" His friend, Naruto assumed it was Takahashi, asked.

Hiro looked at the ground. "It's too late for me." He looked over towards Naruto who was wide eyed and staring. He didn't want to believe what this boy was saying, but he knew in his heart that it was true.

"You listening boy? What's your name?" He asked.

"N-Naruto..."

"How old are you, Naruto?"

"T-Twelve."

Hiro smiled sadly. "I wish I was your age again. When I was twelve, I was still hoping to be adopted. It never happened. Naruto, you want my advice?"

Naruto continued to stare at him. Hiro walked over and put his hands on his shoulders.

"Get out of here." He stated. His eyes were sympathetic, yet sharp. "Seriously. Go apply for the local public school. Make a face for yourself. Don't sit around here waiting for shit to happen, because it's not going to happen." Then he left. Just like that.

The next day, Hiro was found dead on the pavement. Apparently he had climbed the orphanage and jumped. Naruto overheard Mrs. Tanaka talking about him. Apparently he was eighteen, due to be cast out from the orphanage that very same day. He had quit. The incident had struck a chord in his heart, but nowhere near as bad as the next one.

That same day he was overhearing Mrs. Tanaka talking about the boy who jumped, Naruto also overheard the words that forced him to make up his mind.

"When these kids turn eighteen, they're legally adults. We can't keep them here as much as we would like to. They're cast off with nothing. No safety net, no family, no money to live on the streets. They're completely alone."

Nothing hit home like those words. He understood now. The kids in the teenage group had such dark eyes, filled with sadness and pain; they would be kicked out as soon as they turned eighteen with no one to care for them, and nowhere to go or fall back on.

Alone.

He understood what Hiro had been trying to say. He wanted Naruto to take control of his life. To take the reins and run free, to carve himself a path and at least have something to fall back on.

Naruto stood up straight. He had made up his mind.

Mrs. Tanaka opened the door to her office at that moment and saw Naruto standing there, looking determined.

"Naruto, is something wrong?"

"Mrs. Tanaka, I want to go to public school."

Mrs. Tanaka shook her head. "Naruto, this is the place for you. You will stay here until you're adopted."

Naruto frowned. Mrs. Tanaka patted him on the head and walked away. He glared after her. So he would do it himself.

Naruto worked hard. He found himself at the closest public school to him. Though he was only twelve, he walked straight up to the front desk and asked how he could apply to go to school there.

"Where are your parents?" The secretary asked.

"Don't have any." Naruto stated.

"Do you have a guardian?"

Naruto thought about that. "Mrs. Tanaka." He said finally.

"You're from the orphanage?" The secretary seemed surprised.

"I want to go to school here." Naruto stated.

"I'm sorry, you need a parent or guardian to sign you up." The secretary stated. "I can't let you in."

Naruto stomped his foot. "Fine!" He turned on his heel and ran from the office, hot tears burning his eyes.


"Mrs. Tanaka, why can't I go to public school?" Naruto cried.

"Naruto, public school is for..." Mrs. Tanaka trailed off.

"Kids with families?" Naruto cried.

"Naruto..."

"NO!" Naruto cried. "I DON'T WANT TO STAY HERE ANYMORE! HIRO TOLD ME TO MAKE A LIFE FOR MYSELF!" Tears streamed down Naruto's face. "He doesn't want me to be like him!"

"Naruto..."

"I don't want to be cast off like all of the older kids! I won't stay here! I'll...I'll...I'LL RUN AWAY!"

"NARUTO!" Mrs. Tanaka cried. She grabbed him by the arm.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" Naruto cried. He punched and kicked until she let go, but Mrs. Tanaka didn't let him out the door. Her face was white and helpless as she stared at the furious boy in front of her.

"Fine." She gasped. "You can go to public school."


His first year of public school began in eighth grade. On the first day, he sat next to a boy with wild black hair.

"Hi! My name is Naruto Uzumaki!" He said with a grin.

"Uzumaki huh?" The kid smirked. "Well I'm Uchiha. Sasuke Uchiha. Nice to meet you, loser."

Thus, a friendship to last the ages was born.

Flash-forward

Hinata clutched Naruto tighter. She couldn't imagine living in an orphanage and growing up like that...It frightened her to think that Neji could've been put in an orphanage. The only reason why he didn't end up in one was because Hiashi didn't want Neji out of his sight, as he was part of the Hyuuga clan. Hinata was sure that Hiashi wouldn't want Neji to be a part of some ordinary family, and taint the Hyuuga bloodline with trash.

Hinata inwardly scoffed. That sounded like something Hiashi would think.

"Naruto?" Hinata murmured.

"Yeah?" He breathed.

"I'm glad...you managed to pull through."

Naruto shook his head. "I didn't. I took off, Hinata. I fought with the chairman until she let me go to public school. I barely went back. I made friends with Sasuke, and I stayed over at his house as often as I could so I didn't have to go back there. I put up roots all over the place so I would have something to fall back on if things got hairy."

Hinata ran her fingers through his hair.

"I didn't want to end up like Hiro..." Naruto whispered. "He gave up. He had just turned eighteen, and he jumped off the roof of the orphanage. He didn't want to live on the streets, so he took the fastest way out. He killed himself."

"Was Hiro your friend?" Hinata asked.

"No. I barely knew the guy." Naruto stated. "The same day I got into the teenager part of the orphanage, he told me to make a life for myself. Then he died."

"Well, if he really did care about you, then I'm sure he's smiling down at you now."

Naruto sat up slightly, a grin coming onto his face. "Yeah. You're right!" He stood up. "HEY HIRO! THANKS A LOT! YOU REALLY HELPED ME OUT!" He roared to the heavens.

Hinata giggled.

"NOW I'M A DRUMMER IN A ROCK BAND! HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THAT?"

Hinata laughed.

"I NEVER COULD'VE DONE IT WITHOUT YA!"

"Okay, Naruto, stop it." Hinata laughed.

Naruto sat back down beside Hinata and pulled her close. "And I've got the best damn girl in the world." He murmured before pressing his mouth against hers.

Hinata held him just behind the ears and pressed herself into him. When she gasped for air, Naruto took the chance to run his lips up her throat, bringing a whimper to her lips.

"I love you, Hinata." Naruto whispered in her ear. "So much you have no idea."

Well, with those words, Hinata shot up to cloud infinity.


It was noon by the time Naruto and Hinata walked in the front door. The entire band rushed into the hall in seconds and stared at Naruto.

"Guys, drop it." Naruto stated, raising his hands. "I don't have parents. Don't press me."

Itachi shook his head and messed up Naruto's hair.

"Are you serious? I got so used to Sasuke coming home with you from school that I thought you were my other little brother." Itachi stated.

Sasuke snorted. "I can tell you that my parents thought of you as their second son. I'll bet if they knew that you were an orphan, they would've adopted you in a second."

Naruto shrugged awkwardly. "Naruto Uchiha, huh?" He laughed. "Sounds catchy."

Itachi and Sasuke paled.

"Forget it. Keep your Uzumaki name." Sasuke shuddered and walked away.

Naruto laughed. "I was kidding, Teme!"

"Oh be quiet, Dobe!"

Naruto laughed again. He may not have had parents, but he had friends he could count on for anything. Oh, and the best damn girl in the world. That definitely counted for something.

A/N: YESS! Finally! I got a chapter finished! Now I feel AWESOME!

Yeah...everyone's pretty much had a peek at their past so far...Neji and Itachi have quite a bit of background information on them, but Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru have little to none, so I thought I'd throw something into Naruto's character.

I'VE DECIDED! These next few chapters are going to be based more on character development than anything else. I can tell you that Itachi's got a MASSIVE moment coming up. I mean ultra massive. Gargantuan. Colossal. (insert mega huge word here that Fan Fiction just couldn't take it was so freaking huge.) Yeah. It's that big. Now try to decipher that...Then whisper it to yourself. Tell me you're not laughing right now. There's only one thing in there that isn't a word (actually the whole thing was just made up) but it's a hybrid of gargantuan and colossal. I'll give you a hint: Gargantulossal. That's all you need to know. It's SilverEyeShinobi-isms! My Law teacher makes them too! He calls them Gellespieisms! XD

Speaking of Law...In today's test we had to write a situation in which someone is the perpetrator (Perp), an aide, an abetter, a counsellor, and an accessory after the fact. The best part was...we got to make up characters! Guess what I used. If you guessed Naruto characters, you are so correct. I used Akatsuki characters. I'll write it out here as best as I can remember:

Madara finally decided that he was going to bump Nagato off for turning in one of his guy friends to the fuzz. He tells this to Deidara who is immediately all for it. "Do it, dude!" He said repeatedly. He tells Sasori what he plans to do, and Sasori tells him that Nagato leaves work every day at four o'clock. "Afterwards, book it to Zetsu's place and hide there." Sasori told him. On the day he planned to do it, Madara asks Hidan to borrow his car so he can bump off Nagato. Hidan tosses him his keys. Madara drives to where Nagato's work is and waits until four o'clock. When Nagato comes out, Madara shoots him three times and drives out of there. He gets to Zetsu's house and tells him that he just killed Nagato and he needs a place to lie low for awhile. Zetsu lets him in.

I legit wrote that on a test XD. It was so much fun. As you can see, I deliberately left Itachi out of the picture, because he deserves neither to die, nor help with the crime in any way. I honestly considered using Sasuke but decided against it. I chose to use Nagato because well...Nagato betrays Madara anyway...oops...sorry if some of you didn't know that...XD

So here are the roles (if you don't get it, google them, or ask me):

Perpetrator: Madara

Abetting: Deidara

Aiding: Hidan

Councelling: Sasori

Accessory after the fact: Zetsu.

I probably spelled Zetsu wrong didn't I? I don't even know how it's spelled. It's either spelled Zetsu or Zetzu. I can never figure out which one...bleh.

Well tata for now! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

~SilverEyeShinobi