Naruto was trembling all over. His body hurt absolutely everywhere, He had so many cuts and bruises, he stopped wondering how many there were. He took a shaky breath not bothering to wipe his face, that was now slightly itching because he had been crying.

About six villagers, all men, stood in front of him. They had found him, pushed him into a dead end alley and cornered him. Then they had begun to torture him. Two of them were drunk and had smashed at least 3 bottles on him. Three others had kicked and punched him over and over, leaving him with purple bruises. The last guy had a long bamboo stick which had left several red marks across his body.

"I haven't had enough yet!" one of the men said. "Damn nine-tails killed my wife! We should kill this brat!" he shouted.

"Nah. We'll get in trouble if we do that. But...your wife isn't here to give you what you want, so why not take this kid instead?" one of the drunk guys said. The others laughed along with him.

Naruto cried silently, his body in so much pain that his mind was blank. 'I...don't...have... a reason...to live.' It was the only thought that crossed his mind.

Sasuke on the other hand was observing carefully by peeking into the alley. As soon as he heard the men he tightened his hands into a fist, enraged by the thought of what they would do. He looked more closely and saw Naruto. He was lying on the ground scrunching his body up due to the pain. The alley was littered with broken glass, some of them piercing Naruto's body. Sasuke saw countless gashes, bruises, cuts and scrapes. His eyes were blank but they were spilling tears.

Seeing Naruto like that Sasuke's attitude changed almost instantly. Something about seeing Naruto cry helplessly made his heart ache. He felt anger well up in his heart and he didn't stand still. He walked into the alley and boldly stood at the entrance.

"Hey!" he called out to the men, his eyes staring daggers at them. They men turned around and looked back at him. "Who's that brat? His little friend?" the guy with the stick said. He chuckled "Guess we'll have another one to play with." He went over towards Sasuke in order to grab him.

Before he could do anything however Sasuke gave him a solid gut punch. The man stumbled back and clutched his stomach groaning with pain. The other men looked at him angrily and Sasuke returned all of that with his own angry look.

The guy who got punched managed to stand up. "Why you...I'm gonna kill you!" he shouted and charged towards Sasuke.

Sasuke stepped to the side to avoid the first guy, then crouched down to dodge a punch from another one of the men. He stole a quick glance at Naruto. The blonde haired boy had several injuries that needed to be treated immediately. Sasuke was also outnumbered. So he jumped sideways onto the wall, flipped and landed behind all of the men. He then rushed over to Naruto and carefully took him in his arms.

The drunk guy was now furious "That brat! How dare you! You peice of-" But he was stopped by another man. "No don't." he said. Now that Sasuke had their back towards them they could clearly see the Uchiha clan's symbol on his shirt. "He's that Uchiha boy we can't mess with him."

Sasuke turned around and gave the men a frightening look. His eyes were now red and his sharingan was visible. Even though it was only one tomoe it was enough to cast a simple genjutsu. One that was amplified by the rage of the Uchiha boy. The men were shocked and they slowly backed away. Sasuke gently picked up Naruto and was off.

Naruto half-woke, to the sound of clattering bottles and someone rummaging through items. Still half asleep Naruto began to think. 'I was getting beaten. What happened? My body hurts. I don't wanna get up. Wait am I still in the alley?' he panicked for a moment. 'Hold on...O that's right'

Naruto could vaguely remember someone holding him and asking him if he was okay. He remembered someone caressing his hair while telling him everything would be alright. Someone who said "Stay with me Naruto". It was the first time someone had told him to stay instead of telling him to go away. Naruto remembered being in the arms of someone with such a comforting aura. He remembered thinking that he could be in those arms forever. Such a kind and loving person...

He then remembered that that someone was Sasuke.

Naruto's eyes shot wide open as he looked up at the ceiling. He rubbed his eyes, then covered them with the back of his hand. 'What was I thinking?' he thought dumbfounded by his own thoughts.

Once he was fully awake he realized he was lying on a comfy bed and had been covered with a soft, fluffy quilt. His shirt had been taken off and his wounds had been bandaged. The smell of antiseptics filled the air. 'Huh? Who did all of this?' .

He then realized there was someone else in the room. Slowly he turned his head to the right. There, he saw Sasuke arranging glass bottles and boxes on a low shelf. "Sasuke?"

"You're finally awake" Sasuke said.
"Where are we?" Naruto asked.
"My house" Sasuke replied.
"Huh...?...Did you carry me all the way here?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

"I don't know where you live" Sasuke replied not quite answering his question. He then walked over to his closet and took out some clothes. "I'm going to wash up. Don't do anything stupid."
"Hold up! I wanna take a bath too!" Naruto said.

"I've already bandaged you so don't bother. You'll just have to take one in the morning" he stated. Having said that he walked into the bathroom and shut the door leaving Naruto alone.

'He did all this?' Naruto looked down at his body. 'He's being surprisingly nice' Naruto thought. 'Why would he help me? I thought he hated me.' he pondered. 'Hmph. He's still mad at me. I can tell that much. But...he saved me from those men earlier. Guess he actually cares about people, even though he doesn't like showing it.' he let out a small smile.

"Stupid little brat. You're so naive. You think he's still mad about that kiss you gave him?" the nine tails said teasingly as he chuckled.

Naruto didn't panic this time. He couldn't see the nine tails but he felt overwhelming fear just by listening to its voice. Despite this, he shouted his thoughts at the nine-tails 'I didn't kiss him on purpose, ya know! It was an accident!'

"O really? You have been thinking about that 'accident' a lot these days. You didn't pull away either. You kissed him as if it was something natural." the nine tails scoffed.

'Well it's not every day you get kissed by someone' Naruto blushed slightly from remembering about it.

The nine tails chuckled "You're saying you'd do it again?"

'Huh...NO OF COURSE NOT!'
"You keep thinking about him, these days. And what's up with you calling him beautiful even though he's not a girl? Besides he insulted you pretty badly the other day. You think he's nice?"

'Who cares? He helped me pass the bell test. And stop trying to make me angry with Sasuke!'

"Hmph. Looks to me like the opposite is happening."

'Huh? What do you mean? You're not making any sense.'

"Hmph. Whatever. Just make sure to take some of his chakra when you do it." the nine tailschuckled.

'Eh? Do what?' Naruto asked.

"O wait. You're only thirteen. Bit to early by human standards." 'Huh...?...' Naruto was clueless.

"But Sasuke will hate you, even more than he does now once he finds out that I'm inside you" the nine tails said. "And he will no longer treat you the same."

Naruto didn't answer. The nine tails was right. If Sasuke found out the truth about him...

"He'll treat you the same way as the others" the nine tails finished his thought. "He won't ever be your friend"

Naruto thought about it. Sasuke...treating him like everyone else in the village. 'I don't want that to happen' He felt rush of emotions overcome him and his heart pained with the thought of Sasuke treating him like he was some sort of monster. 'I want Sasuke to stay with me. I don't want him to abandon me'

Slowly but surely his wave of emotions disturbed his chakra and his chakra gates slighly. However it was enough, for the nine tails to leak his chakra out. "Yes that's it. I must weaken the seal." it said. "Also...that Uchiha brat.." it snickered.

The last thing Naruto saw was the clock on the wall that read 8:25, before he blacked out.