A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews! I tried to make this chapter a little bit longer since I got some complaints about them being short, but I'm not sure how successful I was. Let me know! Also, I don't like to tell ages in my fanfic because when I'm reading those of others, I like to imagine everyone as being my age. So maybe, if you really want an age, I would say late teens for everyone, if not early twenties. But if you're 16, then make them 16. I haven't seen enough of the anime or read enough of the manga to be able to follow the story to a T. Love you all!

I tried to pull his hands away from my face, but Naruto wouldn't budge. I started trembling. "N-Naruto, please let me go." I could feel the pressure building up behind my eyes again and wanted nothing more than to lock myself in the bathroom. I really, really didn't want the people here to see my cry. Lady Tsunade already had, and it emanated a weakness that I refused to show anyone else. "I really don't want to talk about this." My voice cracked on the last word, and his face flushed with sympathy.

"Okay, now I know something's wrong." His eyes were full of caring, and something about his demeanor made me just want to break down and tell him everything. But if you tell him, he'll think you're weak. They died four years ago…if he finds out that you're still this shaken up about this, then he might think you're too pathetic to be helped. He won't even bother. You need his help. Damn it, (Y/N), he can't know!

A switch flipped inside my head. I stopped trembling, and the tears receded. I straightened my shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "I'm fine."

He moved his hands down from my face so that they rested gently on either side of my neck. His eyes were large and full of caring, but I was immune.

"(Y/N)…you can tell me anything. Are you sure you're okay?"

Surprisingly, yes. I felt fine. I had just built another wall—something I hadn't had to do in a very long while. For now, at least from Naruto, I was safe. I exhaled and my body relaxed.

"Positive." I flashed a toothy smile, and he apprehensively took his hands off me. He didn't respond. I don't think he knew how to respond. Actually, I just don't think he quite knew how to handle the girl who was so incredibly bipolar, but by the analytical way he looked at me, I could tell he was trying to figure it out.

We both raised our tea cups to our mouths in an attempt to break the awkward silence, but before I could taste the warm drink there was a pounding at the door. Naruto sprang up and ran for the entrance, his urgency matching that of the knocker's. He pulled the door open, and I saw a tuft of very wet pink hair next to his shoulder.

Sakura.

"Naruto, your presence has been requested by Lady Tsunade. At once." Her tone was very formal and somewhat urgent.

"At once? Right now?" He nodded abruptly and turned sharply to his room. I sat in the couch in awe as I watched him pack a backpack faster than I had previously thought to be humanly possible. While he was rummaging under his bed for something, I turned to Sakura. She remained outside of the doorway, sopping wet. It was then that I noticed the pouring rain outside, and the thunder that accompanied. She must be freezing.

"Sakura, why don't you come in?" I asked, trying to be hospitable even though I wasn't even in my own home. I immediately regretted my words. Was it impolite to invite someone in to someone else's house here? Did I cross a line?

Sakura just shook her head sharply. "No, (Y/N)-chan, but thank you." That weird chan thing again… "I actually came for two reasons. To inform Naruto of an extremely urgent mission in need of the Jinchuuriki, and to move you to your new temporary home."

"New…home?" Damn, just when I was starting to get accustomed to Naruto's tiny place. Speaking of the devil, he shot out the door past Sakura and bounded towards Lady Tsunade—wherever she was.

"See ya, (Y/N)!"

I sighed. Sakura turned back to me.

"Hai. Go pack your things and I'll explain on the way." She turned to shut the door to allow me privacy, but whipped back around at the last second. "Oh, and (Y/N)? We have to travel the fast way. I know it's not your favorite, but I'm assigned to this mission as well and need to get to Lady Tsunade's office as soon as possible."

I smiled at her. "No worries, Sakura. After the ride Naruto gave me last night, I'm sure running with you will be like floating on a lazy river or something. I'll be quick!" She tilted her head to the side and gave me a confused look. Apparently they didn't have water parks in Konoha. I waved her off and she closed the door to allow me to finish packing. It wasn't a long process, since all I really had with me was my backpack, a spare change of clothing, a pocket knife that I always kept in my side pocket, a knife I found on the floor by Naruto's bed, and a cell phone that was already dead. I kept that purely out of habit. And addiction.

I opened the door, and Sakura was standing at the ready for me to jump on her back. She wasn't kidding about needing to get to Tsunade quickly. I climbed on, and she shot off faster than I had ever traveled before. Even though the ride was much smoother than my previous one, it was much faster and I wasn't exactly prepared. The hard rain stung my face and I almost fell off at the jerky start, but Sakura wrapped her arms around my legs and held me with an iron grip. How strong is this woman…?

I thought about it. She had to be close to my age, which meant she was 17 at least, maybe 20 at most. I wasn't sure. The fact that a girl so similar to me in stature and age could be so strong and so fast…well, it made me more curious about chakra, that's for sure. I decided I would ask her or Naruto about it when they got back. If they get back…A tiny voice whispered in the back of my mind, but I shoved it aside. I knew the ninja were like soldiers, but I hoped their battles weren't as dangerous and extreme as the ones I grew up with.

"We're here," Sakura called over her shoulder. I went to respond, but the stinging rain made it hard to concentrate on much besides shielding my face. I gave her a thumbs up and she laughed. The weather didn't seem to be bothering her.

Then I realized what she had just said. Here…my new temporary home.

I tried to squint through the rain, but it wasn't until we came to a complete stop (arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times) that I could actually look around.

And I was terrified, to say the least.

This was nothing like Naruto's tiny, warm, comfortable apartment. This was a sprawling kingdom, almost like a tiny city within Konoha. Sakura led me to a large building near the center of the complex, and knocked on the door. I couldn't see any lights on anywhere, and the whole place was eerily silent.

"I have to go, but Sasuke-kun will take good care of you! Bye!" And with that, she shot off into the night.

So…the infamous "Sasuke-kun", eh? I looked around at the tiny city, and noticed a strange fan-shape design painted and printed absolutely everywhere. All of them were slightly faded or chipped, and it made me apprehensive. Where is everyone? Why isn't this place kept up? Does this all belong to just Sasuke…? The wind blew more rain into my face, and I tensed up. This was the perfect setting for a horror movie: there was a creepy, seemingly abandoned house, stormy weather, and it was nearly pitch black outside. I already thought Sasuke might be a serial killer…this wasn't helping. Why isn't he answering the door?

As if he heard my thoughts, the door swung open and I jumped a few feet into the air. I spun around to tell off the idiot who just scared the crap out of me, but when I faced the kid I was too terrified to talk. With jet black hair and onyx eyes that seemed to delve into my soul, there was no way words were coming out of my mouth. I had never seen someone so incredibly intimidating before, and he was glaring. At me. And I hadn't even done anything yet!

Despite my loss for words, however, internally I was freaking out. I'M SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITH HIM? I wanted to run back to Naruto's apartment. Now I knew without a doubt that he was a serial killer.

I was truly debating on turning and running when he walked back into the building, the candle he was holding lighting up the hallway as he walked.

"Follow me."

Awestruck at the stark difference between this guy and the other few people I had met, it took me a second to process what he had said. But, since I didn't exactly want to be left outside at night in the rain, I quickly jumped inside and closed the door.

He was waiting impatiently at a junction to a hallway, so I decided to skip the sightseeing and follow. I seriously didn't want to piss off the guy I had to live with in the first five minutes. That, and if he told Tsunade anything bad about me, I couldn't get my own place or escape back home. So, following the rude, black-haired boy it was.

He took me down a barrage of hallways, and I found myself getting lost after the first three turns. I stayed close to him as not to lose him and be glared at again, but that backfired when he abruptly stopped and I ran straight into his back.

I rubbed my sore nose, but he didn't react. What's with this guy…?

"You room is here." And with that, he turned and left back the way he came, leaving me staring at him open-mouthed in the dark. I felt like punching a wall.

That was it? "Your room is here"?! Are you freaking kidding me? I don't even know where the hell I am in this stupid complex, let alone where a bathroom is, and "your room is here" is all I get? Are you serious?

At that moment, I realized that I was beginning to hate him for being so cold and for abandoning me. I had absolutely no idea why girls fawned over him so much. Sure, his looks were attractive in that they were weird (like, who has black eyes? Seriously! And the duck butt hair? Come on.), but he was a complete asshole. At least Naruto walked me through everything. This guy just expected me to get it on my own. Which, hello, I couldn't do! Even though I had a handle on the taking-off-your-sandals thing, that's about all I had grasped. Everything here was so incredibly foreign to me, and suddenly, without a guide or friend to help me, I felt completely overwhelmed.

Left with no other option, I turned to step into my new room. The ceiling was cavernous, and the walls were painted a dark purple. I think. The single candle lamp in the room next to the bed was not doing much for the whole "serial killer" aesthetic. The bed was massive and had a plush comforter on top, and there were a barrage of pillows strewn by the headboard. The room itself was rather large, and there were intricately carved dressers and a vanity spread against the walls of the room. If I hadn't been so pissed off, I would have been amazed that a living space so large was mine.

Out of pure rage, I threw my backpack across my room knocking it noisily against a dresser. I slammed the door, and then leapt on my bed. Thinking back on it, I actually feel awful for that pillow. It didn't deserve half of the beating that it took, and it definitely didn't deserve to be thrown out the window like it was. But I was angry. I was scared, confused, and now very suddenly alone. And I had to live with an asshole.

Lightbulb.

I didn't have to live with the asshole. The asshole wasn't watching me. He seemed to hate having me. He couldn't possibly care less about what I was doing right now. The asshole would never know.

Maybe moving in with the asshole was a positive change, after all.

I grabbed my backpack from where I had thrown it and stepped to the door. I had my knife from Naruto's in my hand, and my pocket knife handy in my backpack side pouch. I had snagged a few waters from the mini fridge in my room, and still had a couple packs of almonds from when I was attacked by Ben. I shook any doubts from my head, and opened the door.

Nobody was there. Just like I thought. I looked both ways down the hallway, and breathed a sigh of relief. So he really didn't care what I was doing. For some reason, though, the sigh was more for show. Something tugged at my stomach. Why didn't he care about me? What kind of first impression did I leave? What made me not good enough for "Sasuke-kun"?

I shook the thoughts from my mind, quietly closed my door, and crept down the hallway the opposite way from which I saw Sasuke go earlier. I hid behind statues when I thought I heard footsteps, and jumped anytime I saw light from the moon coming in windows. My heart was beating a million times a minute, and my adrenaline was flowing. As I neared the door, I hid behind a tree and saw that the key for the lock was hanging right by the door handle. I looked around, and didn't see anyone around. The only sounds were the crickets, the wind, and the dripping of water into a pool. Now's my chance!

I leapt out from behind the tree and sprinted on my tip toes towards the key. I could see the glint of the bronze, and my freedom seemed so close. Oh, freedom!

However, my glory was short-lived. My finger tips barely grazed the metallic surface of the keys when I was yanked back by a vice-like grip on my left wrist.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

I struggled against the grip of my assailant to no avail, and looked up to see Sasuke's face lit up in the moonlight. If it was even possible, he looked even more intimidating this way. I tried to force my wrist out of his grip, and remembered something. I'm holding a knife!

I didn't want to stab him, of course, but maybe I could scare him into letting me leave. I threw my right hand up in a position to attack, but before I could even blink he had stripped me of the knife as well as my backpack, and spun me around so my back was into his chest and my arms were restrained.

"Answer my question." With that, he picked me up off the ground, so that my feet were dangling. And that made me mad.

I struggled, writhed, kicked, and flung my head around, anything I could think of to escape. I fought with all of my might. Who the hell did this guy think he was, holding me in the air like this? I'm not some freaking rag doll! But it was futile. He held me up and restrained in an iron hold until I was utterly exhausted, and he carried me back to my room in the same manner. I was uncomfortable, to say the least. He put me down on my bed, then locked the door and was back before I could even move to get up.

"Something you should know about me is that I don't like repeating things."

Yeah, and I don't like being held against my will, but we don't all get what we want, do we buck-o?

He glared at me, and I could feel my resolve shrinking a little. But, mustering up all the courage I had, I crossed my arms and glared back. I noticed it—I don't know how—but his eyebrows moved up the slightest bit…in amusement, maybe? I didn't know him well enough to be able to tell.

After a few minutes, I sighed. "Fine," I said. He sniffed, and nodded at me to continue. "I was trying to escape."

For an instant, his face looked distorted—as if I had just said the weirdest thing. But just as quickly it reverted back to his icy cold glare. "Hn."

Hn? I scoffed and fell backwards onto my bad. "Get out of my room."

He walked out the door so quietly that I didn't even know he had left until I heard the clicking of a lock on my door. His voice rang steely low outside the door. "You're welcome for the pillow."

I didn't know what to feel. I was outraged at the fact that he had just locked me in my room, but I was also extremely confused when I realized that he had brought my poor, bruised-up pillow back to my bed. When did he do that? Is that how he knew I was trying to leave?

In my angst and confusion I didn't remember falling asleep, but the next thing I knew I shot awake to a pounding on my door. It was daylight, and I had to squint my eyes to see anything.

"It's unlocked," came a voice from outside of my door. "You're free to do as you please."

I rolled my eyes and flopped back on the bed. Well geez, thanks for the permission, dad.

As soon as I thought it, I cringed. I would have given anything to have been able to be snarky with my dad now. But if I saw him, I wouldn't be snarky at all—no, I would never be rude to him, my mom, or my brother again. I took my time with them for granted, and I regretted that with all of my being.

I started trembling, but forced it down. I needed to get my bearings in this massive complex, maybe even track Sasuke's living patterns before I allowed myself to be weak. If I could predict his movements, and if I knew my way around, maybe I could escape without even needing Naruto's help.

For a second, I paused. What did I even want to go back to? For all I knew, Ben and his goons could be searching everywhere for me to finish what they started. And even if they weren't, my home was infinitely smaller than my room now. I didn't have a family, and no friends either. I had everything that I didn't have at home, at my home here.

But I don't belong here. I can feel it. I need to go back. And not only that, but I was expected to put my life on the line for some weird prophecy that I never even agreed to, really. I was threatened into every agreement. I have to get back.

I decided to take a walk. I changed into some fresh clothes, grabbed my backpack, ran a brush through my hair, and stepped out of the room. I felt disgusting since I didn't shower the night before, but I figured I would wait and address that until I saw Sasuke again and could ask for directions to a shower. There was a toilet connected to my room.

I ended up wandering into the kitchen—thank GOD, I was starving—and saw a basket of tomatoes sitting on the counter. I snagged one, rinsed it off in the sink, and bounded out the front door while eating the tomato like an apple. I aimlessly walked around Sasuke's massive house, eventually coming upon a massive lake with a dock and a field with three large poles near it. Just like where Naruto trained, I thought.

I immediately remembered what Tsunade had told me: "In order to be the key to the prophecy, you need to train and become capable of holding your own in battle". I decided to drop bag and try my hand on training for a bit. Not that I knew what that meant, exactly.

I tried to recall what Naruto did yesterday when I watched his training session. So much had happened, it was hard to believe that it was just yesterday. I tried to remember his stance, which was a bit of a squat with one leg slightly in front of the other. I attempted to imitate his initial stance, took a deep breath, then punched the middle wooden pole. Hard.

"Shit…" I muttered, holding my injured hand to my stomach and walking backwards from the pole. Maybe I should stick to push ups…

"Akamaru! Wait!"

I turned my head to the disturbance, and saw a white dog burst through the brush to my left. A boy with strange red marks on his face and a fur hood came quickly bounding after. "Akamaru! Seriously! This is Uchiha property!"

The dog seemed to sense me, made a quick point turn, and sprinted towards me. He knocked me flat onto my back and began licking my face. Once I got over the initial shock, I laughed and petted his head. The boy with the red marks came running up trying to cover up a laugh.

"Akamaru! Get off!" He smiled when he saw me laughing at the dog trying to lick my face off, and barked at the dog one more time before it finally caved and obeyed its master. The boy held out a hand and helped me up, and I noticed that the marks on his face were part of his skin, just like Naruto's.

"I'm Kiba," he said, showing a toothy grin and holding out his hand.

"(Y/N)," I replied, shaking it. He looked incredibly confused and pulled his hand back, dropping the dog treat to the ground. Akamaru ran over to it and ate it happily, and my face flushed a shade of pink as I realized that I misread his motion. I stuttered to redeem myself.

"I'm so sorry, I just…where I'm from that's a sign of…um…that's the way we say….we…um…we greet each other that way."

He tilted his head and a smirk played across his lips. "You're weird," he commented, his smirk turning into a full grin. "I'm glad I met you, (Y/N)."

I was taken aback—and slightly insulted—by his comment, and even more confused when his face turned grim. He was looking behind me. "A-Akamaru, we need to go! Now!" He leaned to my ear and whispered, "I'm not trying to get Chidori'd anytime soon!" With that, he turned and high-tailed it out of there with his white, fluffy companion.

Chidori'd…? Out of curiosity—and possibly fear—I whipped around to see what Kiba had ran away from, and could've sworn on my life that I saw a black duck-butt flash past a window inside the house.

A/N: Sorry that took so long! It's been kind of a busy, rough summer with work, getting the stomach flu, and my Uncle passing away early this week. Hopefully I can get another chapter out before I leave for my backpacking trip on Aug 6th! Thank you guys so much for reviewing and reading, love you all!