Naruto: Stray

By ghettomusick23

Summary: AU – Naruto and Haku fought Orochimaru, however neither one escaped unscathed. Jiraiya, in the Wind Country for research finds Naruto and brings him back to Konoha for more reasons than one.

Chapter 05 – Papercut

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its many money making properties.

" " – Speech

Italics – Thoughts

Lying nude under silk sheets, she silently enjoyed the afterglow after hours of constant, frantic movement. The slight sheen of sweat was helping cool her overheated flesh. No more than ten minutes had passed since their hectic, almost needy coupling and she could still feel the small shudders that continued to wrack her body. She didn't know what brought him to her tonight but she would be a fool to complain. Wrapped in a bubble of bliss, she felt more relaxed than she'd felt in weeks.

The sound of running water somehow seeped into her dream like state and she figured it was the shower. If things followed coursed like they regularly did, then he would gather his things next, then give her that closed off look of his and leave without another word. She didn't know who to blame for their current setup, her for letting him come pound her into the bed or him for being so damn good at it.

She was all for girl power and all that stuff, that was part of the reason she was in the Akatsuki to begin with but she was about getting what she wanted, enjoying herself and since the first day he came sauntering into her bedroom, all bottled hate and closed off frustrations, she never turned him away. Why, when she wanted him just as much.

She remembered it so clearly, him striding through the doors with the blonde trailing behind him as if he could destroy them with a blink of his eye. She'd known who he was and the reputation he carried. Orochimaru wouldn't shut up talking about him. Everyday it was Sharingan this, world domination that, she had grown sick and tired and at a time hated the Uchiha before she'd ever laid eyes on him. Now years later it was ironic that it was Orochimaru that vouched for Itachis entrance into the Akatsuki and he in turned ran her former teacher off.

She could hear the water drizzle down to a stop and his stepping out the shower. The euphoric feeling that was currently surrounding her started to dissipate a bit when she began preparing herself for his departure. There wouldn't be any goodnight kisses or last minute cuddling sessions. It was irritating and alarming, this heavy feeling that settled in her breast from time to time before he left. She didn't like it; she hated it and would be a fool to accept it. Weaknesses got you killed.

The door opened and she slid her gaze from the ceiling to him. He stood against the low light of her bathroom, shirtless, wearing a pair of warmup pants and hair unbound. Even after several hours of him the sight was enough to send a spike of desire racing through her. It really wasn't fair that she was seven years older than him but yet and still he always managed to wrestle her for power in this twilight zone relationship- if she could even call it that.

She slowly dragged her eyes away from his chest and caught his gaze. His eyes were their normal coal black, not the red of the Sharingan. That was her only condition when they started this, to not look at her with those eyes of his. It could be chalked up to sentimental folly but she didn't want to be looked at like she was the enemy. She never would have asked him to let his guard down or anything as stupid as that but for a few hours she didn't want to be the enemy either.

He started walking and she closed her eyes, reclining against the half dozen feather pillows spread across her bed. Expecting him to follow routine she barely managed to stay quiet when she felt a slight depression in the bed.

Cracking open one eye in question she found herself looking at his back. Letting her eye trail down the smooth play of muscles she smiled at the small indention of nail prints. It was barbaric, crude and possessive but she had no problems with the act of marking him. She didn't know what he and Kisame did when they were gone but at least she knew one thing he wasn't doing.

She was a bitch- yeah, so what.

"We will convene in the morning. There are multiple problems we must solve before enacting our plans."

The fuzzy, warm cocoon was totally gone now. Completely wiped out by his out of the blue message, if not the dull tone in his voice.

"What?"

He didn't turn around to answer her but merely raised his head so his voice could reach her easier.

"Naruto and Haku may have run into some trouble."

Now she wasn't stupid. With all the testosterone that was constantly flying around here, she being a woman, easily labeled herself a genius, because no matter the grouping, men were going to be men and that included random displays of ego and machismo. But what he was saying didn't make sense for a lot of reasons.

"How did you get that idea?"

He half turned his head, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"While you were out, eating dango, we received word of an altercation in the Wind Country. It was around the area they normally frequent."

She didn't have the mind to look embarrassed or shamed. She did what she wanted to when she wanted to during her free time and nobody was going to tell her different.

"Well, if somebody would have gotten off their ass and come to get me then there wouldn't have been a problem would there?"

He did nothing, never even blinked an eye at her comeback. She imagined she could curse his mother to hell and back and he wouldn't bat an eyelash.

"So they ran into a couple of dumb hunters, we both know that they wouldn't have broke a sweat."

If she hadn't been looking she wouldn't have seen the small, almost unconscious tightening of his shoulders and when it came to Itachi that was as loud a declaration of trouble as anything he could have said verbally.

"We have no knowledge of their present location."

That's when everything fell in place and she almost wanted to retract her genius statement. Haku didn't return because he couldn't. And Naruto, the thought that nobody knew where he was spoke volumes. He was unquestionably their most powerful asset and his lose would mean trouble if varying third parties found out but who would be powerful enough to take on the two of them together. Even she wasn't that thrill crazy.

She hated sounding soft, timid, shocked. Any emotion that displayed weakness but despite the voice telling her to keep quite she asked anyway, "Who and how?"

"Orochimaru."

So he was on the move. Thinking about him didn't bother her in the least. Just another loose end to tie up she figured and since he abandoned her to the world she had grown stronger. Maybe she would be able to showcase a couple of her new techniques she'd created. She could just picture him. Staring at her with that condescending smirk on his face and the following look of surprise when she jutsued his ass to hell.

"Anko-san."

She was growing frustrated with his innate ability to constantly snap her out of her daydreams. Letting out a sigh of frustration on the inside she met his dark gaze and strangely her mind fell silent of anymore complaints.

"We may have to destroy him and the Raikage if they continue to try and stop our plans."

She said nothing, eyes still locked with his eyes, that to anyone else were devoid of anything resembling emotions but beneath the cavernous swell of darkness, she could see something and even if he didn't know or cared to know, she knew.

He stood and this time she did nothing to stop him. His willingness to actually talk to her was a nice change but she wasn't going to grab for his attention. She would have been fine had he never said a word. So she watched him gather his shirt after slipping on his sandals. Watching him tie his hair back she quelled the sudden need to wipe that calm expression of his face the only way she knew how.

God, she was such a sex freak.

He closed his eyes, let out a sigh and slowly opened them once again. His Sharingan activated, she watched the few shields he ever let down slam into place. His shoulders straightened, eyes showing that laid back impassiveness and the next second he was gracefully walking out of her room.

Stretching out into a pose that would give any hot blooded male a prominent nose bleed. Anko threw off the comfort of the blood red sheets and made her way to the shower. Her friend wasn't going to take the news lightly and god help the poor soul if she found out who took him; that was if he was still alive. If it had indeed been Orochimaru there was no way to tell what he would have done. His known depravity shocked even her sometimes.

She looked into the full length mirror situated behind the bathroom entry door. Frowning at the glass like quality in her eyes, the red tinge of hand prints on certain parts of her body, no doubt from Itachis' strong grip. She looked comfortably frumped. She was glowing, enough to annoy the hell out of her.

"It's been two years," she said, finger pointing at her reflection the mirror. "Remember the mission. Don't go catching crap you don't need."

Besides, even without her other duties it would have been pointless. She didn't know what was going on between Itachi and Naruto but if the Uchiha heir wasn't constantly coming to her and vice-versa, she would have though something strange was going on. They spent so much time together, Itachi almost always beating the crap out of Naruto, who wouldn't have thought it. Whatever it was, it seemed that only the two of them knew what was going on and even her top of the line detection skills yielded nothing on the subject.

"Probably a promise of some super secret jutsu no one knew about."

Everyone knew that Naruto would saw off his own arm to learn anything concerning fighting in general and if Itachi was withholding something then that would be a reason for their excessive bouts of violence. She couldn't picture Itachi resorting to anything so childish to manipulate someone but when it came to Naruto you didn't have to try that damn hard in the first place.

Grabbing various scented shampoos and soaps, Anko started running the water for her bath. She may as well enjoy it because by the looks of things this was going to be her last one in luxury for a while.

"You must be Naruto?"

He turned, tensing somewhat when he laid eyes on her clothing. She was another one of these lunatics who called themselves the Akatsuki and he braced himself for whatever kind of crazy enjoyment she thought she was going to drag out of him. Itachi had wanted to see what the hell they wanted and he followed him like a good student, but he was starting to wish he didn't. Everybody that walked around here was crazy, and scary; even the women, especially that woman Anko.

"Yeah, what do you want?"

She didn't seem put off by his attitude, she seemed quite the opposite in fact. It brought a smile to her face and an even grumpier frown to his.

"You're the one everybody's been talking about. You got some guts talking to Kisame like that."

He shrugged, absent mindedly rubbing the already purpling fist imprint in his jaw. It hurt like hell, but he would be the last person to say it out loud. The asshole had deserved the punch in the nose, looking down at him like he wasn't worth the air he breathed. That one look had mentally thrown him all the way back to Konoha ansd a lot of memories he would have rather forgot.

"He should've left me alone and I wouldn't have broken his nose."

She let out a small laugh and he watched her take a seat, consciously trying stop his instinctive reflex to defend himself. It was an after effect from Itachis guerilla style training methods and being around these people inadvertently put him on edge. They had bloodlines techniques and powers that he could never make up in his head and if they weren't S-ranked criminals he would have been elated. But as one of them so gently demonstrated, they weren't too much into sharing much of anything.

"Don't let it bother you. I think you surprised everybody."

Despite his reluctance he asked, "How so."

She held up her index finger, eyes narrowing; her smile slightly switching to an all knowing grin. She looked like she was about to give him so sort of family secret.

"You see, Kisame is so strange looking, he can't get laid. So the only way for him to work out his stress is to pick fights. You probably saved somebody's life today."

Her explanation was so absurd he couldn't think of anything to say and his eight year old mind refused to consider some parts, except the Kisame being ugly part. That was all too true.

He sat there beside her, just shaking his head in silence and slowly the smile began to appear. He tried to fight it down. She seemed pretty cool but this whole conversation could be a stunt for him to let his guard down. Then like a bolt of lightning one single thought popped into his head.

'Who the hell would go through all of this just to play a joke?'

Well, nobody but him. He gave up and hit her with his full wattage grin.

"He's lucky he got in his one good lick now because when I become the most powerful shinobi ever I'm going to wipe the floor with him," he protested loudly, slamming his fist against his chest.

He waited for the sneer of derision, the look of disbelief, a laugh full of mocking taunts but she did none of that. Instead, nodding her head in agreement, she turned her gaze to the sun, a melancholy expression lining her features. It looked wrong somehow when all she'd been doing since she came to him was smile.

"It's great that you have a goal. Something you're striving to achieve. It will make you a lot stronger in the long run."

Itachi was only four or five years older than him but he knew things Naruto would never expect from someone his age. This girl looked younger than his sensei but for some unknown reason she looked older than everyone here.

"Don't you have a goal? Something you want to do or become," he scratched his head for an example and came up with the only one that would matter, "like a great kunoichi or a female kage."

"No."

He stared at her and for several minutes he didn't know what to say. She didn't seem to notice his rudeness; she didn't appear to be paying attention to anything. He knew he should have left her alone. Everyone around here he realized was a mesh of contrasting personalities and he didn't know if her quite disposition was just one small step to uncontrollable rage. Naruto never listened to logic or theories though and asked his next question.

"Why?"

When she didn't answer he opened his mouth to ask again when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. There was a tension he felt in his bones and he felt his skin start to tremble. It was scary for the reason he didn't have control of his body anymore. Fear was beginning to cloud his lungs when she turned her head and he was caught looking into liquid gold. Her eyes, that were once a beautiful shade of green, were now amber and filled with a hate that words would never be able describe.

"Because Naruto, my dreams were stripped from me the very day I was conceived."

There was no grogginess, no grasping at the last shreds of unconsciousness. When he felt the weight of the world encroach on his senses he was immediately alert. It was a habit everyone of their little group knew, Hunter-nins were a dangerous lot and the last thing they need was an extra advantage. Keeping his body still and his breathing at a relaxed even keel he made sure he could feel all of his bodies' extremities, doing an internal damage check.

Everything seemed to be in order except for his shoulder, where even the slightest movement sent pain flaring up his neck. He didn't know how long he'd been out but he knew for certain the he shouldn't have been in this much pain. The Kyuubi should have healed him, why the damn thing was playing hookie didn't make sense.

'Dumb fox.'

His comment went unanswered and Naruto didn't bother trying to reach him again. He was going to have to have a talk with his client. Just because the furball was renting his body didn't mean he had rights to interfere and they were lucky Orochimaru was otherwise occupied or he wouldn't be breathing.

He took a deep breath and settled back against the pillow. He hadn't dreamed of her in years and it was probably from exhaustion alone that opened the memory gates. He was surprised he remembered their first encounter so clearly. After the incident Itachi had accepted their invitation to join and he by default became a member of the most powerful organization in the western lands. For weeks he stayed away from her and several of the other members, training with Itachi and recovering from his multiple losses, until she tracked him down one afternoon and made him talk to her.

From that one conversation he ended up gaining his first friend. She looked so young at first but he found out she was only a year younger than Itachi. Plus, not only was she able to kick ass but she knew tons of jutsus and different uses for them, his eight year old mind couldn't think of anything else you needed in a friend.

She seemed so harmless sometimes, the complete opposite of Anko who even smiling looked like she had something up her sleeves. The more they talked the more he wondered what she was doing running with a group of killers and when she finally broke down and told him he believed that that was the straw that broke the camels back and shattered any belief he had that there were good people existing in the world.

He made to sit up when a hand delicately moved the front of his yukata and traced the seal on his stomach. A reflex, his hand flashed out and tightly grasped the wrist in an iron tight grip. Abandoning any false pretense of sleep he set his angry, smoldering gaze on the intruder; more angry with himself for being caught unaware. He tightened his grip, beginning to speak and she cut him off first.

"Hello Naruto. I'm pleased you're awake."

Her familiarity with his name did nothing but raise his awareness into alert status. Out of everybody in the Akatsuki they made sure to keep his name out of the underground. His name being found in the bingo book would bring nothing but trouble. Countries would actively hunt him for the power he wielded. This woman somehow knew him and he would have to destroy her for it.

"Who the hell are you?" He looked ridiculous sitting in a hospital room in nothing but a black medical yukata threatening who had to be a very powerful kunoichi based on the level of genjutsu she was using.

Tsunade cocked an eyebrow at the command. Anybody could see that he was the last person able to give out orders. She insisted on leaving the ANBU guards stationed outside the hospital for this very reason. They would attack and attempt to kill and she didn't need or want that at the moment.

She didn't turn to look at Jiraiya, she could feel his concern over handling of the current situation and he shouldn't have bothered. She'd played out in her head the various scenarios that could take place and thousands of possible solutions. Here in her hands was a means to combat the very problem that seemed destined to consume their village whole, but it was wrapped in so many layers of personal conflicts she hesitated. She stood looking into ocean blue eyes and waited for some sort of sign.

Before she could answer her own questions words were moving from her mouth. "I am Tsunade, current Hokage of Konohagakure and this man to my right is Jiraiya."

'The Sannin'

Naruto quickly clamped down on the panic. He needed a straight head to get out of this. He took a quick glance at the man sitting in the chair, his mind locking onto the white of his hair before he remembered his friend.

"Where did you take my friend?"

Though his gaze was still locked with Tsunade's Jiraiya knew Naruto was speaking to him and never one to lie about anything he told him the truth.

"He was retrieved by two Sand-nin. One of them I'm sure was Gaara."

Naruto slightly nodded, filing away the information for later use. He knew that Haku was in the best of care and that lifted some of the guilt he felt for not being able to help during the fight.

"What of Orochimaru."

Frowning to himself, Jiraiya let out a sigh of whatever emotion he was feeling at the moment.

"Kabuto and somebody else came to retrieve him almost as soon as you fell out." He smiled, giving Naruto a nod of approval. "You did a good job of flooring him. That was some power packed behind that punch. He never got back up from what I saw."

Naruto glared at the man. He didn't see anything worth smiling about. He was back in his hometown, the last place he wanted to be and had no way of getting out at the moment.

"You kidnapped me."

Jiraiya's smile fell a bit. He scratched the back of his head glancing at Tsunade for some help, but she was still staring at Naruto and he couldn't guess what was going through her head for once. Finding no assistance from his old friend he answered with a truthful, "Yes."

It was subtle but he watched the change with something akin to shock. There was no physical change, nothing on his face to go by. It was a feeling, as if the air itself turned frigid.

He released her wrist and settled back against the pillow. "I take it you know who I am and what I am."

She was pulled out of her daze by his abrupt behavior change, looking for some sort of trap or set up.

"All residents are logged. You are from here so it would only be natural for us to know who you are."

He didn't believe a word she said.

"So you caught me. You somehow managed to bring me back to this hellhole. What are you going to do?" She looked perplexed and he wanted to smack the expression off her face. She was a horrible actor and looking stupid didn't suit her at all.

"What is it going to be? A public execution for the Scourge of Konohagakure, what about letting your Chuunins and Jounins use me for target practice to pay for the death of their parents?" His aura was warped around him, dark blue, almost black in its intensity, filling the room with his anger. "Bring them all, I'll destroy every last one of them and leave this waste of a village in rubble."

Tsunade looked at the triumphant smile on his face and felt something come over her. Before she could stop herself her hand blurred, contacting against his cheek and sending him flying into the wall where he crumbled to the floor.

Jiraiya jumped out of his seat and grabbed her before she did permanent damage to the boy. "Tsunade, what the hell are you doing?"

She yanked her arm from his grip and turned her angry gaze to him. "Do you here him? Did you here the same thing I did? What do you think they would have done if he said something like that to them?"

He shook his head trying to think of anything to calm the situation. Of all the things to set her off it would be the past.

"Tsunade, what's done is done, you can't change the past. He's a different person, you should have expected this."

It was easy to put the blame on everybody else. The village for treating him so harshly, blaming him for crimes he had no part in committing. She could blame his parents for throwing away their lives, even if it was for a just cause. She could even include her former sensei for not seeing after him, for not taking care of his predecessor's heir but none of them were the real culprits. She was responsible for the picture in front of her. Her cowardice, her fear of losing something, of losing somebody else important drove her away, and now…

She read the reports, the files listing him as a deserter, some even thinking that Uchiha Itachi killed him. It was a harrowing experience, looking at him and knowing that they couldn't have been more wrong. Even now, she could still feel the hatred he held wrapped around him like a blanket. No doubt it had been an excellent tool they used in training him. She looked at him slumped against the wall, groaning, slowly trying to return to the real world and made a decision.

Her short time as Hokage has helped her in so many ways. Helping the villages youth strive toward their hopes and dreams, watching the elders work on the behalf of furthering the villages prosperity. It helped heal some of what ailed her during her self imposed exodus. Now it was her time to take care of her own problems and fix one of her greatest regrets.

"Jiraiya, stay here and let the medical staff finish fixing him up. When they finish, escort him to my house. He's going to be staying there."

He could only gawk at her.

"What are you talking about? There no way with your duties that you could…"

She cut him off with one look.

"I've been blessed by fate." She knelt next to the still form of Naruto and ran her hand through his blonde hair. "I won't make the same mistake by letting someone I care about go and I thank you for bringing him here."

Jiraiya for once didn't argue. He didn't have any words to stop her from doing what she wanted. If anything he believed this was the last step in helping her find her old self. They as a whole could only do so much in helping her with her cope with her past but this was what she needed. He had no illusions about the task. Naruto was no child, he was a teenager who wielded great power and would use it to end lives if he wanted, probably had already. It was going to take a lot of work but he knew what he was doing when he brought the stray back home.

He walked and stood next to the crouching woman, dropping his hand onto her shoulder in a show of friendship.

"It's going to be tough but I'll help anyway I can. I think it's going to take more than the two of us to change him."

The smile she graced him was almost blinding. A sight he hadn't seen in years and it only fortified his resolve to help.

"Yes, for Arashi and Haruko. I will not abandon my grandson and if anyone has a problem, then so be it."

He couldn't agree with her more.