Hello again! I went on vacation last week, so I wasn't able to update, but I have now, so everything's good. This chapter has a slight lemon in it, and it is yaoi so if you don't like it, don't read it. I'm also sorry abaout not being able to put in a nice fighting scene in this chapter. I can't write fighting scenes worth crap, and so I did this chapter a little differently. Gomen! I hope to hear from you all again soon! Happy reading!

baka-m3-l33t

The Meaning of Loneliness Ch. 4

When the Hokage woke up that morning, she had the feeling that something bad was going to occur today. She had no idea, but it distracted her as she tried to do the mounds of paperwork sent to her for her signature. She knew that she was never wrong about her feelings, and it worried her.

By about mid afternoon Naruto had been practicing almost non-stop, and had even started to exercise the Kyuubi's chakra.

'Why are you doing this to yourself! You did nothing wrong!'

'Because I have nothing better to do, and don't particularly want to see anyone at the moment.'

'Why can't you just go home and rest! You need it badly…'

'Because I don't feel like it.' He refused to speak of it afterwards. He continued to train, but you could tell that he was wearing down, for he wasn't as precise.

Neji had just gotten done with training, and was heading home. He had noticed that no one really cared where Naruto was, or even how he was doing. Everyone from the rookie nine and his team had not wanted to talk about it at all, and avoided the subject like the plague. They wouldn't even mention Naruto. It was like he never existed. He decided to go visit Naruto after resting a bit.

He went into his house and directly went into the shower. As he let the spray of water come down over his tired muscles and let the tension slip away, his thoughts went back to the blue-eyed wonder. He let himself drift off into daydreaming…

He watched as his hands ran over a tanned muscled chest and heard a deep moan come from the throat of the one he was feeling. As he leant closer, the blond took his lips in a searing kiss. As they're tongues tangled, Neji moaned in passion. He backed Naruto against the wall and started kissing down his chest…

Neji jerked himself out of the daydream, and found he had a rather large problem he had to take care of. As he reached down and grabbed his erection to finish himself off, he continued to picture Naruto in his mind. Just as he imagined that Naruto was pleasuring him instead of himself using his own hand, he came with a small shout. Afterwards, he quickly cleaned himself off and got out of the shower. He dried himself off and wrapped the towel around his waist. He walked into his bedroom and grabbed his nicely cleaned black shorts and white shirt, slipping into them, and then lay across the bed in the corner. He drifted into a nice nap, and after an hour, woke up to go check on Naruto.

Naruto was lying on the ground, panting after using a particularly hard jutsu, when he heard a sound of fabric rustling. That was his only warning, for next thing he knew, he was surrounded by eight men dressed all in black. They seemed to be low-level Akatsuki members. 'Naru-chan! Run! You don't have enough strength left. You need to leave!'

'And let them come into the village and kill many people? Not likely! I need to finish them here so they can't do anymore harm.'

'Of course. I forgot. You would save the village at the cost of your life, even though they scorn you.' Kyuubi muttered sarcastically in the back of his mind.

'Yes. Lend me your strength, please, for I have to do this.'

'Alright Kit. Just remember that I love you like my own kit, ok?'

'Thanks. I love you, too… Mother.'

He felt the surge of power just as the men launched at him from all sides.

Neji knocked on his door several times, and then used his byakugan to check to see if he was there. Since he didn't see him inside, he searched the surrounding forest and saw a slight flicker of his signature chakra. He immediately raced off towards it. When he came upon the field where Naruto was, he stared in amazement. There were around six bodies lying dead on the ground all around the field. He noticed the Akatsuki cloaks, and then when he heard a grunt, he turned and saw the horror that had occurred. Naruto was a bloody mess and had kunai buried deeply in each shoulder, one close to his heart, another two in his stomach and a few in his legs. He was dealing with one last member, and as Neji watched, Naruto placed one hand to block the sword that the man was aiming at him, and placed his other at the man's temples. Neji saw the burst of chakra, and immediately turned on his byakugan to see what happened. The jolt of chakra quickly traveled throughout the man's chakra streams, and then proceeded to engulf the man's heart, and smothered it. This all happened in about a half a minute. Just in time so that Naruto's blocking hand got gouged, and then the man was dead. Naruto turned and looked at the field and then started to fall. Before he could hit the ground Neji had caught him up. He raced to the Hokage's tower with Naruto cradled in his arms.
The Hokage stiffened as she felt the Kyuubi's chakra, that always crackled in the back of her mind as a reminder, crackled once very faintly and then was completely snuffed out. Her chakra slammed open the window and she almost leapt out to find Naruto, until she saw the shape of a man cradling something coming up to her balcony. She quickly recognized Neji, but it took her a little longer to recognize Naruto. His face was ashen, and he hardly seemed to be breathing.

"Lay him down on the bed over in the corner. Then go get Shizune and tell her she needed NOW and she should hurry!"

She stared down at Naruto's face once Neji laid him down. She then proceeded to place her hands over his heart and stomach. They lit up green as she tried to heal him, but she gasped and took a step back when she realized then was basically no charka or life left in him. She quickly stood closer and started channeling chakra into his blood stream. Shizune walked in, saw the situation, and proceeded to rush over and start to try to heal him with her hands. Neji stood close by and watched as the women moved in synchronization to try to get Naruto to live again. He stayed silent so that they could work with out distraction. Neji finally noticed that Jiraiya was standing in the corner when he raised his hand to beckon him out of the way. They stood close until around four hours later both women stopped simultaneously. Shizune sat down in a chair, while Jiraiya moved as quick as thought a caught Tsunade before she could fall from exhaustion. Jiraiya immediately put Tsunade and Shizune to sleep to regain their strength. He told Neji he could go home, but Neji brought a chair close to the bed, and sat holding Naruto's rough and clammy hand.