Chapter 2

"Hey, Sasuke maybe we should head home." Itachi said, he didn't know why but he was bothered by the sudden appearance of the homeless kid. The child had looked like he hadn't had a decent meal in a while so Itachi doubted that he would have had the ability to hurt Sasuke. Itachi also kind of wanted to go hunt the child down and take him home, he'd seen the fear in the child's eyes and wondered if he'd been hiding from someone that was hurting him. Itachi hated the thought of anyone hurting a child. Besides that, Itachi could tell that Sasuke had been curious about the kid. Sasuke hadn't truly experienced seeing someone else suffer, it was something that Itachi wanted to protect his little brother from for as long as possible. His brother had a gentle heart and Itachi really didn't want to see that spirit broken.

"I think we should go after him." Sasuke replied, looking over at Itachi. "He looks like he could use some help. Mother always said that it was important to help those that were less fortunate than us."

"He may be going home." Itachi replied, though what home Itachi wasn't sure, it looked like he'd been hanging out in the park for a little while, hiding from someone that was hurting him.

"I don't know about that." Sasuke said frowning as he stared into the space that Naruto had disappeared. "Something tells me that we should go after him."

"Or we could mind our own business and let his guardians take care of him." Itachi pointed out. He wasn't sure that Sasuke should get involved in something like this. Itachi didn't know anything about the kid, he could have serious mental issues and that's why he was out on the streets like he was.

"Hey, if it bothers you that much, I'll track the kid down." Deidara said, reaching out and ruffling Sasuke's hair. "I'll go see what's up with him and let you know something as soon as I find out."

"Would you really?" Sasuke asked looking up at Deidara, who nodded.

"Of course, I'll do anything for baby Uchiha." Deidara replied.

"I don't know if we should." Itachi replied. "Maybe there's a reason he's out here, like maybe he was playing hide and seek."

"With who?" Sasuke asked. "There's no other kids around, and that's not a game you can play by yourself."

"I don't know." Itachi replied. "I do know that we have to get home, I've got some things that I need to do for school."

"You're always doing something for school." Sasuke said. "You're just like father, always working."

"I know, but at least I make some time to spend with you." Itachi replied. Sasuke sighed, he supposed he should be grateful that Itachi had decided to play soccer with him this morning.

"Next time we play soccer we should invite that kid to play." Sasuke decided as he bent down and picked the ball up.

"We'll see, that's if he's here." Itachi replied. "He may end up finding another spot, after today's drama."

When they got home ten minutes later, Sasuke ran straight up the stairs and Itachi headed into the kitchen, where he found his mother still sitting at the table, but this time his father was sitting there beside her.

"Did you and Sasuke have a good time?" Mikoto asked and itachi nodded and stepped aside to allow Izumi into the room.

"How are you dear?" Mikoto asked.

"I'm well Mrs. Uchiha." Izumi replied as she offered a soft greeting to the Uchiha parents.

"So something interesting happened while we were at the park." Itachi said as he walked over to the fridge and pulled out a couple bottles of water, he handed one to Izumi before walking over and standing in front of the sink. Turning he leaned against the sink.

"What happened? Sasuke's okay isn't he?" Mikoto asked and Itachi nodded.

"Sasuke's fine, but we ran into what looked like a homeless child while we were playing soccer." Itachi replied. "He looks to be about Sasuke's age, and it looks like he's been out there a while."

"That poor child." Mikoto said softly. "Next time you run into him bring him home, I'm not going to leave a child out there to suffer."

"We don't know that he doesn't have a place to go." Fugaku said. He didn't mind helping those in need, but he wasn't going to allow his family to be taken advantage of either.

"Something tells me that he has a story and it isn't a good one, but either way he's caught Sasuke's interest." Itachi said. "So maybe bringing him by will Sasuke some good, and it will give Sasuke the opportunity to hang out with someone his own age. Instead of being with me and Deidara and Izumi all the time."

"He does need his own playmates." Fugaku agreed. "But some random homeless kid?"

"I don't think this kid means any harm, he acted like he was afraid of me and took off like a bat out of hell as soon as he was able to get away." Itachi replied. "I get the feeling that he's a good kid, he just needs to be given the chance."

"I wonder why he's out on the streets then," Fugaku said "Doesn't he have a guardian that cares what he's doing?"

"He said he was hiding, and he looked like he had some bruises." Itachi said. "So it's possible that there's some sort of abuse going on."

"We have to do something." Mikoto said, turning to look at her stern looking husband. "We can't let an innocent baby be hurt."

"We can't help every child that's being abused." Fugaku replied. "And we don't know that this kid will show up again."

"If Sasuke has a say in anything, he will." Itachi replied. "He was curious from the moment that he lay eyes on the boy. Which means that we're going to have to step in and do something, because Sasuke isn't going to stop bugging us until we do."

"I'll see what I can do." Fugaku said, unable to resist his wife's pleading eyes. She had clearly made up her mind and there would be no changing it. "But that's only if he can be found."

"I don't think that's going to be too hard." Itachi replied. "Deidara is out looking for him, he promised Sasuke that he would find out what was going on."

"Text Deidara and tell him to bring the boy here." Fugaku said. "I'll see if I can get him to talk about his situation and we'll go from there." Itachi nodded and reached into his jeans and pulled out his phone.

"Apparently, he's already caught up with the kid." Itachi said a few minutes later. "And he has a guardian."

"I sense a but coming." Mikoto said.

"But he came upon the man hitting Naruto with a belt." Itachi replied. Tears welled in his mother's eyes, and Itachi grimaced. He'd thought the kid would have a hard life, but he hadn't expected something like this.

"Get him here as soon as possible," Mikoto said quietly. "He's not going to stay with someone who can so easily hurt him."

"Knowing Deidara, he's already gotten him out of there." Itachi said. Deidara had had an abusive home life when he was younger, but now he'd found a home with a family that cared about him.

"Good, I want to know who this person is that thinks it's okay to beat a child." Mikoto replied. "No one should ever raise a hand to a child to hurt them."

"I agree." Fugaku replied. "I'll see what I can do to have them thrown in jail." He wasn't going to tolerate child abuse of any kind. Locking away as many abusers as he could might even help his reelection chances in the long run.

Twenty minutes later the sound of the doorbell filled the air, and Itachi exited the kitchen and headed down the hall. Throwing open the door, Itachi found Deidara standing on the doorstep with a frightened looking blonde boy.

"Hey, Naruto." Itachi said softly, reaching out and gently touching Naruto's cheek, only to have Naruto flinch away from him.

"Not one here is going to hurt you." Itachi said gently, "We're going to make sure that you're taken care of. So why don't you come in, we'll see about getting you a bath and a warm meal?" Naruto clung tighter to Deidara's leg for a few seconds before reaching out and gently taking Itachi's hand.

"Thanks Deidara, Sasuke is going to appreciate this." Itachi said quietly.

"I wanted to beat the hell out of that man for laying a hand on him." Deidara said quietly. "I don't think he was really Naruto's guardian, I'm pretty sure that he was just another homeless guy that didn't like Naruto being in his area." Itachi shook his head, he couldn't imagine how scared Naruto must have been living on the streets like that.

"What happened to the people that were supposed to take care of you?" Itachi wondered as he gently led Naruto into the house.

"They died." Naruto replied quietly, as he stared down at his feet. "A few months ago, I've been living wherever I can since then, because I don't want to go back into the foster care system."

"No one bothered to check up on you?" Itachi asked sounding incredulous. How had this kid escaped being noticed by the system.

"I've never mattered to anyone." Naruto replied. "And I don't think that I ever will." The simple sentence sent an ache through Itachi's heart, how could such a small child possibly believe that his life didn't matter? Itachi really hoped his mother would be able to convince him otherwise.

"How terrible is that?" Deidara asked quietly. "He looks to be about Sasuke's age, and he believes that he's not worthy of love. I would like to meet his real parents and knock some sense into them." Deidara had had a terrible childhood and it wasn't until he'd become a teenager that things had gotten better for him, Itachi knew this little boy's situation would be weighing heavily on Deidara's shoulders.

"Things are going to be different for him now." Itachi said quietly, noticing the way that Naruto was now clinging to his leg as he peered around Itachi and into the mansion. "He's not going back out there again."

"Do you really think your parents can just take him off the streets?" Deidara asked. "There has to be some sort of legal channel that they have to go through."

"I'll let my father figure that out." Itachi replied. "But someone somewhere has to have a record of him, he was after all in foster care at one point."

"I can't imagine how long he's been out on the streets." Deidara said, "He must have gotten good at hiding from people."

"I'm sure there's going to be a lot of questions that need to be answered." Itachi said, "but right now the more important thing is getting him into the bath and getting a good warm meal." The poor kid looked small for his age and Itachi was sure that was because he was malnourished. A few weeks with his mother would change that though, he would be healthy again in no time.

"I'm going to take you to my mother." Itachi said softly, kneeling down in front of the dirty boy. "She's going to get you fixed up, with some food and a bed, you look like you could use some sleep." Naruto shrugged, it hadn't always been easy to find a place to sleep out in the streets, most of the time he tried to sleep under the bushes in the park. Unfortunately a stray soccer ball just happened to smack into him.

"I know your afraid." Itachi said gently, seeing the fear and the stress in Naruto's eyes. "But I can promise you that no one here is going to hurt you." Naruto blinked at him.

"Why would you do all of this for me?" Naruto asked quietly. "What's in it for you if your not going to do anything to me?"

"We just want to help." Itachi said. "I have a brother about your age, and he needs a playmate. I think you'll be good for him. He was curious about you from the start." Naruto frowned and looked down at the floor, he didn't understand why these people wanted him. No one else had ever wanted Naruto unless it was to something for them. There were times that Naruto had been used to deliver drugs when it was too dangerous for another adult to do so. No one had ever cared that Naruto had often been beaten by the person receiving the drugs. No one cared that he'd been a small child, that he'd only done the things he had done so that he could get the love and acceptance that every other child seemed to have.

"No one's ever wanted to help me, they wanted to hurt me, but never help me. I don't think I was ever destined to be loved." Naruto confessed, tears welling in his eyes as he turned his gaze away from Itachi's.

"What pathetic creep tells a child that!" An angry Deidara exploded at Naruto's words. He hated hearing that Naruto had been so used and abused by the adults around him. To make a child feel like they weren't worthy of being loved was the worst kind of abuse. It made Deidara want to hunt down those adults and make them feel the same kind of pain that the young Naruto had been put through.

"Cool it." Itachi said, "You're scaring Naruto." Itachi could understand why Deidara was so angry, but that was no call go scaring Naruto even more than he already was.

"I better get home, if I ever much more I'm afraid I'll end up doing something that I'll regret." Deidara told Itachi before turning and walking away.

"He's a bit hot headed but he wouldn't hurt a fly. He's kind of had the same sort of past but he wouldn't do anything to hurt you." Itachi said quietly.

"Sure." Naruto mumbled, continuing to stare down at the floor. It was easy to say that they wouldn't hurt but eventually the hurt would come.

"I know you have no reason to trust us." Itachi said, using his thumb to raise Naruto's head so that he could look at him. "But we only want to offer you help and to give a decent home if you would be accepting of that." Naruto shrugged, he supposed it couldn't hurt to try.

"Why don't we start out with introducing you to my mother?" Itachi asked. "She's been wanting to meet you." Naruto shrugged, and clung tighter to Itachi's leg.

"She's going to love you." Itachi murmured. "Especially if you stay like this."

A few minutes later, Itachi walked into the kitchen with Naruto clinging tightly to him. Stopping in the doorway, Naruto peered around Itachi's leg at the three other people in the kitchen. A dark haired woman stood up and walked towards Itachi and Naruto. Naruto backed away, clinging to Itachi's other leg when the woman approached him.

"Hello, Naruto, I'm Mikoto." The woman said, kneeling down in front of him. "I want to invite you to live here with us. To be playmates with my younger son." Naruto blinked at her and buried his face in Itachi's pants.

"He's kind of shy." Itachi said. "And more than a little scared, apparently he's had a pretty rough childhood." He gently placed his hand on Naruto's head and ruffled his hair. "It wouldn't be a bad idea to get him into some therapy."

"Hey, sweetie, we're not going to hurt you." Mikoto said gently. She reached out and gently touched Naruto's cheek. "I'm sorry that you've experienced such pain at the hands of people that were supposed to care about you. I can assure you that nothing like that's going to happen here. We'll protect you from anyone that wishes to cause you harm." Naruto blinked at her, before releasing his grip on Itachi's pant leg, and taking a reluctant step towards Mikoto. He didn't know what it was, but there was a warmness, a gentleness about her that he had longed for for a long time.

"Come here sweetheart." Mikoto said gently opening her arms to Naruto, who took a few more steps towards her, until he was wrapped tightly in the warmest hug that he'd ever experienced. Tears welled in Naruto's eyes as he rested his head on her shoulders, taking the moment to enjoy the warmth that he could feel emanating from her. Naruto couldn't stop the sobs from wracking his body as the gentle woman held him. He'd never experienced such gentleness in his life and now that he was, he wasn't sure what to do with it.

"Oh, sweetie." Mikoto murmured wrapping her arms around the small child. "I'm sorry that you've had such a difficult life, but I can assure you that from now on things are going to be much easier for you."

"What's going on here?" Sasuke's voice filled the doorway, "Why is he here?"

"He's here because he needs a place to stay." Mikoto said. "And he's going to have one for as long as he wants to be here. He needs a family and that's what he's going to get."

"Good," Sasuke said stalking forward and stopping behind his mother and Naruto. Sasuke reached out and placed his hand on Naruto's head. He didn't know what it was about the other boy, but Sasuke could sense the loneliness and fear in the other boy. Sasuke wanted nothing more than to be able to make those feelings disappear for the other boy. Sasuke just hoped that Naruto would allow for Sasuke and his family to heal the pain that he'd been put through.

"I don't understand why." Sasuke said softly. "But it hurt seeing him out in the park like that, he was afraid of Itachi and Deidara. I hated seeing the fear and loneliness on his face, I wanted to be able to make those things go away for him. I don't understand why because I'd never even seen him before in my life."

"That's because you have a kind heart." Mikoto said softly. "And you were able to recognize that this little guy needed some help."

"I don't know, but there's something about him that makes me want to help him." Sasuke said. "He seems like he's had a rough childhood, and that's not right."

"His childhood is going to get better from here on though." Mikoto replied as she tightened her arms around the still softly sobbing Naruto. Her heart bled for Naruto, she couldn't help but wonder if the small child had ever experienced kindness from the adults around him. That was going to change from this moment on though, Naruto was going to have the best life that anyone could have.

"I guess this means he's going to stay after all." Fugaku said, having silently watched the scene between his wife and the child. There was no way in hell that he was going to separate her from him now, especially with hearing what Itachi had to say about his past. He was going to make sure that he hunted down those that had hurt the boy and tossed him in jail. He could already tell that Naruto was going to bring some changes to his family, it was just a matter of time.