Staring down into his drink, Sasuke Uchiha wondered how his perfect life had so quickly gone to hell. One minute things had been perfect between him and his family, the next minute his parents were gone and him and his older brother were at each other's throats. His older brother, Itachi was the reason that Sasuke was currently sitting in this bar drinking himself into misery.

Itachi and Sasuke hadn't gotten along since the day of their parent's deaths, Itachi blamed Sasuke for the death of their parents. Fugaku Uchiha expected the impossible out of his children, perfect grades, perfect jobs, perfect marriages so forth. Sasuke had never been able to live up to his father's expectations, and it had left Sasuke fighting depression and suicidal tendencies. Then Sasuke had taken too much cocaine and Fugaku had walked in on him, Fugaku had called for an ambulance and once Sasuke had been loaded up, Fugaku and Mikoto followed in their car, while Itachi took his own car, as he had left directly from the office. On the way to the hospital Fugaku and Mikoto were hit by a drunk driver. They had been killed instantly, leaving Itachi in charge of a drug-addicted Sasuke.

"Itachi, where's mother and father?" Sasuke asked, when he'd regained consciousness in the hospital. His head hurt like he'd been hit in the head with a sledgehammer. Itachi whom had been standing by the window staring out at Konoha, turned and looked at Sasuke with the coldest eyes that Sasuke had ever seen.

"They're gone." Itachi replied robotically, "and they're never coming back." Sasuke frowned at him.

"What does that mean?" Sasuke asked, he felt sick to his stomach, and he didn't remember what had happened to lead him to be in this position.

"It means that they are dead." Itachi snapped. "And their deaths is your fault."

"How is it my fault?" Sasuke asked, "I don't even know why I'm here."

"You overdosed on cocaine, and you nearly died." Itachi replied. "If it hadn't been for you needing to go the hospital, they wouldn't have been driving." Sasuke swallowed hard, he wasn't sure what to think about his parents. Him and his father hadn't gotten along in years, Sasuke could never do anything right to please his father. Never once in Sasuke's life had the man said he was proud of Sasuke, but he always made sure to let Itachi know how proud he was of him, for his hardwork and despite working all the time had managed to even find a future wife. Now, Sasuke didn't have anything against Izumi, she was a great woman and was great with his brother. But if their parents were gone like Itachi said they were, Itachi wasn't going to want to put up with Sasuke, he could barely stand Sasuke's presence anyways. Sasuke didn't need Itachi to tell him that he was a burden on their lives. Sasuke adored Itachi so he didn't know why his older brother all of a sudden had a changed attitude towards him. All Sasuke knew was that one moment things had been going well for the brothers, then all of a sudden Itachi hated him.

What really suck was that just that night Itachi had told him to get out and not come back to their families mansion. Itachi didn't want a high Sasuke to be around his wife and unborn child, like Sasuke would ever do anything to harm his niece or nephew. Sasuke hadn't even gotten high since their parents deaths, he'd gotten drunk plenty of times since then, he practically stayed drunk, but he made sure never to bother his brother. So why was Itachi doing this to him now? Did he honestly not even care that Sasuke didn't really have anyone that he could stay with? His so called friends had wives and children to take care of, they didn't need to add a drunk man to that.

Sasuke sighed, he had no idea where he would spend the night, but he supposed that the bar wouldn't be it. Pushing himself to his feet, Sasuke shoved a few bills towards the bartender. He was lucky there was a motel nearby, he just didn't want to spend the rest of his life there. He supposed he had to find a way to sober up so that he could go in to work in the morning. The last thing Sasuke wanted was for Itachi to be angry at him for showing up to work drunk yet again. He would never here the end of it, and he really didn't want to give Itachi any more of a reason to hate him. Itachi would probably find a way to throw Sasuke completely out of his life if Sasuke screwed up any more than he already did. Sasuke supposed that Itachi got his attitude from their father, Sasuke had never done anything right in Fugaku's eyes so it was only natural that Itachi took up that attitude too. It was nice to know that Itachi was keeping up the family tradition of making him feel like he was unworthy of being an Uchiha. Maybe one day he would be able to something right in his brother's eyes, maybe then he could make his parents proud even if they weren't there to see it.

Exiting the bar, Sasuke stumbled down the street, he could barely move, but he had get to the hotel for the night so that he wouldn't end up being robbed blind by the many homeless that littered the streets of Konoha.

As he stumbled across the street, grimacing at the brightness of the overhead lights, Sasuke wondered how he'd ended up like this, bitter and wishing that death would come set him free from the darkness that was threatening his soul. He didn't want to be so angry and bitter, but when Sasuke never lived up to anyone's expecations and then was also a complete failure at his day job, he felt like he was in a position that he was never going to get out of. He felt like he was digging his own grave the longer he kept trying to survive in this harsh world.

A few minutes later, Sasuke tripped over some feet sticking out in the middle of the sidewalk, turning to glare at the man, Sasuke paused when the blonde haired man grinned up at him. Sasuke frowned and wondered if this homeless man was off his rocker, he'd never seen any homeless person act like they were happy about being in their situation.

"Are you crazy?" Sasuke slurred at him and the man, who looked to be about Sasuke's age of twenty two, shook his head no.

"I come out here to enjoy the stars." Naruto told him.

"You're in the city, you can't see the stars." Sasuke reminded him. Naruto shrugged.

"I feel up when I look up into the sky, I feel like no matter what happens if I look up into the open sky that things are going to be okay again. You look like you could use some hope." Naruto commented, Sasuke scowled. How had this stranger read him so completely, it was weird and Sasuke didn't think that he liked it. He didn't want people to read him so easily.

"I've been having a few bad days." Sasuke admitted, though it was more like he had been having a few bad years since his parents had died four years ago. He hated his life, and he didn't really care if anyone knew it.

"Just because your having some bad days, it doesn't mean it's a bad life." Naruto told him.

"What would a homeless person know about such things?" Sasuke asked bitterly, the alcohol was starting to wear off now that he was in the cold night.

"I'm not homeless." the man commented, causing Sasuke's eyes to shoot up. If he wasn't homeless what the hell was he doing out at this time of night? Only the homeless, and prostitutes came out at a time like this.

"Then your a prostitute." Sasuke told him and he shook his head, offering a chuckle.

"I'm not that either, I'm a normal person, who enjoys staring up at the night sky." the man told him. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki by the way."

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke replied. "And I need to get to the hotel so I can sleep off the rest of the alcohol that I embibed."

"Getting drunk when you have to work the next day isn't a smart idea." Naruto told him, and Sasuke shrugged.

"There's a lot about my life that I don't care about right now." Sasuke replied. "And my job and life isn't any of your business."

"I think you need someone to talk too." Naruto replied. "Just know that I'm always around here if you need to talk."

"Why would a stranger want to know about my life?" Sasuke wondered, it really did sound like this Naruto character was a little wacked in the head. Sasuke didn't need his help and he doubted he would seek out the other man to talk either, he would find a way to deal with his issues on his own.

Should I continue? Let me know, and this is a friendship fic Liz