I told you guys I'd give you another chapter, and I meant it because you are ALL AWESOME! 230 fricken people have viewed it just from a couple days ago, and have reached almost 1300 views! It might not seem a lot to you, but god it seems a lot to me, and I just wanna say thank you for that :)

Anyways, before we get into the chapter, I'm just going to review some reviews

Arianna Le Fray: I have something already planned for when or if they become genin, and as for the chains I'll keep that in mind! Thanks for the review :)

Guest: Thank you so much for your kind words, you made me so happy that you found my story awesome! I hope that you will continue to read it and love it!

Serenity10116: I'm updating… now! Thank you for your reviews as well!

Okay, without further ado, here is Chapter 5!

(1 month later)

Mayako's Perspective

"H-Help! Please!" I try to yell, but I can't find my voice.

I run as fast as my little legs can take me through the never ending forest. I weave in and out of the abnormally large trunks and branches, trying to escape from the jonin after me. I don't know what I've done, but they want me dead, and I'm scared. My heart is thumping through my chest, my legs starting to give out more and more with each step I take. I look back at the darkness, noticing the ninjas are closing on me inch by inch. Their eyes glare through the dark, piercing through my soul.

I want to scream, but I can't.

I want to get away, but I can't.

I'm scared, I'm alone.

I catch a glimpse of light up ahead. My pace slowed down dramatically as I try to reach for it. I gasp loudly for air as my lungs start to fail.

I then stopped completely. Unbearable pain throbbed throughout my entire body for a second, and then became numb. My hand held over my chest started to feel warm. I forced myself to look down. There was a lot of blood.

My blood.

I trembled in fright. A dozen ninjas surrounded me as my body went limp; they started closing in on me, all of them calling out horrible comments and names. I fall onto the ground, blood now trickling out of my mouth as I sputter wheezy breaths. My breathing then suddenly hitched, and it stopped. Everything stopped.

Then everything went dark, and all I could hear was my heartbeat.

Ba-bum.

Ba-bum…

...

B-a…..

….

My lungs filled with air as my eyes shot open. I lunged forward, heavily breathing in the oxygen. My eyes scan the room as I try to calm down my breathing. As my eyes adjust to the dark, I realised I was in the bedroom, scattered clothes near the closet, one of my pillows on the floor. I stare down at my hands gripping the ends of the sheets, droplets of sweat dropping from my face onto the blankets.

Just a nightmare… I whisper inwardly. I clench the ends of my sheets as my hands turn into fists. But it felt so real.

Every night is a nightmare, because I never have any dreams. But this one was different. I could normally point out if it was just a nightmare. It felt too real. I was breathing, I was running, I was killed. The blood felt real, the pain felt real, and my frightened state still lingered even though I'm now awake.

"You too huh?" Naruto questioned. My brother's voice distracted me from my thoughts, also almost startling me. My heavy breathing finally stops as I turn my head in his direction to look at him. His monster beanie is lopsided, and a button on his shirt is undone. He is lying on his side, facing me with his head resting on his arm, the other lying across his body. I give him a small smile to match his.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm alright." I say, still smiling.

"Well, you don't look alright to me." He answers, looking at me with concern. I send him back a questioning look.

"Why do you think that?" I ask him.

"Well, for starters." He puts his sentence on hold as he lunges out of bed, then starts to make his way over to me, his footsteps almost silent.

"You're crying. You never cry." He squats down, lifting his left hand up to my face to wipe away the tears I didn't know were there.

"You also look like you've just seen, like, a bunch of ghosts!" He chuckles beside me. I wish I could share the same fake laughter. He awkwardly stops when he realises I'm not laughing with him. He then gives me a sad smile.

"Hey, you wanna talk about it?" He asks. He makes me scooch over, and climbs into the bed with me, pulling some of the covers onto his lap. I lean over, and lie on his shoulder, and listen to the silence of the night.

"What was yours about?" I ask him. He ponders for a moment before responding.

"Zombie ninjas… they were terrifying." A shiver travelled down his spine as he recalls his dream. I giggle at that.

"Tell me yours." He says in a curious tone. I sigh as I look straight in front of me.

"Same as you, I guess, without the zombie part. They were after me, and when they cornered me, they killed me. Before I was killed, I could hear the horrible things people call us, and before that, when I was running, their glares… they were ice cold. Then when I ran out of breath, everything went dark, and all I could hear was my heartbeat." I recall.

"…woah." Was all Naruto could muster. You could hear the astonishment and horror in his voice.

"The worst part was that it felt so real, the blood, the pain, everything." I explain. Naruto's eyes were fixated on me the whole time.

"That's way worse than zombie ninja's" He says, and we sat in silence once more. After a minute of two, Naruto breaks that silence.

"You want me to sleep with you tonight? I know we haven't done it in a while and, uh…" His voice trailed off as he looks away, blushing, his free hand scratching the back of his head childishly. I pull myself off of him, and look at him for a moment. I then smile as I reach out one of my hands to adjust his monster beanie, pulling on the side nearest to me back in position.

"Yeah, I would like that." I agree, chuckling at his reaction. My brother then turns around swiftly, and smiles. He then leans to the side, over the bed frame, attempting to grab the pillow that was on the ground. After trying for the third time, he manages to snatch it from the floor, and places it behind him for his head to rest on. He shuffles down into the blankets, and then rolls over towards me, sending me the hugest grin with his arms open wide. I put a grin on my face as well as I shuffle over towards him, he doing the same until his arms were wrapped around me. I snuggle into his pyjama top as he rests his head over mine. We hadn't done this in ages; it was nice to do this again, though normally it's the other way around, since he's the one who normally had the pretty bad nightmares.

"Goodnight May."

"Goodnight Naruto."

…

I slept alright actually, well, until morning. I was awake before Naruto, who had spread himself out all over the bed, and somehow got onto the other side of me, so I was now lying on the edge of the bed, trying my hardest not to fall off. He was snoring and drooling as well. I really hope that's not genetic, but whatever. I tried to stay silent so I wouldn't wake him up, but god had other plans for me. Out of nowhere, Naruto sprung up onto his feet, the forcefulness of him pushing me off the bed; make me slam into the planks of our floor. He was peering around the room, eyeing at everything suspiciously whilst remaining in a battle stance.

"Come at me zombies…" His eyes then landed on me, snapping him out of his mid-dream trance.

"Eh?"

I roll over so I'm facing upside, then push myself up on my elbows, then moving one of my hands to my face to inspect the damage. There's definitely gonna be a bruise on the top of my forehead.

"Idiot… Now I remember why we don't sleep in the same bed anymore…" I say as I look up at him, recalling the last time we slept in the same bed. Our awkward moment was interrupted by a knock at the door. We both looked in the direction of the door, then back at each other, confused. Naruto then jumps off the bed, running out of the bedroom and towards the door. I follow soon after as I helped myself up off the ground, and jogged out of the bedroom door, and towards Naruto, who had just opened it a slight bit to see who it is.

"Huh, Iruka sensei? What are you doing here?" I hear Naruto question the person at the door.

"What? Sensei's here?" I ask Naruto. He leans back, holding his grip on the door and the door frame. Naruto then turns around to me and nods his head up and down. I then make my over in the direction of Naruto and the door, and move my brother out of the way to see. He stumbles a bit before regaining balance, and eyes me before returning to where he was, just looking over me as I peer out of the door. I glance at sensei before speaking.

"Why are you here sensei?" I question half polite, half rude.

"We need to have a little chat-"

"Goodbye."

"Wha-HEY!-" I cut him off as I slam the door on him.

"What ya do that for?" Naruto asks calmly.

"I don't wanna have a pep talk at 6 in the morning." I brush my hands together, and start to walk away from the door, placing my hands behind my head, linking my fingers though each other and my hair. I then hear the door burst open, startling me as I freeze in my tracks.

"I have a key you know, Mayako." Iruka says in a demonized voice.

"Damn that old man…" I whisper under my breath.

"… That's pretty creepy sensei." Naruto points out behind me. I then hear Iruka sigh.

"What am I going to do with you two…"

…

"Are you two even listening!"

"Yeah, yeah, no skipping school anymore, got it." Iruka Sensei sighs at my words. We are all sitting at our little square table, sensei giving us a full on lecture about skipping classes and not turning up at the academy. It just went in one ear and out the other really. Sensei puts his head in his hands as Naruto and I look in the opposite direction, not interested in his speech in the slightest.

"Okay, how about I make this a little more interesting." That caught both of our attention, both of our sets of eyes looking at our sensei.

"If you two are at school every weekday, I'll treat you guys to Ichiraku Ramen. Here are the rules; for 4 weekdays you are at the academy, 1 bowl each. And all 5 days, 3 bowls each. And at the end of the week, I'll treat you. So, how about it?" Sensei then holds out a hand, wanting one of us to shake it. We eye each other sceptically, our glances shifting from each other to Iruka.

This is some serious business.

Naruto shrugs, indicating I should make the decision. I cross my arms and close my eyes, thinking about the deal Iruka has offered.

"Are you serious?" I ask, lifting an eyebrow.

"Dead serious." He replies with a straight face.

After thinking about it for a moment, I nodded towards my brother, telling him telepathically we should agree to the deal. I mean, we are talking about free ramen here! I then stand up, the chair I was sitting on creaking across the floorboards as it shifts underneath me. I then lean over the table top, and grab sensei's hand, and shake it firmly. He then smiles at me, and I send him my foxy grin. I dub it a foxy grin because that's the only animal I can compare myself to. As I let go, I walk around to the back of my chair and push it in as Sensei gets up to leave.

"Now that that's settled, I'll see you two in the classroom quarter to then."

"Eh?" Naruto and I both say in unison.

"…It's Wednesday…" Sensei replies, completely dumfounded by our forgetfulness.

"WHAT?!" We both said in unison, again.

"I thought it was Sunday!" I yelled, running towards the bedroom closet to find something to wear.

… Hey, I know you're laughing at me, shut up.

"Aaahh! I thought it was Friday, and we could just skip school!" Naruto yelled from where he was standing, grasping his head.

"Hey! What about the deal we just made Naruto?!" I could hear Sensei question my brother.

"What! You said we get one bowl each if we are in there for 4 days anyway!"

"Come on, we don't have time!" I shout, running towards Naruto, yanking him by the collar, and dragging him away from Iruka sensei, who was sweatdropping from our reactions, particularly mine. I see out of the corner of my eye, sensei placing his hands in his pockets, and make his way out the door, shutting it behind him.

"Damn there's no clothes! It was your turn to do the washing!" I shout, earning a look from Naruto.

"You know I don't do that stuff!"

"Then what are we gonna wear?!"

"Hey, c-can you let go of me?! Y-you're choking me!"

…

"Okay." Sensei sighs, frustration in his tone. "I gave you too enough time to get ready…"

"Yeah, and we're here." I say blankly.

"Then explain to me why you two are still in your PYJAMAS!" He shouts angrily, his voice booming across the entire classroom. We both stare at him in complete boredom, still tired from the early wakeup call.

"Her fault."

"His fault." We both said, accusingly pointing our fingers at the other.

Sensei grinds his teeth together with a smile, also sending us both an intense glare.

"I don't care whose fault it is! THIS SCHOOL IS NOT YOUR BEDROOM!" He yells once more in our direction.

"Might as well be." I say underneath my breath, looking in the direction of Shikamaru, who is sleeping soundly in the corner of the room.

"Damn, I forgot to bring my pillow..." Naruto groans as he slumps back in his seat. Sensei sighs once more.

"You two…"

I look back at out sensei, who I can tell is trying to keep his temper intact. He then draws his attention away from us, and takes in a deep breath before regaining his composure.

"Alright, let's just get this day over with…"

Blah, blah, blah, that's all I heard from him throughout the day. Nothing sensei was saying or doing was interesting, so I zoned out the majority of the day, except for the times he told Naruto or I off for not paying attention. I paid more attention to what was going on out of the window I was sitting next to than what boring lectures sensei was giving us. I was glancing at the training grounds and the villagers passing by with their children.

I always wondered what it would be like to have a mother, or a father. I always wondered why brother and I are treated like trash, why we are hated. I hate being hated. I want to be loved.

The class's bell distracts be from my thoughts as Iruka sensei finishes his sentence on ninja rules and stuff, and dismisses the class. All the children barrelled out the door, saying their goodbyes to one another. Sasuke is followed by a pack of fangirls, much to his dismay. I also wonder how he deals with that crap.

I yawn, stretching my arms behind my head, then place them on the table as a support to stand up. Once I'm out of my seat, I follow Naruto wearily up the stairs, and out of the door, which we shut behind us as we were the last ones out. The hallway was basically empty as we walked down towards the exit, our arms swaying beside us, and the only sounds echoing are our sandals clanking against the wooden floor. Naruto places both his hands in his pockets while I lace mine behind me head as we walked down the corridor quietly.

Naruto eyed me from the corner of his eye, which I saw from the corner of mine. He rolled his eyes, opening his mouth a couple of times, then closing it. I sigh, knowing he wanted to tell me something.

"Speak." I command, now looking at Naruto.

"You know me too well… Okay, I found out recently that I have a crush on someone!" His face starts to burn a bit. I stop walking, and focus on my brother, who is acting weirdly. He had never had a crush before, so this was shocking.

"You do?" I ask, speaking my mind.

"Yeah!" He replies a little too enthusiastically.

"Well, spit it out! Who is it?!" I chuckle playfully, nudging his shoulder for the added effect. His cheeks are now bright red as he sends me an embarrassed smile.

"It's Sakura!" He tells me. I think for a moment as I begin walking again, Naruto catching up to my side. The light of the setting sun blinds us both as we continue to walk out of school property. I'm not a big fan of Sakura to be honest. She doesn't like me, nor Naruto for that matter. She's pretty, I admit that, but she isn't nice at all.

"Doesn't Sakura have the biggest crush on Sasuke though?" I ask him.

"Yeah, that's what sucks…" I was about to say something to cheer him up, but was interrupted by a forceful push, which was so sudden that it made me stumble, and fall backwards onto the ground, slightly skidding backwards. I coughed as the air in my lungs rushed out of me.

"Mayako! Are you alright?" Naruto grabs me by the hand gently, and helps me up to my feet, myself wincing at the grazes on my body. He looks at me for a moment before shifting his gaze to the five figures in front of us, his expression changing into an angry one. I couldn't make out who they were; the sun's light was too bright, only letting us see their silhouettes.

"What was that for?!" He growls angrily at whoever was there.

"Oops! Sorry losers!" The middle kid said in a sarcastic tone. The other kids snicker beside him as I dust off my now dirty pyjamas.

"We're not losers!" Naruto defends, throwing his free hand out in front from one side to the other.

"Yeah you are! You're worthless! You can't do anything right! You can't even dress right!" A boy yells back in a snarly tone, stepping forwards towards us. I frown at his statement.

"I can't believe you guys are trying to be ninjas, just give up!" The guy on the far right growls. I snap my heads towards him.

"Why don't you just do this village a favour and bug off, like the insects you are, you freaks!" Another one sneers.

They all then growled with laughter. Anger boiled up inside me as I approached them, my hands clenching into fists, the fingers driving into my palm. They stopped their horrendous laughing, and stare at me, their glares piercing. I didn't let that get to me as I step closer, my teeth grinding against each other. I am now standing inches away from the middle kid, whose stare was one of the bully's.

"Yes, we may be weak, we may be losers." I say in a monotone voice straight to his face. He smirks, place a hand on his hip.

"But," I scrunch up my face as I pull my arm back, and give him a full on knuckle sandwich.

"We are not worthless! And we're not freaks!" A tear makes its way down my cheek as I watch the boy in front of me topple over in pain. I glance over at the guy on the far right.

"And for the record," I pause the sentence as I lunge at the other guy with all my might, swivelling my body in sync with my fist, pulling it behind my head, and sending it right to his stomach. The impact was enough to leave him winded.

"We are gonna be future hokage! We are NEVER gonna give up! We are Naruto and Mayako Uzumaki! REMEMBER IT!"

…

Long-story short, it did not end well. Like most of the time we end up fighting, we lost. It makes me angry I can't even stick up for myself when I need to most. It's dark out now, the only light now illuminating is the moon's.

Blood trickles from my mouth as I try to pull myself together. With much effort, I manage to sit up, my back and arms aching with agony. We hadn't been beaten up this badly in a while. We both managed to stay out of the way of people who abused us, who wanted us gone. But we can't avoid it, no matter what we do.

I lift my hand up to my face, wiping the blood from my mouth. I look towards Naruto, who was unconscious from the fight. He was in worse condition than me. He interfered with the fight, and took most of their punches and kicks. I attempt many times to lift myself off the ground, until I finally got myself up. I limp over in my brother's direction, and peer down at his sleeping body.

Out of all the things I hate, this is what I hate the most. I almost cry when I see him in this state.

If you were to beat the crap out of one of us, you're hurting the both of us. With my thoughts tangles with my emotions, I use my remaining strength to lift Naruto up onto my back, piggyback style. His arms flop over my shoulders as his feet tangle behind mine. His head leans against mine as I use my hands to help support his weight.

"Don't worry, when we get home, I'll fix you up." I say to Naruto, who replied with silence. I slowly start to walk, my eyes starting to get watery after a couple of steps.

But I hold back the tears.

There is no need for them anyway. This isn't the worst that has happened.

…

I walk in a daze, but I was snapped out of it when I felt a rock hit my already bruised skin. I winced a bit, but I didn't react, I just kept walking.

Home wasn't too far from here, just around a corner or two if I follow this path. Another stone made an impact with my little body, hitting me in the head. I glanced over at a flushed looking man with a sake bottle in one of his hands, and pebbles in the other. The guy's completely drunk. I look away from him, and focus on getting Naruto home safely. He continued to throw them at Naruto and I until he lost his footing, and fell down in laughter. As I approached the corner I needed to turn at, I caught a glimpse of a kid my age walking the opposite way we were heading. As he walked towards a street light, I noticed who it was, but didn't react. I didn't have the energy to. He had his hands in his pockets, and was gazing up at the sky, no emotion showing on his face.

Why do we always see each other at our worst…

Yeah, it was Sasuke; I mean who else could it be?! Of course out of all the people I wanted to run into, it had to be him. Thanks god, I definitely need him here.

He then peered over in my direction right as we were next to each other, and stops in his tracks, wide eyed. I continue to walk forward, taking shaking steps as my knees were ready to give out. I catch out of the corner of my eye him turning around, now the top half of his body twisted and facing me. My breath then hitches for a bit as I stumble, my legs no longer wanting to work. This feels a bit like the nightmare I had last night.

Except the difference here is that this is reality.

First I fell onto my knees with a thud, by body no longer supporting the weight of itself and Naruto. I was ready for the impact, but it never came. It took effort to open my eyes again. I opened one, and noticed I was inches away from the ground.

"Are you okay?" I hear Sasuke say in a monotone voice.

Wait?

Did he just ask me if I was okay? Did he just stop me from falling?!

This day is just getting weirder, but every day is pretty much like this so I guess it's normal.

"T-Thanks." I was shocked by the sound of my voice as it sounded nothing like it should. I then started to cough hoarsely as I choked on the air entering the wrong pipe. As I start to breathe properly, I looked to the side and saw Sasuke's beside mine, his hand reached out across my stomach. I then tilted my head up, and saw the look on his face. I couldn't pinpoint what his expression was actually; the closest to it would probably be a mix of a blank one with a sad one, with a hint of anger and frustration. I suddenly began to grow drowsy, my brain wanting to shut down. Eventually, my brain won the fight, and I slowly drifted off into nothingness.

And, done! I actually was going to post this on Thursday, but as you can see, I didn't, but hey, I still got it up within the week. Anyways, I'm not so sure about the second half of this chapter, so if you can, please tell me if you like it or not, and I'll change it if you don't like it :)

Also, in case you haven't noticed, I'm doing sections at a time, as in each chapter (except 2 and 3), there is a mini time skip or a massive one. I'll tell you at the start of the story if there is a massive one at the start of the story, which might be coming soon :)

Anyways, hope you guys have a good day, and I'll see you all next week!