Thank you to the reviewers (kiatsuki and Tazeredfrog) who say that more people should review. I agree with them but if you don't want to review it's your choice. I am very dedicated to this story and will make sure I stick with it to the end. Also Thank you very much to the other people who have reviewed you guys make me happy!

Disclaimer: still in place…

Vocabulary: Nightingale floor - Nightingale floors, or uguisubari (鴬張り) , were floors designed to make a chirping sound when walked upon. These floors were used in the hallways of some temples and palaces, the most famous example being Nijo Castle, in Kyoto, Japan. Dry boards naturally creak under pressure, but these floors were designed so that the flooring nails rubbed against a jacket or clamp, causing chirping noises. The squeaking floors were used as a security device, assuring that none could sneak through the corridors undetected.

"" talking

'' thinking

Bold dream state or flashback

"We have a slight problem."

Those words just made the Uchiha's anger raise once again. Was everyone trying to get him pissed today?

"As in what?" he gritted out through clenched teeth.

"The police couldn't find him, Naruto's step-father has left town." She said quietly.

Naruto sat on the floor of the shower. The multiple water droplets pelting down onto already soaked skin and blond hair; leaving tingling sensations as a parting gift.

The Blonde's arms kept his knees close to his chest; his forehead resting lightly on his knees. His eyes were kept shut, he did nothing, and his mind was thinking of nothing, he was exactly what Sieto wanted him to be. A life-size depressed doll.

"What the fuck! What do you mean he left town!? Why aren't the police following him!" he heard the sudden outburst from the Uchiha. He knew from the ringing he heard only moments ago that he was on the phone talking to either the police or Tsunade.

Naruto just felt himself curl more into himself and fall further he consider this depression?

'I tried to tell them.' He thought in his defense.

Sasuke slammed the phone back onto the receiver hard enough to put a crack in the plastic. Taking deep breathes he counted back from twenty and drank some water to calm himself down.

For the last fifteen minutes he had to listen, to what he thought, were lame excuses as to why the police couldn't find any trace of Naruto's mother fucking step-father.

Placing the glass down near the sink, Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, once again taking a deep breathe. He was confused to no end why he was getting so worked up over this. Usually he could care less about people's personal life. He figured though, it was just a way of apologizing to the idiot for opening up to him. Though he would admit, he was also confused as to why Naruto told him that in the first place.

Turning around he saw zed boy hiding the best he could behind a corner in the wall. Whatever he was doing, he wasn't making eye contact with Sasuke but the raven could tell that he wanted to ask him something.

"What's wrong?" he asked taking a step closer to get a better view of what exactly Naruto was doing.

Naruto on the other hand had different plans, and instead shrank more back into the hallway, pressing himself closer to the wall. This only made Sasuke a bit annoyed at the blonde's antics.

Walking so that he was only a couple feet away from Naruto, he not only realized why the boy was trying to hide from Sasuke but his question as well.

In the hallway was a dripping wet Naruto with a towel tightly wrapped around his waist. Another towel resting on tense and some-what broad shoulders to catch the water falling off from his hair. A blush probably due to embarrassment, was etched on cat-like cheek-bones as his blue eyes still didn't look at Sasuke instead finding comfort in the floor.

"You don't have any clothes; they didn't give you any extra clothes at the hospital?" he asked.

Naruto only shook his head 'no.' 'Talk! Why can't I talk?' he asked himself, but he just couldn't talk. His body restricted him from doing so.

Sasuke nodded; looking at the blond up and down. Naruto was skinny, at least a 30" waist size. His chest wasn't very muscular but it was defined enough to see where his muscles were.

Without saying a word, Sasuke walked off into a room that Naruto was sure was his. It had to be considering there was only the bathroom, a guest bedroom, family room and kitchen in this apartment. Let's also not forget the medium-sized veranda connected to the family room, half of it roofed. Naruto had to admit, Sasuke didn't live as richly as he thought but it was better than his and Sieto's apartment by far.

Finally Sasuke came back out with a pair of khaki shorts, a black t-shirt and a belt. "They might be a bit big but they'll have to do and it looks like you'll have to wear the same boxers, sorry. I'll go get your clothes tomorrow." He said, stressing that one word as he handed Naruto the clothes.

Understanding completely and being thankful towards the Uchiha, Naruto went back into the bathroom to get dressed. He was not ready to go back there yet.

Opening the door Naruto came out fully clothed and Sasuke almost had to hold back a chuckle. Now Naruto was embarrassed due to his petite girl-ish form.

A little bit big was an understatement. They were huge on Naruto. Even with the belt on, the pants sagged down on Naruto's waist. The pants that came a little above Sasuke's knees came about two inches below Naruto's. The shirt's collar rode up one side of Naruto's neck but was almost falling off his shoulder on the other side. No matter how many times Naruto tried to fix it, it would end up in the same way.

"You sure are vertically challenged aren't you dobe?" Sasuke joked than turned back to the kitchen.

The raven didn't see it but Naruto's gaze finally fell on him. Naruto smiled softly but only for a second. From a distance, you wouldn't have seen anything but Sasuke was making jokes; that was a good thing.

"Maybe things won't be so bad." He thought in hope.

Naruto sat on the floor of Sasuke's family room. Sasuke told him that he could watch whatever he wanted but he just kept on whatever was already on.

It was a comedic attempt at a hospital show. Naruto would usually find this kind of stuff hilarious but today, he just couldn't. Most of the time though he tried reciting the words that they spoke but even after 5 hours of trying he could only get simple words and articles. Anything else and his voice just wouldn't work.

The blond couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. Did it have to do with his growing fear of the coming days in which a guy was on the loose who wanted to kill him? Did it have to do with the sadness that came with the thought that the one guy who saved your life twice now, may hate your very existence and only saved you out of pity? Whatever it was, he couldn't figure it out.

Looking at a nearby clock he noticed that it was close to four o'clock. Sasuke would be coming back from school soon. Naruto still had a bandage around his head due to the crack and a deep cut on his chest from the stabbing. Even thought he could walk, he was still not allowed to go to school. "Not until there are only scars left!" were the exact words from Sasuke.

Naruto's thoughts were cut short when the door opened revealing zed boy of his thoughts. Shutting the door, Sasuke placed his bag down on the ground next to the door.

Walking into the family room, charcoal eyes met sky blue ones but only for a second before the blue ones darted to the ground. Sasuke wouldn't say it, well at least not yet, but the lack of eye contact annoyed him immensely what happened to the clumsy, hyperactive, and talkative blond he met the first day he started school? Not to mention, school was extra uneventful without the loser there to make fun of.

"Your still there….that's the same spot you were in when I left. Haven't you moved at all today?" Sasuke asked in disbelief.

"N-no…" the blond said softly. Well at least the boy had gotten some of his voice back within that time. Last night, Sasuke couldn't get a single word from him. But what surprised him the most was that it was exactly possible for the blond to stay still for over six hours.

"S-stop…" Naruto stuttered hoarsely trying to glare at the raven but he just couldn't muster it so it ended up being just a regular gaze.

"What?" Sasuke asked then realized that he had been staring at him. Naruto's slightly blushing cheek and hand making sure that the shirt collar wasn't falling down one of his shoulders baffled him. They were the same clothes from last night.

Sighing, Sasuke remembered that he still hadn't picked up any of the blonde's clothes. He was planning on doing it on his way back from school but obviously he forgot.

"Naruto, I'm gonna' go get your clothes." He said walking back towards the door he had just come through not too long ago. Opening the door, Sasuke turned his head back to look at the boy now staying with him. "Don't be afraid to do anything than just sit around, it won't kill you. Just stay away from the kitchen, you'll probably set this place up in flames." He said. The thing was thought, was he was being completely serious.

Getting a slow nod from Naruto, Sasuke left going back to Naruto's now abandoned apartment.

Sasuke arrived back at the run down apartment in no time. Entering, his nose instantly crinkled up in disgust from the smell. Blood still lingered in the air and dried blood still stained the carpet and walls.

The Uchiha was shocked to say the least, he had at least expected some caution tape on the wall or at least the blood cleaned up.

'Some kind of police force!' he thought, yes brows furrowing in anger though he quickly put it under control.

Without taking a second look at the spot where he found the dying Naruto before, Sasuke got to work on what he had came there to do.

Turning off the television, Naruto decided to do what Sasuke had said only a good twenty minutes after he had left. Step by Step, the blond made his way to the glass doors that separated the family room from the veranda.

Grasping the handle, Naruto slid open the door and stepped out onto the hardwood floor of the veranda.

As soon as his foot hit the floor, the air around him was filled with the sounds of birds chirping and the whisper of water running. Naruto gasped in shock and in joy, the sounds weren't coming from the environment, but from the floor. The noises seemed to make him feel lighter, the sounded so real yet different from the usual birds and water at the same time.

'A nightingale floor!'

Naruto looked down at the ground resting his other foot down on the floor. Instantly the sound of birds chirping flooded his sense of hearing.

All right so maybe this apartment was more expensive than Naruto made it out to be. Walking over to the railing, Naruto looked out over the town.

'Hey I can see my house from here, what a cliché thought.' The thing was, Naruto didn't even bother looking in the direction that the apartment complex was, and instead he looked the complete opposite direction. Shifting his weight to his left foot, the floor below him once again resonated with sound.

However, as quickly as it came it disappeared along with the little feeling of happiness that came with it, and that meant bad news for Naruto. The silence usually allowed thoughts to sneak up on him and that meant that reality was sneaking up on him.

'My father died because of him, and my mother went insane from it She killed herself and now…he wants to kill me for revenge!' the blond thought in despair.

Suddenly the blond saw a person with black hair pass the apartment complex and look up at Naruto.

'Seito!' he thought in fear as the face of his step-father appeared below him. Backing up, he ran into a small table. The plant that was resting on it fell to the ground shattering. The impact causing a chorus of birds around him which only caused Naruto to become even more frightened.

Yelling in fright, Naruto spun around only to see broken clay and soil all over the place. Each step he took caused the noise to reverberate throughout the air, and caused the already shaken boy to become ever more scared with each passing moment.

Walking hastily back over to the ledge, the lump in his throat turned into ice and plummeted to his stomach at the speed of light. No one was there anymore.

'Well maybe that means that it wasn't him. Yeah, I'm on the sixth floor, I'm sure I didn't see right. Tsunade said he left town anyway!' he persuaded himself, trying to calm his erratic heartbeat.

His reassuring thoughts were cut short when he heard the soft click of the door behind him; the ice in his stomach growing in size.

"S-s-sasuk…?" the boy stuttered uncontrollably out, shutting his eyes tightly. He got no response.

Naruto shut his eyes even tighter as the nightingale floor began to sing. The gentle song increasing in Naruto's pounding ears with each step the other took; this time the sounds bringing him no comfort but a sense of danger approaching instead.

The blond tensed up till his muscles ached from the strain, when a hand was placed on his shoulder.

As soon as that hand touched him, he let instinct take over his head. Spinning on the platforms of his feet, Naruto let his fist fly; one of them connecting with something. He couldn't tell as he kept his eyes shut.

He heard the intruder stumble backwards but only a few paces before regaining its balance. In the act though, it dropped something before running back towards Naruto.

Before he knew what had happened, Naruto found his face pressed against the floor and his left arm twisted painfully behind his back. A heavy weight, most likely the body of his attacker, on top of him, keeping him down.

"What the hell are you doing you idiot!"

"Naruto's eyes snapped open and looked, as best as they could, up at a glaring raven on him. Next to them lay a bag of clothes that Sasuke retrieved from Naruto's apartment.

Sure that the blond had calmed down, Sasuke let go of the boy's head and arm and got off of him.

Shaking, Naruto stood up and looked at the still glaring Sasuke. Some blood trailing a path from closed slightly bruised lips to his chin. The punch Naruto threw at him must have hit him in the jaw.

"Answer me! Just what do you think you're doing, just punching me all of a sudden?" Sasuke asked more sternly this time. Now was one of the times he was cursing the blonde's new found behavior immensely.

"Y-you…d-di…" Giving up on words Naruto got an idea. Telling with his fingers for Sasuke to hold on a second, Naruto ran off into his room.

Not too long after, he cam back with a pad of paper and a pencil. Standing back on the spot he was in moments ago, Naruto scribbled hastily on a sheet, ripped it off, then handed it to Sasuke.

"You didn't answer when I called your name so I thought you were a stranger." Sasuke read out loud but reading Naruto's hand writing in the first place was difficult. Looking questioningly at Naruto, zed boy nodded his head in confirmation.

Sasuke crunched the paper note into a ball as part of his answer. "You loser, I had my music playing." He said holding up an mp3 player, the head phones all tangled up in knots. "Also, I'm the only one with keys ton this apartment, no one's going to get in unless they kick down the door." He explained.

Sheepishly, Naruto looked down at the floor, clutching the note pad and pencil in his hands even tighter as he suppressed a blush. Sasuke's words were complete logic that Naruto lacked in his brain.

Sighing, Sasuke threw out the note in a near-by trash can and grabbed the trash bag that held Naruto's clothes. "Here." He said tossing it to the blond who fell down from the weight it contained.

"It isn't that heavy!" Sasuke yelled, his eye brows twitching in disbelief. 'He can't be that weak, he's been beaten half his life…' he thought but instantly stopped them as he knew where they were heading. Mentally scolding himself for thinking it in the first place.

Retaking the bag from, the wheezing for air, Naruto, the bag crushing his lungs, Sasuke quickly looked to see if he had reopened his chest wound. Seeing as it was almost all healed and in no way opening up anytime soon, Sasuke decided to go put the bag where the blue-eyes boy was staying.

"It's pretty." Those words from Naruto stopped the raven in his tracks. "W-What…?" Sasuke asked, actually stuttering. Suddenly halting where he was along with the bird's song.

"Your floor's s-song…" he quickly responded realizing how awkward the statement was. 'This is the first time I've heard one, it's so soothing.' He finished in his head.

"The nightingale floor you mean?" Sasuke asked a bit confused from the blonde's words but it was cleared when Naruto nodded his head.

"It's pretty…" Naruto repeated. "W-wish….I had….." He hardly got out his sentence before Sasuke understood and interrupted him.

"Well it's not like I had a choice. It was here when I moved in." Sasuke said going back into he family room through the sliding doors he had kept open.

After dropping off the bag of clothes in Naruto's room, Sasuke got a cup of coffee for him and some milk for Naruto, who still had a child-ish appetite. Even in his depressed form, Naruto still ate the same way and the same amount. He didn't cut himself intentionally, he got enough abuse from Sieto; he didn't stop eating, he was already petite and skinny enough. The blond-haired boy just sulked day in and day out.

Going back out on the veranda, Sasuke wasn't surprised to find Naruto moving from place to place, every step making a different and yet similar chirping sound.

"Come on usuratonkachi, it isn't that amusing." Sasuke said already annoyed by the noise. This was exactly the reason why he didn't come out here all that often.

Handing the glass of milk to the now still Naruto, he glared at the raven for his comment but only for a second.

"It's s-soothing." The blond responded but couldn't help but stutter; causing the Uchiha to raise the corner of his mouth just a little. This floor was getting the old Naruto back, maybe it wasn't that bad of a floor. All he had to do now was not mess it up.

"No it's annoying. All you here is chirp, chirp, chirp every fricken time you move a millimeter." Sasuke said which was true. It would take years of training and special skills to be able to cross a nightingale floor without it waking.

"B-But…"Naruto testified but was cut short as he turned his gaze to look at Sasuke. What he saw made his heart skip a beat, causing him to feel faint.

Sasuke leaned against the railing causing it to creak from the sudden weight as the nightingale floor answered his movements once again. His head was turned to the side as he gazed up at the blue sky adorned with pure white wispy clouds. The summer sun light brightened up pale skin giving it a glowing essence. His midnight black hair and eyes only made his skin look even brighter because the contrast was so great.

"But I guess in your case, anything as natural as a bird's voice would soothe an aching heart. A nightingale floor is something you control, if you move it signs. If you're still, it awaits your next move." Sasuke paused then sighed, making eye contact with the boy whose eyes reminded him so much of the sky he was just looking at. "Or at least that's what the guy who owns this complex told me. What a weird guy, remind me of you sometimes." Sasuke thought out loud than took a sip of his coffee.

Naruto just stared in disbelief at the raven that just a second ago looked so….

Finally, his body allowed him to talk as the clasp around his voice box was magically removed. "Hey, that landlord of yours was right!" Naruto defended then continued, looking at the sky due embarrassment from his sudden outburst. "I just find that amazing that something this beautiful is something you can control and yet you can't. You can't walk across it without the birds waking and greeting you, but, it's saddening to know that you control this majestic thing. Things aren't meant to be controlled, to be told what to do. That's why so many people have dreams of flying high above the clouds during stressing times in their life. The vast expense of the sky allows you to go anywhere while you watch the ocean or land change as you go. People and animals have minds of their own, they can think, talk and act for themselves, but, there are times when a voice beside you, whispering gently in your ear, is needed. Just like with the floor, your foot is needed to make the noise, without the foot, nothing happens."

"…You're such a softy usuratonkachi." Sasuke said, smiling smugly at Naruto who was now glaring at him. The thing was though, was he couldn't stop his heart from beating so fast. Naruto looked so peaceful and happy during the whole thing and for some strange reason that made him happy.

Naruto glared at Sasuke but then smiled, for the first time in days. "Yeah I guess you're right, you can't…"

Naruto's sentence was cut off by a pair of lips that were now softly pressed against his.