The Never-ending Journey

Chapter 2

A Naruto fanfic by Jetede

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A/N: Wow! I can't believe people actually love this story. Thank you for all your reviews so far. Almost all of you asked for this to be ItaNaru. If you have a strong reason as to why I shouldn't make this ItaNaru, please tell me now.

There was some confusion about some Japanese terms I used in the last chapter. The term 'youki' is the opposite / counterpart of 'ki'. Basically it's living energy, or like what in the Naruto world describe as chakra. 'Youki' basically means demon's ki, while the word 'youkai' literally means demon. Since there's believed to be many types of demons, sometimes (depending on the context of the story as well), demons are called oni, while the word mononoke is used to describe some kind of other monster/evil spirit. In Kyou Kara Maou, the demon tribe are called mazoku, that's why the demon king is called the MaOu ('Ou' or 'Oh' means king or emperor). Hopefully this explanation helps!

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The story so far: Naruto and Kyuubi arrived onto a new dimension to find the Naruto of that reality on the brink of his death because of blood loss. They also found out the friendship lil' Naru shared with the Uchiha prodigy, Uchiha Itachi from his memories. Not a few moments later, said prodigy landed outside of Naruto's apartment.

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Naruto blinked and continued gaping at Itachi who was standing right in front of his door. Although he did not actually show it on the outside, he was panicking in the inside. Of all the possibilities, he definitely did not expect the Uchiha to visit his apartment. Currently, the said Uchiha was still holding firmly, yet gently onto his arms, carefully avoiding the tender flesh of his wrists. Itachi frowned and narrowed his eyes as he focused on the horizontal scars that slashed through the arteries. In a blink of a second, he let go of the arms and pushed his way into the apartment. Naruto looked inside and saw Itachi standing next to his kitchen, looking down towards the floors with even a deeper frown on his forehead.

'Damn it. I haven't cleaned up the kitchen yet,' groaned Naruto inwardly. 'Now how am I supposed to explain this to him?'

Naruto closed the front door and started fiddling with the hem of his shirt with his left hand. His right hand was subconsciously rubbing on the left wrist, feeling the scar there. Itachi looked back towards Naruto and did not miss the unconscious gesture the younger boy made. He sighed and slowly made his way towards the boy. Itachi crouched down in front of Naruto who was gazing down nervously on the floor, trying to avoid the older Uchiha's questioning eyes.

"Naruto-kun," Itachi said softly. He brought his hand up to Naruto's chin. Naruto visibly flinched. He wasn't used to having the older Uchiha so close to him in such a kind gesture since all the other Uchiha Itachi he knew from the other realities were evil. Naruto was feeling really nervous in the inside. It didn't matter that his real self was already twenty years old, which means he was older than this Itachi; it didn't matter that he was technically much more powerful than said Uchiha, and even more powerful than several Hokages combined if he tried hard enough—he was still nervous having to face this strangely caring Uchiha Itachi.

'Is this how Itachi was, before he massacred his clan?' Naruto thought. He knew he had to be careful not to expose himself in this reality. The result would not be pretty. He really did not want to be locked inside a four by four, white-washed, locked, rectangular room of the Konoha Asylum or behind the chakra-absorbing bars of the high-security prison of the ANBU headquarters eight storey underground. Luckily he did not have to try so hard since the older boy misunderstood his nervous gesture as guilt from the suicide attempt.

"Naruto-kun, please look at me." Naruto complied and slowly looked up toward Itachi's face. "Naruto-kun, you don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not mad at you," Itachi said again. Naruto was slightly amazed at Itachi's soft and caring voice.

The Uchiha was telling the truth. He really wasn't angry at the young boy, but at the village. The stupid village and its shallow inhabitant for destroying such an innocent soul just because said soul was condemned and sacrificed on the day of his birth to be the jailor of the strongest demon that walked the earth—so strong was their hatred towards the boy that they actually succeeded in driving the little boy into such despair that he thought it was much better for the world if he simply did not exist. Yes, Itachi had figured out what the younger boy attempted to do earlier that day; the scars, the blood on the floor, and the way the blond jinchuuriki flinched every time he's touched were all obvious hints as to what had happened. Itachi narrowed his eyes in concentration as he observed the face of the boy in front of him.

Itachi knew about Kyuubi being sealed inside Naruto since the beginning and he also knew about how bad the villagers always treated the younger boy, especially on his birthdays. He put two and two together and made his own conclusion: something horrible must've happened that involved the village and Naruto earlier, that the boy could not take it anymore and eventually tried to end his own life. Itachi also realized by looking at the amount of blood on the floor, that the fox probably foiled that attempt and managed to heal the boy's wounds and saved his life. If it was a different, normal child, he or she would've been dead already from losing so much blood. Alas, Naruto was far from being normal.

Itachi held Naruto by the shoulders and slowly lead him towards the living room just across of the front door. Naruto's apartment was small: his living room and kitchen were only separated by a small patch of counter that also served as dining table. On the wall straight across from the kitchen were two doors: one leading towards Naruto's bedroom, while the other, the bathroom. The raven-haired almost-teen gently lead Naruto down to sit on the old, tattered couch. He kneeled in front of the boy.

Although he kept his expression neutral, if slightly softer than usual, Itachi was really worried on the inside. Naruto was really quiet and subdued all the time. It's really unusual for the Kyuubi holder to be that quiet since he's usually very loud. He was slightly suspicious of the seven-year-old boy's weird behavior, but dismissed the thought by thinking that it was the effect of the failed suicide. The Sharingan-wielder sighed inwardly. He was really getting pissed off at the village to the point that he felt like committing a massacre towards those wretched, oblivious, stupid villagers for putting his precious friend to such a state. Now that was an idea. Itachi stored that thought in the corners of his mind for later analysis.

"Naruto-kun, do you want to tell me what happened?" Itachi asked carefully. Naruto shook his head negatively. Itachi sighed and pulled the younger boy closer for a hug. Naruto stiffened.

'What the hell! Kyuu, a little help here?'

'Don't ask me what to do, kit. You're the human, not me. I'm honestly also a little freaked out with how different this Itachi is acting compared to the other ones.'

'Gee…thanks a lot, you useless furball.' Naruto grumbled in his mind. 'Gaah! Consequences be damned. I'll just wing it.' Naruto threw his small arms around the older boy's shoulders and hugged him back. He was clinging on the back of Itachi's shirt, his head leaning on the older boy's right shoulder. For that several moments, Naruto actually forgot about everything else. In the past, during his real own childhood, before Iruka, Naruto had never had any physical contact other than the abusive 'touch' of the villagers, scarily similar to what this reality's Naruto was experiencing almost everyday.

'Itachi feels really nice...smells good too…jasmine, huh?' he thought. '—wait a sec! What the hell was I thinking? This is Uchiha-freakin-Itachi here! Damn it Naruto…pull yourself together!' Naruto swore he could hear the fox snickering quietly in his head. If he didn't know any better, he would say that Kyuubi was enjoying his predicament at that moment. Damn sadistic demon fox. But then again, it did feel good to be hugged like that.

The said demon was really having fun inside the depth of his mind. 'This is an interesting development.' Kyuubi snickered again and went farther into the darker corner of Naruto's mind, planning and plotting something. '…now, let's see if this'll work…' he mused quietly to himself. Outside, Naruto never noticed whatever Kyuubi said.

'Mmhh…I'm feeling sleepy all of a sudden…must be from the blood loss.' The blond jinchuuriki yawned, still leaning on Itachi's embrace. Noticing that the younger boy was rather pale compared to his usual coloring, Itachi realized that Naruto was currently still low on blood. He lifted the blue-eyed fox-boy up easily as if he weighed nothing—which he probably was, since Naruto's body was much smaller and too thin compared to other kids his age—and slowly stood up. Naruto would've protested had he not been feeling really tired, but leaned even further into the embrace instead. He tightened his hold around the older boy's neck while his legs automatically wound themselves around Itachi's hips. It was a subconscious gesture to avoid falling down from the lift-up.

Itachi slowly trudged his way towards the boy's bedroom with Naruto safely in his arms. He opened the door with his right hand while his left was balancing the smaller boy in his hold, being really careful not to drop him to the ground. Once inside the room, Itachi turned to the left and put Naruto down on his single bed by the window and covered him with the blanket gently.

He sat on the edge of the bed and reached up to the boy's forehead, caressing and parting the blond tresses that fell on top of his eyes. Naruto was still half-awake at that point. He let Itachi's roaming hands across his face since it felt good and soothing. Besides, he was too damn tired to do anything about it. Naruto was falling asleep slowly. Just a moment before darkness consumed him, Naruto faintly felt a pair of soft lips caressing his cheeks and forehead, and lastly on his own lips.

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Uchiha Itachi was troubled. He was just on his way back from a long two-month mission and was walking towards Uzumaki Naruto's apartment to wish the boy a happy birthday, when he felt a spike of chakra from inside of the boy's apartment. Not only that, but he also found out that the said boy had just recently attempted to kill himself by cutting on the arteries on his wrists, if the tender and newly formed skin around said wrists were an indication, and there's a huge pool of blood on the floor of the boy's kitchen. This was not a good day. He was really pissed off and felt like killing someone. He wondered if it's a good idea to channel his anger by killing his arrogant clansmen. They were getting rather restless even more power hungry lately.

Itachi was currently watching over the blond jinchuuriki as he slept. He was pondering over what he had just done not a few minutes earlier. He furrowed his brows as he gazed at the sleeping fox-boy.

'Why did I kiss him? Damn it, Itachi. He's only seven years old. He's Sasuke's age and five years younger than me.' Itachi sighed. He was still sitting on the edge of Naruto's bed, touching and caressing the boy's head and playing with the blond locks. 'Bright, blond hair, just like the sun—ugh… I'm turning into a pedophile like Orochimaru! This is not good!'

The Uchiha really didn't know when and why he started to get attracted towards the blond. It wasn't because of how Naruto's hair glinted brilliantly when under the sun or because of how his eyes reflected the clear sky. Really, it also wasn't because of how bright and soothing the boy's smiles were, no matter what happened to him before. Itachi wasn't attracted to Naruto because of how the young boy oozes purity and innocence. Neither was it because of how those deep blue pools of Naruto's eyes captivated and pierced his very soul when Itachi looked at them. It wasn't, right?

Itachi sighed again. His right hand never stopped caressing the blond strands of hair. Naruto's hair was actually much softer than they looked, he realized. The boy just looked so innocent and peaceful as he slept. There was no way that such an innocent, young soul could be the demon, why couldn't the villagers understand that? Fools, the lot of them. Didn't they realize that if Naruto really was the Kyuubi, they would've died nine times over already from all the abuse he went through? Heck, they probably wouldn't have been able to touch the boy at the first place.

The young Weasel ANBU didn't know how long he had been sitting at Naruto's bedside, watching the blond jinchuuriki sleep. By the time he realized that time had passed, Naruto was unconsciously frowning deeply while he was tossing and turning in his sleep. His hair was matted down with sweat and he was mumbling something under his breath.

'A nightmare,' Itachi thought.

"…negai, onegai… please don't. Let me go…" Naruto said in his sleep. The tossing became more violent while Naruto kept repeating 'no's and 'please don't's more vocally. Not long after, the young boy started screaming.

'Shit! This is not an ordinary nightmare,' Itachi panicked. He leaned forward and started whispering by Naruto's ear while caressing the side of his face gently.

"Sshushh…Naruto-kun, it's okay. You're safe. I'm here. No one is going to hurt you while I'm here."

Itachi's gentle whispering worked only a bit. Naruto's screaming had stopped; however the blond jinchuuriki was still tossing and turning in his sleep. The screaming had been replaced by quiet whimpering. Itachi was still leaning above Naruto's sleeping figure while caressing Naruto's face and hair when all of a sudden, Naruto opened his red, slitted eyes.

'What the…'

"No! Get away from me!" exclaimed Naruto. The boy sat up abruptly on the bed and pushed Itachi off the bed. Or at least, he tried to. Naruto instinctively leaned back to the headboard by the corner of the wall and pulled his legs up and curled up in a fetal position, resting his chin on his knees. Naruto looked like a scared animal. Itachi was confused by the boy's reaction and even more with the fact that Naruto's eyes were now red and slitted like a fox. It was as if Naruto didn't recognize him.

'...it...Kit! Kit! Damn it, Naruto! Pull yourself together!'

'Kyuu-chan?'

'Yes! Finally! I've been trying to wake you up for a while, now. You were having a nightmare, kit. Well, not exactly a nightmare…I think those were fragments of lil' Naru's memories that you saw while you were sleeping. Damn it! I can't believe the villagers would actually do such awful things to a kid. Even demons don't treat our young like that. What kind of sick human being would rape and torture a seven-year-old?'

'It felt so real. It was like I was there. Oh God…no wonder the me in this reality tried to kill himself like that. All those torture…'

"Naruto-kun?" Naruto looked up to the Uchiha in surprise. "It's okay, Naruto-kun. I'm not going to hurt you. It's me, Itachi." There was a flash of recognition in Naruto's eyes after that sentence and the red, slitted eyes gradually turned back to their normal blue state, although there was still slight fear in those eyes.

"Itachi…"

"Shussh…it's okay. You were having a nightmare, Naruto-kun. I'm here now."

"Itachi…" Naruto reached up to the Uchiha and threw himself onto Itachi's chest. Naruto ignored the fact that his real self was actually older than the Uchiha, or that in other realities, Itachi was his enemy. The smaller boy climbed on top of his lap and clung to the older boy's shirt like a lifeline. Itachi put his arms around the blond and rocked him back and forth while whispering soothing words to calm the younger boy down.

Inside his mind, though, the Uchiha was troubled. He knew Naruto wasn't having a normal nightmare. Whatever it was, Itachi realized that it must've been related to what happened earlier. And then, there was the eye factor. Those eyes…

'It was the Kyuubi's.'

Things have just become even more complicated.

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(TBC)

A/N: So…what do you guys think?