To make one's path

chapter 2. Betrayed

when you lost your path, where can you place your trust?

"what do you mean you can't heal him?" Jiraya demanded worried.
Tsunade raised a finger against Naruto's belly, against his seal. Jiraya gasped. "What the hell happened?" The inscriptions of the seal were bleeding and had made deep hacks into his body. "The seal isn't letting the Kyuubi's chakra flow like it used to and it's stopping any other chakra to flow through either therefore I can't use medical ninjutsu. Any ideas…?"

Jiraya bent down to Naruto whom was lying inside a circle of complicated descriptions that were stopping his bleeding though only temporary, it worked somewhat like a barrier, it didn't disturb his chakra system so it was one of the few things Tsunade had dared to do. Jiraya moved his hands above the seal not daring to touch the fragile boy. "Someone has been trying to break through the seal, to weaken it. This was indeed skillfully done. The only people whit this much knowledge about the Kyuubi's seal and desires it's powers would be the Akatsuki. They probably had him during the month he was missing" Jiraya stated sadly. 'Those bastards, I'll kill them when I get my hands on them!'

"Can we do anything about the seals then?" Tsunade asked. Seals were not her strongest side, it was Jiraya's. "seals?"
"Yeah, don't tell me you didn't notice the one on his neck." Jiraya turned his attention to Naruto's neck. "That's quite the simple seal, it blocks away a chosen function of the brain. Did he behave any different than usual when they found him?"

Tsunade looked relived, as relived you could be in this kind of situation. This explained the weird behavior. "Yes, his memories was messed up, he didn't recognize neither of them at all."
"Okay, unfortunately I cannot do anything about it until the kyuubi's seal is fixed since I'll need to force my own chakra into it to break it. I will not risk doing that with his body this weak and being unable to handle others chakra."

"Then what'll we do until you are able to fix it and how long will it take for you to gather that knowledge?" Tsunade asked growing more anxious about the situation. She had a boy whit no memories bleeding to death and was unable to do anything else than stop the bleeding temporarily.
"I'll be back in two days and seal it up; can you keep him alive until then?"

"Yeah… I'll do my best. You better hurry."
"I will." He turned and left without another word to anyone unmistakably pissed. Pissed at the Akatsuki for what they had done to his student. If he died he would not stop until he had all of their heads ripped off their heads.

The hours past by and night fell. Naruto had been moved into a normal room in the hospital and the complicated seals had been decreased and were now painted all over his body around the most fatal wounds so he wouldn't bleed to death. Around his bed sat his finders and Tsunade. Tsunade had decided that no other apart from herself and the others that were sent on the retrieval mission were to know about his return. He needed rest and could not take any visitors at the moment, he wouldn't recognize them anyways.

Naruto stirred in his seemingly heavy sleep. "Tsunade-sama, when will Jiraya-sama be back and handle the Kyuubi?" Lee asked. "He will be here in 1 ½ days, tops."
Naruto flew up from his bed surprising everybody whom thought he fast asleep. "Thank, god Naruto. You're up. But you really should stay down, whit those woun-"

Tsunade stopped when she realized that the blonde wasn't listening to her. "I knew it! You want the Kyuubi!" He screamed trying to sound angry and intimidating but it came out as a desperate scared yelp. He jumped down from the bed and started running towards the door but just as he reached it he was caught and restrained by Kakashi. "You again! Why won't you just leave me alone!" He screamed, this time convincingly angry.

"We don't want to hurt you, calm down or we will have to use force."
"Ha! That's exactly what they said, 'we don't want to hurt you' my ass." He once again couldn't help himself from letting a vague frightened tone escape his lips. His legs bent underneath him and his breathing became harsh. "Naruto!" came a scared plea from Neji when he fell limp in kakashi's arms and started squinting his eyes trying to regain his eyesight that was getting harder to see through with al the pain shooting through his body. His harsh breathing turned into hyperventilating but before he fell unconscious he managed to utter one sentence. "Use force all you want, you bastards. I rather die than handing the Kyuubi over too you…".

The three youngest shinobi stared in horror at the boy. Tsunade merely sighed, so this is the attitude he had been playing against his captors during his month in captivity. No wonder he was so heavily wounded, they can't have been pleased whit that. Kakashi looked down at his unconscious student; he was smiling in his sleep. "heh, this boy really has the will of fire, it seems he fought them all that time. His determination really isn't anything you'd want to mess with."

Nobody said anything, the silence said everything. Kakashi walked over to the bed and laid him back down. "Well that didn't quite go so well now, did it?" Shikamaru grinned. "How troublesome he is." He said looking down at the blonde sympathetically.

Naruto wasn't out long this time, after 45 minutes his eyes started flickering trying to get used to the bright light in the room. Tsunade had ordered Shikamaru, Neji and Lee to leave the room since she wanted Naruto to feel as safe as possible. That wasn't easy in a room crowded whit people he didn't know especially since he thought they wanted to kill him. Though she couldn't risk him hurting himself more therefore Naruto awoken to a horrible surprise. He was tied down to the bed. He glared angry at them. They looked sadly back at him. There was a silence. Tsunade and Kakashi was quiet, not sure what to say to him. They wanted to ask him what had happened and tell him that everything was going to be alright. But they knew their comfort and concern would revert into taunts and threats before they reached Naruto's ears.

"So, who are you anyways…and how do you intend to use this or get it out or whatever you want whit it." He asked clutching his stomach whit his working hand. "Naruto, we don't have any business with the Kyuubi but with you. Do you not remember us? We are you're comrades, your friends."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. "Tss, the hell you are!"
"Naruto, try to remember." Kakashi pleaded. Naruto continued to glare at them. "If you are my 'friends' then why the hell would you tie me up, huh?"
"Because we know you, you would only struggle more and thus hurt yourself more if you were not contained. You need to rest, if you jump around more you will die from blood loss… and we can't have that-"

"No, because if I die you wouldn't be able to take the Kyuubi, right?" He growled angry.
Tsunade sighed. "No because there are a lot of people that wouldn't be able to carry on without you including us." She said firmly. Naruto didn't hide his surprise this time, his eyes formed wide circles and his mouth hang open. "And why the hell should I trust you?" he asked when he had enclosed his astonishment. Tsunade sighed again. "Because, like I have told you, we want to help you. We want to protect you from those Akatsuki bastards. We will not let you fall into their clutch again. I promise."

"You don't earn my trust whit mere words. I suppose I don't have any other choice than to stay here either way…" He said nodding against his restraints. They snickered slightly at the boy. "You're damn right about that brat, there will be a man named Jiraya back in two days to restore the Kyuubi's seal and he will hopefully have gathered a way to remove the seal on your neck as well."

Naruto looked confused. 'I have a seal on my neck?' "It's blocking away your memories." She replied the unasked question before she walked out of the room whit one last advice to him to go sleep. Kakashi followed her out.

Naruto lay in his now empty hospital room thinking. 'They may be trustworthy. The seal would explain why I don't remember anything before those black cloaked bastards started whit those weird sessions.
"No! Please stop! Oh god, please!"
No reply came only more tormenting. They kept on mumbling things he did not understand. Hell, he did not understand anything of this, why would they do this to him, what had he ever done to them? He did not know, the only thing left in his brain now was 'Naruto' which he assumed to be his name and pain, most of all pain. He had learned one more thing during his days in captivity, the reason for this suffering. The reason was something called 'Kyuubi' and from what he understood from his overheard conversations it was nothing he could afford to hand over to them. Whit the power it held, they could destroy the world as we know it. That was also something he had overheard, that that was exactly what they wanted to do. And therefore he fought, fought whit all the power he could muster. He fought against a non-sleeping pain. He spent every night in that cold stone-cell he bathed in his own blood while crying himself to sleep.

"Tsunade-sama, what the hell do you mean by that?" Kiba growled uneasy on how he should react to the Godaime's words. "I mean exactly what I said, 'you may not visit Naruto now. He needs rest."
"We got that part, perfectly fine. What did you say about his memory?"
"Well… it's sealed away and we won't have any chance of fixing it until Jiraya gets back."

Sakura stared at her teacher in disbelief. She bit her lip as if trying to decide over something, then suddenly she dashed past the others and towards Naruto's room. "Tsunade-sama, shouldn't we stop her?" Kiba asked the impassive woman. "No. She needs to see him whit her own eyes…" She stated

A raven haired man entered his cell, whit the same expression he always wore against his captive. It was sad, guilty and concerned. Naruto always got this nostalgic feeling whenever he was near. He felt the man's pain; he sympathized for him somehow even though he didn't know anything about him. Why such a man had been led down this rotten path was a mystery to him. Why hadn't anyone helped him, it was obviously a innocent soul deep down in him that just needed to be grabbed and helped to break through that decayed façade. The man handed him a limp of bread and ordered him to eat. Naruto did as he was told, he ate fast as he always did. Not only was he hungering to death since he only got feed every other day but also because he really enjoyed what came after. The seemingly emotionless man always stayed to listen to him blather on about irrelative things. This was Naruto's favorite moments. It was the only moment he got to feel like a real person, not like an animal. The man gave his usual snort at his comments about everything and nothing. There was the usual silence that always filled the room before the man always stood up to leave, without a single word but this time was different. As he reached the door he turned back to face the blonde. "why is it that you are always so happy? We put you through daily torture and you can still sit here and smile a earnest smile at me and talk to as if I was not one of them, one of them whom treat you like you were a something, a monster, why is that?"

Naruto looked puzzled at the question. "I don't really have anything to compare too, this is all I know… but I probably wouldn't have those earnest smiles if it weren't for you. And you are wrong; you do not treat me like a monster."
The man's guilt features took his face as he turned it away in shame. "I'm sorry" he whispered.

"For what?"
"For bringing you here, you do not deserve this."
"Well… like I said, I wouldn't know, would I? It actually makes it a lot easier." He said smiling one of his signature smiles. The man smiled a little and walked up to him and put his fingers on his neck. He pressed them against his skin while mumbling something non-understandable. Naruto felt the pain from the sessions earlier that day weather away. "Thank you…" he mumbled as he felt his body fall into a welcomed sleep. "It's Sauske by the way… my name that is."
"oh, really… well, thank you Sauske…" He whispered before he fell asleep on the rock hard floor.

He awoke from his sleep by footsteps approaching his hospital room, only seconds thereafter a pink haired girl came rushing through the doors. "Naruto, you are really back!" she screamed happily as she ran over to his bead. She was chocked by the look she received, it was defensive and pissed but most of all was it confused. "Get the hell away from by bed!" he growled between clenched teeth. Sakura backed away as she was told, eyes wide. "You…you really don't remember anything, do you?" she asked devastated. Naruto's glare was more than answer to her. "Do you not remember me or Kakashi… not even Sauske-kun?"

Naruto's eyes went wide. "Do you know Sauske!?" he asked, his jaw hitting the ground.
"What…of course I do, we were team seven, remember?"
"We were on a team… me and Sauske?" Naruto asked dumbstruck
"yes, and me and Kakashi…."
Naruto didn't seem to listen, the news that he was once a part of his team seemed to have put a wrench in his mind. Sakura began to snap her fingers trying to get a reaction from the stunned shinobi. "He was… but then why would he be whit them. Why…" Naruto felt betrayed. "Why would he…" Hot tears began streaming down his cheeks without him knowing it. "Why would he be whit the ones trying to get their hand on this…" he asked himself clutching his stomach. Sakura realized what he meant. "Sauske-kun is a member of Akatsuki?!" She demanded and paced fast towards the blond. His gaze flew up from the covers and onto the pink haired girl as she reached his bed. "Is he, Naruto?" she demanded. Her eyes were sad and looked betrayed, but not even half as much as Narutos was. He nodded. Both teens forgot about their current relation to each other as Sakura embraced Naruto, she was sobbing into his shoulder. Tsunade was standing outside the door and had overheard the entire conversation. 'So he was captured by the Akatsuki after al… and then there is Uchiha Sauske…to think he joined that organization.' She opened the door slowly. "Sakura…"

"Sensei…"
"You really should get of him, like I said… he needs rest." Sakura diverted her attention to her teammate and found that he had fallen asleep in her embrace. She smiled sadly. "He has been through a lot…"
"Indeed though I must say that the Uchiha boy is what concerns me the most." She earned herself a grumpy look from Sakura at those words but ignored them. "Come on, we need to let him rest. Jiraya will arrive tomorrow and he'll need to be in shape by then"

A/N. Boring chapter but there will be development in the next chapter so don't give up on the story just yet! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Naruto
Apologizes: My English sucks, but if you do find it annoying then stop reading, can't do much about it since my English teacher in school sucks... (;