A/N - Two updates in one day?! Yeap! I was on a roll! But, it may take a week or so for me to update again. I have to do some actual plotting now, and that is very troublesome. Bleh. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated!

Disclaimer - All of the Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto. Who is male. And lives in Japan. I am a female, living in America. Obviously, I don't own them....at least not until the details of the sex change operation and kidnapping pan out! XD

Sasuke had never given much thought to things like love, friendship, or even relationships in general. The only lasting bond he had was with Kakashi, and that was against his will. All of his voluntary bonds had been slaughtered before his very eyes.

He figured that was enough to make a person stop trusting, so he'd never tried to justify his coldness to anyone. He didn't like people, he didn't trust them, he didn't need them. End of story.

So why was he laying here trying to justify his lack of bonds to himself?

Sasuke glowered at his ceiling. His room was dark, as it had been since he'd gotten home from school. Kakashi hadn't come to talk to him for skipping out yet, but Sasuke had no doubt he would make an appearance sooner or later. Sasuke was also fully aware that he had missed detention, and would probably be in even more trouble the next day.

Sasuke's room was plain, and he liked it that way. White walls, two windows with white blinds, single bed with a light blue comforter. There wasn't a trace of originality to be seen, and usually he enjoyed that fact.

It was bothering him today.

A million things were bothering him today.

Like how he had dropped his guard without even realizing it. How he had blatantly let his emotions be put on display, like some prized object in the window of a shop. That had never happened to him before.

He wasn't even sure why it had happened. He just suddenly found himself staring at the blonde as if hypnotized, completely transfixed by the way everyone seemed to gravitate toward him. It had almost looked like Naruto was a sun, and without him all his classmates had nothing else to orbit around. He had never seen them all together like that before, like they were all the same. Usually everyone stuck with their one or two friends, and didn't pay much mind to anyone else.

And as Sasuke had watched, he had felt himself gravitating toward Naruto as well. Wanting to be caught up in that brilliant light his smile seemed to shine on everyone, to be a part of....things.

It was the first time that had ever happened to him, and he didn't understand it at all. He had never once wanted to form a bond with another person. He had one goal, and that goal was all that mattered. People were just stepping stones to get there.

It was almost like Naruto was magnetic.

Like the blonde pulled on something inside of Sasuke, urging him to become connected with everything he resented.

Maybe that was why. Naruto was everything Sasuke resented. He seemed so gullible and trusting, so warm and open, carefree and naive.

Things people should never be.

People should never wear their hearts on their sleeves. All that ever lead too was a mountain of disappointment and pain so crushing that it knocked the life out of you. Sasuke had learned that first hand.

But yet, as he had watched the blonde interacting with all of the people he, himself had pushed away, he had thought for a moment maybe...just maybe...it wouldn't be so bad to be a part of that. To be swallowed up by something so warm and deep he couldn't decipher where he started and the next person began.

He had thought back to his first encounter with Naruto. About how he had reacted to that atrocious accident. What if he hadn't done that? Hadn't acted on instinct? Had acted like it was no big deal?

Would he be friends with Naruto now? Would he be the one closest to the sun?

He could still feel Naruto's lips on his, from those brief seconds in the classroom. They had been warm and soft and tangible.

It was so different from the cold steel Sasuke was used to that he couldn't help but be captivated by it.

The glower had been replaced by a slight smirk as Sasuke stared at his ceiling, lost in thought. When he realized this, he immediately righted it, letting his neutral expression slide over his face.

He couldn't allow this to happen.

He couldn't allow himself to consider being close to another person, no matter who that person was. It would crush all of the progress he had made into dust. It would give him a weakness, something to be used against him.

That made Sasuke's heart clench, a very little bit. He quickly brushed the feeling off before he got hit with the full force of loneliness.

He knew loneliness, knew how to ignore it and pretend it didn't matter. He hadn't quite figured out how to conquer it yet, though.

Sasuke sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

He had one thing in life – just one – his revenge. It was all that mattered to him, all he strove toward, all that got him up in the mornings. It was the only thing that let him open his eyes and think 'It's okay for me to be here. I have a purpose'. So who was this blonde to come in and unwittingly threaten the one thing that verified Sasuke's existence?

He's no one. Sasuke told himself sternly. No one.

Sasuke's mind flashed to when Naruto had turned to look at him, the shocked expression on his face. Honestly, his face showed all of his emotions so perfectly that Sasuke could almost read his mind. Sasuke remembered the way Naruto's lips had parted, and the slightly dazed look in his big blue eyes.

He really hoped Naruto hadn't seen him blush. Because at that moment, Sasuke had been contemplating the feeling of physical contact with another person. Lips on lips, skin on skin, closeness. Things he lacked and didn't know how to respond too.

And when Naruto had turned to look at Sasuke, Sasuke had felt like a voyeur who had just been caught in the act.

Sasuke sighed and clenched his eyes closed, attempting to crush the unfamiliar emotions that were floating around inside him. All new, all unexpected, all weaknesses.

He didn't need them.

Sasuke sat up and stared down at his right hand, concentrating all of his energy to the center of his palm. He watched a spark danced across it, seemingly from no where. And then another, and another...

Until his palm burst into flames.

He smirked. Kakashi had said he was luck to have two Kekkei Genkai? Well, apparently Sasuke had won the lottery, because excluding his Sharingan, he had four.

Four abilities. The manipulation of fire, water, lightning and earth.

He was pretty sure he'd just stepped up to A-rank elemental. His smirk grew wider, before a slightly maniacal smile overtook his face.

Four abilities.

Four ways to defeat Itachi.

Four steps closer to his goal.

Nothing would hold Sasuke back, not even a blonde who seemed to have enough gravitational pull to attract several galaxies.

Naruto walked out of the locker room and headed for the gym. He was the last one to finish changing again today. He proffered not to let anyone see anymore of his body than they had to.

There were too many scars.

The class was going to head outside from the gym today, to complete some kind of obstacle course. Naruto's stomach did a small flip in excitement.

He really like Wednesday and Thursday classes. Actually, he really like school in general, which was a first for him.

He smiled to himself.

The fact that he'd been so easily accepted was something he hadn't been expecting. Naruto had figured that when he got here, everyone would treat him like a leper and avoid him as much as possible. For him, it was like Christmas had come early.

Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts by a hacking noise. He looked around to locate it, wondering who it was that was coughing. And then he spotted her.

In between the two vending machines a few feet away from him, sat Hinata, curled up in a bawl with a hand over her mouth and tears running down her face.

Naruto had never cleared a few feet so fast in his life.

"Are you okay?" He demanded, crouching down in front of Hinata. She lifted her head, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. It was covered in blood.

"Oh my God." Naruto's mind seemed to implode on itself as he looked at the blood on her mouth and saw a large amount also covered the palm of her hand. "Oh my God, Hinata, are you okay?" He grabbed her shoulders, at a loss for what to do.

"Get out of the way." A cold voice said from behind him. Naruto jumped and glanced around. The brunette with the long hair was glaring down at him, a murderous expression on his face.

"Get a teacher!" Naruto told him. "She needs help."

"Get out of the way." The boy repeated. "Now." There was so much venom in his tone that Naruto immediately complied, scooting over a few inches.

The boy crouched down in front of Hinata and held out his arms. Her eyes had grown so wide at this point that it was impossible not to see the tears in them. Naruto watched a few of them spill down her face.

"N-Neji-nii-san!" She said, throwing herself into the other boys arms. Naruto watched as the boy – Neji – wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up as if she were weightless. Hinata's head was buried in his shoulder.

"Go tell Kakashi-sensei that I had to take Hinata to the infirmary." Neji told Naruto, before turning and walking down the hall. Naruto jumped to his feet and ran to the gym.

He slammed through the doors with so much force that he was sure his wrists would be bruised later. He looked around wildly, ignoring the looks he was getting from his classmates and located Kakashi-sensei. He immediately went up to him.

"Something is wrong with Hinata." Naruto told him in a panicked tone. "Neji took her to the infirmary. It looked really serious."

Kakashi looked at him for a few seconds before nodding slightly. "Thank you for telling me, Naruto." He said, before turning back to the class as if nothing had happened.

Naruto stared in astonishment. "What? That's it?!" He nearly yelled at Kakashi-sensei. "A student is coughing up blood and you're just going to keep teaching?! Who does that?!"

"Naruto." Sakura was suddenly beside him. He blinked at her for a few moments before turning back to Kakashi-sensei to continue his rant. Sakura stopped him by pulling on his arm. "Naruto, it's okay." She told him.

Naruto was pretty sure his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "Hinata is coughing up blood and it's okay?!"

Sakura sighed and gave him a small smile, but her eyes were cold. "Hinata is ill, Naruto. She has a weak immune system and can't handle a lot of strain. This isn't the first time something like this has happened."

"It's not?" He asked dumbly, not quite processing the information. Sakura nodded at him.

"No, it's happened quite a few times. Usually after she returns from missions." Sakura said sadly, not looking at him.

"Missions?" Naruto asked, confused. "What missions?"

Kiba walked up beside Naruto, who noticed that everyone else had diverted their attention and gone back to talking to one another. Their was almost a tangible strain in the air that hadn't been there a few seconds ago.

"Hinata is often sent out of missions." Kiba told him, his voice low. "She's an S-rank, so her abilities take a huge toll on her body. Too much power, too small of a container or something like that. And they know that but they just keep sending her out."

Naruto fully approved of the enraged tone in Kiba's voice.

"Wait, why does the government send her on missions anyways? What kind of missions? That doesn't make any sense!"

"This is a government run program, dobe." Naruto's back stiffened at the sound of Sasuke's voice. He glanced behind him to see Sasuke standing there with his arms crossed and a bored look on his face. "And because we're sponsored by the government, we have to comply with whatever orders they give us. If they have something they need us to do, we do it. No questions asked."

It was longest speech Naruto had ever heard Sasuke give. "Wait," Naruto said, comprehension dawning on him. "So we're basically being raised to be dogs for the government?"

No one said anything, but the looks on their faces were answer enough. "That's not just not right." Naruto said in disbelief, rage bubbling inside of him as he remembered how weak Hinata had looked in the hallway. The look of fear on her face would be burned into his memory forever.

"I'm going to visit Hinata." Kiba said suddenly, walking away from them and disappearing through the doors. Naruto tried taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, but it didn't really help much.

"Naruto," Sakura looked at him with a pitying expression on her face. "It isn't right, I agree. But it's the way things work around here. No one can do anything about it. Even the teachers don't like it, but it's not in their power to stop it."

"Well someone should do something!" Naruto practically yelled, he got a whack on the back of the head from Sasuke.

"Keep your voice down, idiot." Sasuke was looking Naruto square in the eye, an odd expression on his face. "It's not something that we talk about around here. A taboo subject. So just shut up, okay?"

Naruto stared at Sasuke incredulously. "So you're just going to lay down and take it?!" He demanded, stepping up to Sasuke and glaring at him. Sasuke flinched a little as he got closer, then glared right back.

"There's nothing else we can do, you idiot." Sasuke bit out, teeth clenched. "If we go against them, we get slammed back into the institutions. And no one wants that. Not you, not me, not anyone."

"Institutions?" Naruto furrowed his brow in confusion. This was all too much at once, there was too much he didn't know.

Sakura put in arm in between them and forced each of them to take a few steps away from each other before turning to Naruto. "Like the place you were before you got here, That's an institution."

Naruto's eyes widened, and his mouth opened and closed a few times before he just snapped it shut. In a place like that? That's where they would be sent if they broke the rules?

Naruto shuddered.

He never wanted to go back there again.

"Anyways," Sakura continued. "It's not like no one is doing anything to stop this, but these things take time." She stressed the last word, as if it had some underlaying importance. "Things will change sooner or later. We just have to be patient, okay?"

Naruto took a deep breath and nodded. He shot another glare at Sasuke, who was smirking at him.

"Come on, let's go outside." Sakura said, grabbing each of them by the hand and dragging them toward the door on the other side of the gym. Sasuke shot a glare at her, but Naruto just let her pull him along as he went over what he had just learned in his head.

Kakashi pushed himself away from the wall where he had watched the entire exchanged and followed them, smiling in silent approval.

Temari took a deep breath as she took a few steps forward and lifted her hand in the air. A taxi pulled over almost immediately and she climbed inside.

"Take me to the airport." She instructed, clenching her hands together in her lap and closing her eyes. Her heartbeat still hadn't returned to normal. It was racing, pounding against her ribcage so hard that she was sure it would burst through her chest any second.

Stay calm. She instructed herself. Just stay calm. All you have to do is get on a plain and go to Japan.

She opened her eyes after a few seconds with renewed determination. She set her shoulders and sat up straighter. She could do this.

All she had to do was get to Naruto.

Then everything would be okay, she told herself. All she had to do was get to Japan.

Temari's eyes widened as lights shone through the window to her right. A car, completely ignoring the red light, was racing toward them. Temari barely had time to glimpse the bright red hair of the driver before the impact sent the taxi flying. Temari's eyes widened in a brief moment of terror when she realized the car was going to flip before her head connected with ceiling.

Everything went dark.

A/N - Dun Dun Dun! CLIFFHANGER!!!