Hey guys !

Great news I'm updating again ! XD

Thanks to the reviewers: Peter Kim; a friend; Songbird21; Araknia the Storyspinner (Soon very soon...XD); someone; I-Hate-Computers (Happy Halloween to you too.) and MysteryLady-Tx.

This chapter is dedicated to Songbird21, I will try to update more often but I cannot promise anything. And I wish a Happy Birthday to Shadow-sensei. XD

Chapter kindly beta-ed by Cyber-Porygon. Thanks for motivating me to write!

Painful Praise 8

He tied his hitai-ate around his eyes, as he did everyday for the last four years.

'Four years already.' He mussed. 'It's been four years, four long years since Naruto... died. No, no, no, Naruto is not dead, absolutely not!'

Sasuke bit down his lower lip. He could not think of it. It had taken too much time to climb out of the pit of darkness that had swallowed him.

Sasuke breathed in and out slowly. Today, he had to meet a new team, again.

New brats that was unfitted to become Shinobi.

New teachers who did not teach him anything and were, sometime, bellow him in matters of Ninja art. Only their rank was superior.

Sasuke laughed bitterly : he was still a Genin ! After having gone through eight Chûnin exams, being to the finals of all, and winning five of them.

But he had never been promoted and thus he was still Genin, going from team to team.

This was going to be his Fourth team.

His last team had been disbanded :

One of his teammate had been severely wounded during the qualification match, putting an end to his short carrier as a Shinobi, he would never walk again.

The other had simply cracked under the pressure.She was average, unsure of her abilities and very shy, thus unfit to become a Shinobi, but, they had let her pass. Maybe they believed that she could change like the Hyuuga heiress had.
To her credit, she had maintained a good front. Up until she saw their teammate go out of the fighting area on a stretcher, covered with his own blood, one of his leg lying near his left arm.
She had broken down, weeping, tearing her hair out, mumbling incoherent words while rocking back and for, snapping at every one that approached her.
She was now 'resting', as they put it, in Konoha hospital East wing.

Sasuke shuttered at the thought of the East wing of Konoha Hospital:

The white color pebble-dashed walls ; the fake condescending smiles of the nurses while they helped dull eyed patients wearing light blue hospital overall, to their room ; the strong odor of disinfectant melt with the odor of dejections and vomit ; the cynical laughter escaping from some of the worst patients ; the ceaseless high pitched screams ; the grinding of the medicine truck...

Sasuke just wanted to forget, but he had to go there once a week to see the psychologist.

What a waste of time !

This man was just trying to make him speak and he ended up wasting one hour doing nothing but waiting for the man to realize that he would never speak, not to him anyway, and not about this.

Never.

Speaking about it would make it real. It would mean it really happened. It would mean that Naruto was effectively... dead.

And that he could not accept.

Sasuke shocked his head and walked out of his mansion.
He hated it! He walked pass the gardener who was arranging the flowers in front of his property.
He never wanted him to do that! He did not even pay him, and when he asked him, why he was doing that... Sasuke heart clenched when the memories of that day came back.

Flashback

Sasuke was coming home after a hard day of training with Kakashi.

Kakashi had insisted on the fact that, even thought he was not his official sensei anymore, he would train him. Sasuke had been surprise at this announcement, he had thought that Kakashi would have hated him after what had happened.

After all, nearly all the Shinobi hated him.

Apart from Sakura, for some strange reason, she had never turned her back to him when even Ino had; maybe it was because she was his number one fangirl? Did she still fancy herself in love with him?

He shocked his head in distain.

He frowned as he felt a lingering present in his yards. He slowed up, and took out a Kunai ready to strike the intruder.

Ah, Uchiha-sama." A voice came.

It was an old voice : warm, and gentle... a little rough, the person had been, without a doubt, a heavy smoker.

He heard the chafing of clothes and loud steps coming up to him. A strong odor of stable-litter, soils, and flowers hit his sensitive nose. He felt the air shifting, and then heard the sound of skin rubbing against clothes.

Sasuke put his Kunai back into his pouch slowly and knowing perfectly that the person in front of him was a civilian.

The civilian sized his right hand with his two large hands. Sasuke could feel the callosities on the fingers and palms rubbing on his delicate skin.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked in his usual cold voice.

"Ah Uchiha-sama..." The man began shacking Sasuke hand energetically. "I'm Eisuke, Doichi Eisuke."

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked getting his hand out of the old man grasps and wiped it on his pants.

"I'm gardening..." The old man said. "Your garden really needed it. Those beautiful roses had suffered... "

Sasuke shifted on his feet not wanting to heard about the bunch of roses his mother had planted in her vanity to have a more beautiful garden than the Hyuuga. His mother had always had a high sense of competition.

"Why are you doing this?" Sasuke asked again.

This old man was really trying his patience, and it was a well known fact that Uchiha did not have any.

"Ah!" The old man exclaimed. "It's the least I could do. After all you got us ride of this little demon spawn. "

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat. He could not believe what he just heard. How could this man congratulate him for killing a Shinobi, his teammate, a member of this village?

Could he not realize the atrocity Sasuke had committed?

Sasuke breathed in loudly, while his all body shaking with the envy to hurt this man.

"Get out of my property..." Sasuke said in a low dark menacing voice.

The old man cowered back.

"Now!" Sasuke roared.

He heard the old man heavy step then the sound of metal knocking against metal, a loud 'clack' and then the hurried steps of someone running away.

Sasuke stayed there, standing, his fist closed, his fingernails slowly piercing the hard skin and penetrating his flesh. Blood run down his fingers in drops slowly falling on the ground.

He could not believe that people could be so ungrateful, so arrogant, so disrespectful.

Flash back end

He had arrived to the assigned training ground; he was a good half an hour early.

It was training ground eight : eight feet wide clearing covered of sand, three wooden training poles place in the center. It was wide in the opened: there was no place to hide, very exposed to the winds.

He walked up to the center of the clearing and sat down his back against one of the pole.

There was no wind today, all that could be heard were the creaking noises made by the wood against his back.

He heard soft footsteps approaching him. He did not move from his position, waiting for the intruder to introduce herself.

"So you're the infamous Uchiha Sasuke?" A young light voice asked.

A young girl in her twelve was standing in front of the Uchiha.

She was not very tall but not small either, an average height. She had long brown hair tied in two pony tails hanging down to the small of her back.

Contrary to most of her female peers, she did not wear any kind of dress or skirt, thinking it was only getting in the way.

Instead, she wore a simple black tank top and a dark gray caper.

She had a Ninja pouch hanging on her brown belt and the other one around her left tight. She also had needles in a small black leather pouch attached to her left wrist.

"My parents worship you... they were so happy when I told them I would be paired up with you." She informed him.

Sasuke shifted uncomfortably. He did not like where this talk was heading. What had this young girl in mind?

"But really, I don't know why they do that..." The girl added letting herself fall next to the Uchiha. "By the way, the name is Nano. I know it's such an Uncute name... but still... "

She glanced at the Uchiha seizing him with her eyes. She looked skeptically at him. Certainly, he was handsome, but not to the point of being worshiped like some god.

She saw him shifting uncomfortably under her watchful eyes, so she decided to change the subject.

"Our other teammate is a guy named Wataru. He is kind of clumsy, but he is always trying his best, or it's what I think."

Nano stopped speaking for a second, readjusting her position against the pole.

"Do you ever speak?" Nano asked curiosity lacing her voice.

"Only when it's necessary."

"Ah... no need to be so uncool..." Nano whined. "Our sensei made us pass a team test, to know if we were able to work as a team. I wonder why you were not with us."

"Because I already know the meaning of the test, it would not have been efficient." Sasuke answered casually.

Why was he answering her? He had never spoken more than two words on unrelated mission matters to his other teams. But it seems that she was different. Why thought? Why was she different?

His mussing was interrupted by the arrival of their other teammate.

"Hey Nano!" The voice that he identified as Wataru's yelled enthusiastically.

Wataru was a short black hair boy, with black eyes. He was quite tall for his age.

He wore a black pants and a dark blue shirt. He had a Small sword attached to his hips and a pouch hanging on his right tight.

"Hey!"

"Oh! Is this our teammate?" Wataru asked. "Hello, Hello!"

Wataru extended his hands to Sasuke, waiting for him to shake it.

"Ah... Sorry! Sorry, I didn't realize..." Wataru said after a few seconds, realizing that Sasuke could not see him.

"Are you blind?" He asked bluntly.

"See what I told you about clumsy!" Nano said smirking.

Wataru blushed, looking down at his feet. He was about to present his excuses when Sasuke speak.

"No, I'm not blind..."

"So why the blindfold?"

"I don't think that this information would be relevant." Sasuke answered in a cold voice.

Wataru winced.

"You're right... It's not of my business...ahah... I'm just too curious... "

Wataru sat down next to Nano.

" Do you think our sensei will be here soon ? " Wataru asked.

"He is already here..." Sasuke answered.

"Hi ! "

Wataru and Nano looked up to see their sensei perched on the pole.

"Sorry, I'm late." He said happily.

"Ah only a half hour..." Nano replied. "But do you plan to be late every time?"

Kakashi stared at the young girl in front of him. She was weird. His previous teams had always yelled at him for his tardiness, none of them had taken it so calmly.

"Why are you late?" Wataru asked, eyeing his teacher curiously.

Kakashi smiled under his mask.

"Hey, hey, I got lost on the road of life..."

"How can some one get lost on 'the road of life'?" Wataru asked innocently, titling his head to the left, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Kakashi smiled widen. This team was really going to be interesting.

"So, ready for your first mission?" Kakashi asked cheerfully.

XxXChange of sceneXxX

He was tired, oh so fucking tired. Training had been a bitch. Itachi had been a bitch.

Itachi had attacked him for 13 hours none stop, other members of the organization joining from time to time. And he had to defend himself on a restrained circled area of a foot wide, no attacks allowed.

Now he was bruised, tired, and all sweaty.

He collapsed on his bed unable to move.

How long had he been here, Three years, four?

He could not keep the count. He had not been left out not even once.

Sometimes, Naruto felt like he was suffocating.

But he had no time to dwell on this feeling. He had weirdly been obliged to take theory classes :

Kisame was to teach him Politics with Sasori backing him up on the diplomacy.

With Zetsu, he learnt about the plants and poison.

With Kazuku, about human body and torture. They often ending up using Hidan as a guinea pig, to the great displeasure of the latter.

Itachi was teaching him strategy with Deidara's help. Deidara illustrated the scene for Naruto to had a better understanding with little clay personna and big explosions.

Naruto sighed ; he still had not been able to contact the old hag. He was sure she was worried sick about him. But, it could not help it, could it?

He had done his job pretty well, worming his way inside the organization : he knew everything about the Akatsuki from the inside out : from the reason it had been created to their real goal. He knew each and every of the founding members, and the nine current heads of the organization. The Akatsuki held no secrets from him. If he wanted, he could destroy it and nothing would remain.

He closed his eyes, could he really do that? Could he report all the informations he gathered on the Akatsuki? Could he... kill his friends?

Friends? Were the Akatsuki's members his friends?

Naruto shocked his head violently : No, they were not. His friends were all in Konoha.

There was... Sakura-chan who always screamed at him, insulted him, hit him, never having a nice word for him... Was a friend meant to do those sorts of things? Ugh... no, he did not think so.

So perhaps Sakura-chan was not his friend afterall.

But there was Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji with who he had made pranks, skipped the academy, sleeping through Iruka's lectures and been punished together. But in reality, they had never exchanging more than two words together. Even being treated like an idiot by Kiba. He was looked down by them. Friends did not do that.

He never spoke with Hinata mainly because she could not utter a word in his presence. Why was that? Did she hate him so much that she would not speak to him? She seems to be a gentle, shy girl though. Maybe he was just being paranoïd.

Naruto pouted : he was sure he had friends in Konoha!

'As a shinobi, you've to be precise, defined every things...' He remembered Itachi saying during his first Strategy lesson.

'So I had to define the term Friend.' Naruto thought to himself.

He sighed loudly and turned on his side squeezing his eyes shut.

'Hmm... A friend... a friend... someone... animals or humans... that share... some interests in commons... that can laugh together... '

Naruto remembered at the academy, the other children laughing at him. But he, he did not want to laugh. He just faked laughing so he would feel less lonely.

An other flash and he remembered when Deidara and him had pranked Kisame throwing a pie at his face. Kisame had been too slow to side step it and had ended up with his face covered with cream. He had never laughed so heartily before.

Not even with his dear Iruka-sensei.

'...That can speak of everything and anything without fear of being rejected.'

Naruto knew he had never been able to speak freely with anyone back in Konoha, not the Old man Hokage nor Ero-sennin nor Tsunade-baba. No one, but here there were loads of person with whom he could speak and who would even confide to him.

They trusted him with there very life, no one ever entrusted his life to him back in Konoha...

No, his real friends were at the Akatsuki... He could not betray them.

But he could not betray Konoha either. Tsunade had high expectations for him. She was waiting for his precious informations. Or was she?

He doubted now... Was he really send here as a mission? Was it not too dangerous for a simple genin who had just failed the Chûnin exam?

Plus he did not remember anything about the mission specifics, He may have been a clumsy idiot back in Konoha but he would have never forgotten something as important, would he?

Naruto sighed. He really wanted to have his missing memories back. If he had them back, maybe he would know what to do?

Naruto turned on his stomach, and pushed his head deep inside his pillow screaming in frustration.

What was he to do?

Chapter 8 end

Hope you like this chapter!

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