A/N: I'M NOT DEAD

I'm really sorry about the late late LATE update!!! You see, I have an excuse! -shot- Chapter Nine (this chapter) was mostly typed up and nicely done, ready to be served on a silver platter to you all, and somehow it was deleted just as I was about to finish it. Disheartened, I sulked in a corner until I finally got the willpower to ignore my homework and the fact that it is FCAT week and set about rewriting a rough draft of the chapter in a composition notebook. Again, I'm very sorry.

Remember when updates used to be frequent and the story was actually good? Yeah...me too. The good old days...

Enough blabbing.

Chapter Nine: Mission Impossible: A Smile Is Different From What Lurks Inside Your Heart

Naruto stood outside Orochimaru's door, praying fervently to any and all gods that someting, anything, could prevent him from serving out his detention with his creepy excuse for a science teacher. It was true that Yuki had claimed to have taken care of things, and she was usually reliable for things that were of utmost importance, but still...

He was getting a bad feeling about the entire situation.

Heedless of his mind screaming for him to bolt, Naruto knocked as softly as humanely possible, willing Orochimaru to be elsewhere, anywhere in the universe, except for this one room...

"Come in, Mr. Uzumaki," replied a silky voice, making a violent shudder course through the blonde's body. Naruto hesitantly opened the classroom door, suppressing another tremor as he locked eyes with his teacher. The door clicked shut and Naruto knew why. It was locked. Orochimaru smirked.

"Welcome to detention, Naruto." The pedo may as well have said "Welcome to hell," and turned into Lucifer himself, because Naruto could not have looked more terrified. He'd rather be anywhere but here. He'd rather be in hell, actually, with Lucifer staring him down. The real thing would not be half as scary as the pale man before him. Anywhere, anywhere but here, in a tiny classroom, trapped with the snake.

Meanwhile, while Naruto is internalizing his suffering, Yuki is poking her head out from around a corner, a look of complete concentration on her face as she hummed. Kiba and Shikamaru were following suit, watching intensely for teachers and/or students that might interrupt their plan. Well, kinda. Kiba was fast growing bored at the lack of action, and Shikamaru, lazy ass that he was, was just dozing standing up. The three "well-mannered delinquents" had spent the past hour or so ninja-leaping about the place, humming the Mission Impossible and James Bond themes intermittently and double-checking the status of the hidden cameras that had been oh-so-cleverly installed in Orochimaru's ceiling. So maybe this time Shikamaru actually had a good reason for falling asleep on the job, but now isn't the time to analyze a bum's excuses for slacking. There's drama to be had.

Sasuke, Shino, and Gaara strode up the hall, greeting Yuki and the others silently before giving out information on their specific "missions".

"I blew up the principal's curry so that she'll have to stay here for a while," said Sasuke uninterestedly.

"I offered Iruka help on grading his papers to convince him to stay, then abandoned him by saying I had to ask the vice principal something important," said Gaara in a monotone.

"..." said Shino, which roughly translated to "I stashed porn in Jiraiya's office to keep him there indefinitely."

"Excellent," gloated Yuki as Kiba gave Shino a congratulatory kiss on the nose. "Now all we do is wait until something criminal happens, and then BAM! we storm the classroom."

"Just pay attention to the damn cell phone so we don't miss anything," grumbled Sasuke. Yuki rolled her eyes and flipped up her cell phone screen, recoiling a little as Orochimaru's face loomed large on the miniature screen. The picture fizzled and died a second later. Yuki grinned. "Perfect, he found the decoy. Now he'll either be too wary to try anything funny or he'll get arrogant and won't bother to check for another camera before trying anything funny. Either way we win!" Yuki cackled.

"..." said Shino.

"Shino's right, Yuki! You should check the real camera anyway just in case. What if he finds it?" said Kiba. Yuki flipped her hair dismissively.

"I know, I know," she muttered, flipping her cell phone up.

Plink, plink, plink went the camera pieces as Orochimaru slowly advanced upon the trembling blonde. "Trying to spy on me, Uzumaki?" he asked softly. He was smiling now, a smile that was half a smirk and filled with nothing but bad things. Hs golden eyes were lustful and glinted harshly in the flourescent lights of the classroom. "That's not very nice."

Naruto was beginning to hyperventilate. Orochimaru was much too close.

What you trying to do, punk?

You think you can save people?

Let's see if you can save yourself, ne?

A stranger coming closer.

An older man.

How many?

Five? Six?

It didn't matter.

I cannot escape.

He closed his eyes as his knees gave out, breathing fast and shallow. Orochimaru took his chance and swooped down on the boy, pinning him to a desk and kissing him harshly and madly, grasping his wrists so tightly they were already becoming bruised.

And Naruto didn't do a thing to stop it. Inside his heart and mind were crying out, begging Orochimaru to stop, screaming at the top of their figurative lungs, cursing his body for responding. The man's long tongue caressed Naruto's mouth, his neck, his collarbone. Strong fingers popped the buttons off the blonde's shirt. Silent tears leaked out of glazed blue eyes.

Yuki couldn't remember the code to direct the images taken by the spy camera to the cell phone.

Gaara was panicking internally. Kiba was panicking externally. The others were off fetching the teachers.

Orochimaru's hands wandered farther south. He whispered silky, degrading words to the teen, voice like poisoned honey, fingers sliding below the waistband of Naruto's pants...

Naruto wanted to die.

He didn't care anymore.

He didn't want this.

Please, god, just let him die...

"NARUTO!!!" The door flew off its hinges and Tsunade stormed in, followed closely by several teachers and the students. They took in the entire situation in less than a second--Naruto's ripped shirt, his tear-stained face, Orochimaru's hand down the blonde's pants--and lost it. Yuki, Kiba and Sasuke commenced beating the shit out of the pedophile, screaming obscenities while Jiraiya, Shikamaru, Shino, and Tsunade tried to hold them back. Kakashi was outside calling the police, and Iruka was trying to console Naruto.

"NO!!! Get away from me!!!! I don't want this!!!" he screamed, curling up in a ball and holding his head in his hands. Iruka worriedly tried to reach out to the screaming boy, only to have his hand swatted viciously away.

"Naruto, it's me, it's only me," whispered Iruka. Naruto shook his head wildly, blue eyes so wide open the teacher could see the whites all around that small dot of cerulean.

"Get away from me. You're all the same. You're all the same!" Naruto cried. Iruka backed away uncertainly, not sure what to do.

Gaara stared at the shivering boy on the floor in a semi-stupified horror. There was lump in his throat he could not swallow away; his eyes were starting to burn; his heart was pumping a million miles an hour. He couldn't bear to see Naruto like this. Squaring his shoulders with an only barely perceptible shudder, he pushed past Iruka and scooped Naruto into his arms without missing a beat.

"No!!! Let go of me! Let go--" Gaara squeezed Naruto tightly against his chest in what he hoped was a caring embrace. It certainly didn't seem that way at first, if the way Naruto was bawling and beating at the redhead's chest with his small fists. But eventually the sobs subsided to hiccups, and Naruto was hugging Gaara for all he was worth.

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The harsh glare of flourescent lights beat down on the hallway of the infirmary. Everyone had gone home for the day, except for those involved in the Orochimaru incedent. Tsunade, Shizune, Iruka, Jiraiya, and Kakashi were busy tending to Naruto and discussing how to avoid too much press coverage and get a new Science teacher. The kids were wandering the halls haphazardly, occasionally checking up on the sleeping blonde. Gaara rounded a corner and spotted Yuki sitting on the bench outside the nurse's office, knees drawn to her chest and head in her arms.

"How's he doing?" he asked, sitting next to her.

"Asleep...sedatives...no real physical injury," she said in a muffled voice. Gaara exhaled inaudibly and crossed his arms.

"And you?"

"I'll live. I'm not the one who got attacked."

"You almost look like it."

A sigh, this time from Yuki. "I feel so bad about everything. It's my fault Orochimaru got that far in the first place. I broke my promise to Naruto; and myself."

"..." Gaara stayed silent, a question on his lips. He knew that Yuki would answer it sooner or later.

"I promised I wouldn't let anything bad happen to him ever again. And look what happened; he almost got raped by a fucking pedophile. And it's my fault."

"It's Orochimaru's fault."

Yuki gripped her knees harder. "I'm not much better than him."

"At least you didn't try to rape small boys."

A dry laugh. "Do you know why I made that promise, to Naruto and myself? Because in middle school we got picked on every day, and I never helped Naruto in the slightest."

Silence on Gaara's part.

"We were the black sheep of the school. Getting picked on every day was nothing new at all. We weren't friends exactly; we'd glance at each other in the hall, walk side by side if we happened to be headed in the same direction; but that was it.

"I'd always see Naruto getting beaten up by some of the boys in our class, and even some of the girls; but I never stopped to defend him. I'd look at him and walk away, pretending I hadn't seen anything. And when he'd come to school the next day with a black eye or a cut lip, I'd feel an overwhelming twinge of guilt."

Yuki shuddered and drew in a wet breath. "And then it happened."

"What happened?" asked Gaara in a low voice.

"...A bunch of upperclassmen ganged up on me one day. They were mad, I'm sure of it; their eyes looked crazy, and they were pulling knives. It was the worst beating I'd ever gotten--they cut my hair, hit me, kicked me, cut me up." Unconsciously, her hand strayed upwards and gripped her shoulder hard. "And while they beat on me I saw Naruto out of the corner of my eye, staring at us. I knew he wouldn't help. I didn't blame him for it. After all, I'd never helped him, had I?

"The funny thing is, he did help. He ran right up to those guys and shouted in their faces. So they started to whale on him as well. They tried to...to..." Yuki swallowed painfully. "...tried to do what Orochimaru did. And he was so scared. And I don't know what happened, but for the first time ever I helped him. I suddenly just looked him straight in the eye and smiled, told him we could beat them together. And we did." Yuki raised her face, smiling a little, but sadly. "We've been friends ever since. And I made a promise then and there; that I'd always be there for Naruto, and I'd protect him no matter what."

"...I think you did protect him. Just like that day when...he almost got raped. It's the exact same thing you did for him today. And I'm sure he knows that too," Gaara offered. Yuki smiled as Sasuke and the others joined them in the hall.

"I hope so."

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A/N: holy shit that was a whole lot of nothing.

I really don't like this chapter at all. It's too long, too boring, too cliche, and too OOC. Please, round up a firing squad to end this once and for all.

-headdesk- please review. I know I don't deserve it, but...

Next Chapter: Aftermath: We Can Never See The Darkness At Our Backs