Ohayo wonderful people!!! I decided to upload the next chapter early, really early, because I am so thankful to you guys. I got reviews in just one night which was amazing to a new author like them. I sincerely appreciate it and hope you continue to do so. However, please do not expect weekly uploads like this all the time because I assure you, you will be disappointed. Secondly, I know these chapters are rather short but it's mainly because I wrote them two years or so ago. They will hopefully get longer and I will try to update at LEAST every two months, but no promises.

I wanna send a special thank you to yaoirulz especially sasUKE who helped me realise a couple mistakes in this chapter. *bows in thanks* arigato.

Oh and cause I do believe I forgot this in previous chapters,

Warning: This story contains boy-on-boy, obviously, and intense mutilation, possible rape, gangs, murder, and other such graphic icky things that make a story wonderful.

Now please enjoy.

Disclaimer: -stares with arms crossed at cops, who sit across from me at an interrogation table- …fine. I do not own Naruto or any of the other magnificent characters. Happy? –mumbles- jerks…

Saving You

Chapter 3: Blood and Tears

Naruto hurriedly pushed the sleeves up the rest of the way, gawking when he saw the multitude of scars running all the way up Sasuke's arms, probably even continuing up under the hoodie, all the way to his shoulders. As he sat and studied them, he realized that he could almost tell how long ago they had been made. The oldest ones were stark white against his already pale skin, and the newest ones were the incredibly red, angry ones. He could easily tell which ones had just been inflicted recently, because they were a harsh, vibrant red and puckered up above the others. Blood was slowly trickling out of a wound on his left arm, right at the bend of the elbow, and Naruto winced at the sight of it. It couldn't be more than a couple hours old, which meant that the raven was inflicting self-mutilation on himself in the school.

He clenched his jaw and gently, very gently, started to run his wet sleeve over the multiple lacerations, wincing as the warm liquid seeped through his shirt sleeve, feeling the deadly warmth soaking his fingertips. When he had finally cleaned all of the dried blood off Sasuke, he looked around the office for something that he could use to tie off the still bleeding wounds. Finding nothing he could use, he groaned and looked down at the unconscious boy, who had been moved during this process so that his head was now resting gently in Naruto's lap.

"You owe me teme. And if you don't pay up I'll bash your head in." He told him not unkindly, brushing a stray piece of hair out of the unconscious boy's face. His eyes were drawn to a line of read along the boy's forehead and he gently moved the inky black tresses out of the way. His eyes tightened and lines of regret formed on his face. In the middle of his forehead was a huge cut that was most likely going to scar if it didn't get stitches, and it instantly made him regret the words he had uttered only moments before.

He grabbed his shirt sleeve angrily and ripped the whole sleeve out, all the way from the shoulder seam. Muttering random obscenities, he started ripping strips out of the material and quickly wrapped them around the open wounds on Sasuke's arm. Despite the harsh words that flowed from his mouth, his hands were oddly gentle as they bandaged up the other boy.

Once he had all the cuts bandaged, he stood up and walked over to the secretary's desk, throwing the rest of his tattered away. He looked at the clock and almost smiled, he had already missed the rest of his classes and half of his football practice, thanks to the weirdo laying on the floor.

"Well, it seems that the ambulance is waiting out front but they can't get through. Too many students." Iruka's voice sounded from the back of the room, and Naruto froze, his eyes flashing back to the cuts and wraps on Sasuke's exposed arms.

As Iruka's footsteps came closer, Naruto decided to risk looking gay and soft and dove towards Sasuke, quickly pulling the sleeves of his hoodie down, careful not to disturb any of the recently made bandages. He grabbed his jacket and shoved his arms through the sleeves, hiding the ripped shirt from the principal's view. Looking down at the raven headed boy, he stood and muttered, "I oughta kick your ass for all the crap you're putting me through. I'm gonna have a heart-attack by the time I'm done with this."

When Iruka came into the main office, Naruto was leaning up against the wall and Sasuke was laying on the ground where Naruto had left him. After a semi-uncomfortable silence in which the principal stared at his two students with a obvious curiosity, Naruto finally spoke.

"I think I can fix the crowd situation, but it might take a couple minutes." He said, pushing himself up off the wall, walking towards the phone sitting on the secretary's desk.

He quickly punched in two numbers and within a couple seconds, he was off the phone and standing by the door, looking out the glass pane next to it.

"What's going on?" the principal asked, frowning when Naruto ignored him. He really needed to work on intimidating his students, he got no respect with how he acted now. After a few minutes, Naruto stepped away from the door, only to have it swing open to reveal Gaara.

"Hey dobe, what do you want?" Gaara asked, indifferently.

Naruto shifted his weight from foot to foot, his hands clenched tightly at his sides. "Umm…well, we kind of have a problem." He muttered, avoiding Gaara's piercing gaze. He shot a death glare at the principals' suddenly retreating back, before turning to face Gaara.

With a gulp, he shuffled to the side, letting Gaara look upon Sasuke's prone body. He watched as Gaara's eyes widened slightly, showing his shock.

Gaara walked over to his unconscious friend and kneeled down beside him. Looking over his body, he noticed that his pale skin was slightly pink, smeared with remnants of blood. With cold teal eyes that were as hard as ice, he looked up at Naruto and asked in a voice completely devoid of any emotion.

"What did you do?"

Naruto felt his pulse quicken at the underlying threat in Gaara's voice and suppressed a shiver while saying in his usual stupid-jock voice, "Nothing! For real! We got in a fight in the nurse's office and dragged down here. We got dished our punishment and then the next thing I know, the dude's practically on top of me, out cold."

He felt Gaara's calculating gaze on his form and sighed in relief when he broke it, deciding he was telling the truth. Lifting one of the unconscious boy's arms into his lap, he checked for a pulse, noticing the ends of one of the bandages hanging out. He pulled back the sleeve to reveal the slightly spoiled bandages. Giving a small, imperceptible nod, Gaara pulled down the sleeve of Sasuke's hoodie again, removing the shirt strips from sight before he turned to face Naruto.

"What do you want?"

Naruto shifted from foot to foot, watching as Gaara leaned against the wall. He noticed that the red head kept a bit of a defensive stance over the fallen boy, even when sitting against the wall, and it started a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. Pushing the feeling to the back of his mind he replied. "Well, there's an ambulance waiting for him outside, but all the student out there are blocking the way."

Gaara stared up at him blankly. "And I have what to do with this?"

Naruto sighed, "I need you to convince his brother to help move the crowd." He muttered hurriedly, pushing out the words.

"Are you NUTS!!"

Gaara's scream reverberated off the walls, leaving Naruto cringing against the desk behind him, as Gaara continued shouting at him, something that few people ever got to see. As it was Naruto was shocked. He had no idea that Gaara could be so loud.

"You want me to talk to his brother! The frinkin' gang leader? I don't even go home with Sasuke because he is there, that's how frickin' crazy he is. You've got to be kidding me!" As he ranted, Gaara reached up and began pulling at his hair, trying to relieve the tension in his body through that.

"But that's the whole point. You have to convince him to go out there. People practically bow before him. All you have to do is get him to move the people out of the way, so we can get him into the ambulance. We have no idea how much blood he's lost. His life could depend on this." Naruto pleaded.

"Yeah, but…then...he'll" Gaara tried to explain, his excuses becoming weaker and weaker as he looked at Sasuke's pale face and listen to Naruto's explanations. Finally he sighed and whispered, "Fine…I'll do it."

"Good." Naruto said. "Because here comes Itachi now."

"What!? What were you going to do if I said no?"

"Tell him the principal wanted to talk to him and then run like hell." He replied, utterly serious, falling silent as the door was pushed open.

Itachi walked through the door, pausing only when he saw his unconscious brother on the floor, looking all but dead. "Well, isn't that interesting." He said, his face remaining stoic.

As he stared down at Sasuke, two people slipped in behind him and stood back against the wall, observing the happenings. After staring down at Sasuke for a while, Itachi finally turned to his brother's friend who flinched under his gaze.

"Gaara…" he drawled out, sending horrified shivers down the poor boy's spine. "What are you doing here?"

Gaara stared up at Itachi, his whole body beginning to shake as he tried to explain. "Well…ah…see…umm…Sasuke...um…he…" he stumbled, his face becoming flushed when Itachi continued to stare down at him.

Itachi looked over his shoulder at the two guys leaning against the wall and smirked, "Did you understand that?"

Snickering slightly, both shook their heads.

"Hmm, thought not." Itachi muttered.

Gaara who was still staring at his friend's brother when he felt a presence behind him. Swiveling his head to look behind him, he saw that Naruto had moved behind him and when the blonde noticed his gaze he kneeled down next to him. He followed Naruto's gaze to Sasuke and found that his body stopped shaking as he gazed down at his friends' face.

"Remember, he needs your help. You're can help him, if you do this." Naruto whispered lowly, before backing away when Itachi turned back to Gaara.

"I think I know how to fix our little communication problem." He told them, completely ignoring his brother on the floor as he stepped over his body to kneel next to Gaara. He leaned forward and whispered, "How about you tell me in my ear…, and then no one else needs to know." His lips brushed against the ridges of his ear as he talked. Before leaning back to look into Gaara's eyes, he ran his tongue up and along the shell of his ear.

Gaara shuddered at the feeling of Itachi's tongue on his ear but shoved him away, his other hand going up to wipe the wetness away. "Itachi, I need a favor." He held his gaze for the first time in a long time. Before he could interrupt him, he hurried on, his gaze going to Sasuke. "Sasuke's in it in a really bad way and you can help." Gaara told him, playing with the bluenette's heads hair, twirling it around his fingers as he talked. "He's lost a lot of blood and needs medical help. There's an ambulance waiting for him outside, but there's too many people in the way. We need you to get everyone out of the way so we can get him out of here…Without causing too much of a commotion."

The room filled with silence as Itachi stared at Gaara who refused to meet his gaze, instead staring down at the slumbering boy by his knees. Eventually Gaara risked a glance up, briefly looking Itachi in the eye. Apparently he found something he was looking for in Gaara's eyes, because after sighing he nodded, "Alright, fine. Deidera! Kisame! Go and find Zetsu and Sasori, then bring them here." He ordered.

Without a word they turned and walked out the door, no doubt going to find the afore mentioned two. Silence coated the room, the only sound was Sasuke's harsh, ragged breathing. Within two minutes Deidera and Kisame walked back in with two people Naruto could only assume were Zetsu and Sasori. Without any preamble, Itachi started giving out orders. Both Gaara and Naruto watched as though in a fog, their main focus was Sasuke.

While they had been waiting for Deidera and Kisame to return, Sasuke's breathing had become shallower and now when Naruto kneeled and pulled up the sleeve of his arm, he saw that the cuts were bleeding through his make-shift bandages. He frowned and gently began to unwrap the soaked ones. Once he had all the bandages off, he ripped off his other sleeve and began to rewrap the wounds. Gaara sat and watched Naruto work, his eyes narrowing when Naruto revealed all the cuts and scars on his arms. He suppressed a hiss at the sight of the newest cuts, which he knew had to have been inflicted earlier that day. He felt a small tweak of guilt in his heart at the fact that he hadn't been there to stop him. They were angry and raised, but Naruto didn't even seemed fazed, he just wrapped them up a second time, before carefully pulling Sasuke's sleeves back down.

Itachi watched with calculating eyes as Naruto began to change the bandages, noticing that the unruly blonde was practically a different person around his little brother. He looked gazed down at his lashes at his brother's best friend, studying his reaction to what the boy was doing. Gaara was watching Naruto work on Sasuke with the same intense gaze Itachi was watching him with. He looked around and saw Sasori come back through the door. He nodded at Itachi, who nodded back, before turning to his brother and Naruto.

"They're getting ready to make the path. We just have to get him down there. So...who's carrying him?" he asked, looking around the office, noticing that the principal had finally crept back into the room. 'Pfff, wimp.' He thought to himself.

The first one to speak up was actually the principal himself, probably just to remind them that he was supposed to be in charge. Key words, supposed to be. "I would, but I think I might end up dropping him on the way down the stairs. I need to be able to see my feet otherwise I fall." He admitted, embarrassed.

"I can't carry him either." Gaara spoke up. "We tried it last year, just for fun, but the only one of us who could carry anyone, was Sasuke."

Itachi opened his mouth and was about to offer when he noticed that everyone was looking at him with an, 'as-if' expression. They wouldn't let him near his little brother for anything. All except Gaara who was glaring at him with a look that could kill. And so that left…Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "And that leaves me. Well, I wouldn't have a problem with it. He can't weigh more than 140 lbs. I can lift twice that."

The principal smiled in relief, happy to be able to do something. At least, that's what it seemed like in his mind. "Alright then, let's get going."

Everyone looked at him with disbelief, before deciding to ignore him completely and turned back to the situation at hand. Naruto looked around, and seeing that there was really no one that would be able to help him carry the raven, sighed realizing that he would have to lift him all by himself. Not that he couldn't do it; it was just…it would look…Gah, nevermind. He turned to the others.

" 'kay, so I need the rest of you to go down help clear the passageway except….Gaara and….Itachi. You two can make sure that no one gets close enough to get a good enough look at him. Keep everyone away, alright?"

Everyone nodded, Gaara a little less enthusiastically then everyone else and they shuffled out the door. Naruto bent down and brushed hair out of his eyes, staring down at the black haired boy.

'You're more trouble than your worth…at least I think…' He thought, kneeling down to pick him up.

Gathering him in his arms, he was surprised at how light he was when he stood. Even as a dead weight, Naruto could barely tell that he was there. He was jerked out of his thoughts by a cough at the door, and he turned to see Itachi standing there, Gaara standing right behind him.

"We're ready."

He nodded and carefully maneuvered himself and the body he was holding out the door. Walking down the hallway, he stepped down the stairs and stopped right next to the main front doors. He stared down at the pale boy in his arms and wondered for the first time, 'Is he really worth it?' The thought shocked him. The whole time in the office taking care of him, he hadn't even thought about it. At least, not like that. When they were in the office it had been okay, because the only other person there had been Iruka, but now it was……everyone.

His whole reputation could be shot, rumors that he was gay or that he was starting to care for the asshole. He could hear the shouts and screams of his friends and peers, even though the thick walls of the school were in the way. Everything that had changed over the past couple of years could be ruined if he did this. Was he really ready to risk it all? He stood there, staring down at Sasuke until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped and turned around quickly, his face pale.

Itachi looked down at him for a moment, before reaching out to take Sasuke. "I'll do it." He murmured. "You guys keep them away, until we get him in the ambulance." Taking the black haired boy in his arms, his eyes widened when he realized that the kid couldn't weigh more than 105 lbs. Even though it appeared he didn't care for his little brother, in actuality he did. He was the only family he had left and apparently he needed to spend more time around home, his little brother clearly couldn't care for himself, especially if this situation was to go by.

Naruto gave a sigh that shuddered throughout his whole body before nodding with Gaara.

Itachi stalked out the doors and into the crowd, his face a composed mask as the others shoved people out of his way, and blocking the ones that tried to get a look at whoever he was carrying. They had almost made it to the sidewalk where the ambulance was waiting, when someone burst out of the crowd. Gaara tried to intercept him but was punched in the face and sent sprawling. The kid ran towards Itachi and Sasuke, almost making it to them, his arms raised in an angry gesture, when Kisame appeared out of nowhere in between them. In his hand he held a gun, the barrel of which was pressed firmly into the kid's chest.

"Go Itachi. Get him to the ambulance." He muttered, staring at the boy.

Itachi nodded and walked past, brushing his shoulder against Kisame's along with a muttered, "Yea…" As he walked over to the ambulance, he glanced over his shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Kisame had pushed the kid back towards his friends and was following him, his gun hidden.

Reaching the ambulance he carefully handed the raven haired boy over to the EMT's stepping back to let them work. Gaara reached his side and stood next to him, watching worriedly as they lifted his friend into the ambulance. It pulled away from the curb, sirens wailing, rushing off down the street. They stood there staring after it till they could no longer see it.

Raising his eyebrows at the amusing way his afternoon had gone, Itachi turned to Gaara. "So, wanna go see a movie?"

Sasuke turns to look at me: I hate you. You make me sound like a weak bitch.

Twitch smiles: Ah, that's because you are.

Naruto bursts out laughing: Hahaha! Take that teme!!!

Sasuke stares at Naruto: You're an idiot.

Naruto growls: How's that?

Sasuke: Obviously she's putting you in a relationship with me. And I can take your ass down, as proven in previous chapters, so you'd be uke.

Naruto sputters incoherently.

Twitch smirks and waves to readers: Thanks for reading please review!!

BYE!!!