Well I did promise an update. Update's please. HA HA . ZOMG long chapter ahead and guess what? you finally find out who he is (officially) and the whole deal with the story. Well Read Review and Enjoy. Please critique I enjoy the fact you care enough to help me improve. On with the story ahoy!

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Of Struggles, Pain, Power and Battle

By Spirited Dragon

Chapter 6 Explanation please? Maybe we have something.

Sasuke wiped sweat from Naruto's forehead, he attentively taking care of the delicate skin around the eyes and the soft roundness of his cheeks. How had it come to this? Within the space of a week he had formed something that closely resembled a bond with this loud, stupid, manic dobe of a boy. Within the space of a week he had brought another living person into his home and was now taking care of said person. It seemed the strangest things were becoming routine.

Leaving Naruto to his own devices he padded to the kitchen to make himself some well deserved tea. Watching the water boil he felt his mind drift to the day when he had stopped caring for humanity in general. Somehow this boy had managed to resurface an old feeling. One of humane compassion and warped understanding. He knew nothing but he understood every unsaid word that hung in the air.

Back on that unfortunate day he was running home from school late after spending so long practicing to perfect a technique his genius brother had done so very early in life. Noticing the silence that emanated from his road, exclusive to people within the Uchiha name, he ran faster, faster and faster till he stumbled onto the front door of his house. Lungs screaming and lips dry and cracked from the cold wind that wisped over his face as he ran.

Fumbling with keys well versed in the task he stepped inside and shouted a shaky "I'm home," hearing nothing in return he searched the bottom floor of his home finding nothing and no one in the area. He walked upstairs, in the darkness, not bothering with lights he missed the little details that could've maybe saved him sooner.

He spun fully on the landing taking in every detail possible in the dim light the full moon provided. It filtered through the many windows and was the only constant present at the time. Young and naive maybe his mistakes could've been overlooked. No. He was to blame. He was never strong enough. Even at such a young age he knew he could never quite compare to his older brother.

His brother, Itachi would know what to do he sprinted to his brothers room skidding on the wooden floor, twisted the door handle he opened the door with unsteady hands. Seeing nothing unusual he called out, "Itachi, Itachi! Aniki! Where is everyone? Where…" his words died in his throat as he saw something glint in the moonlight. He apprehensively switched on the light. The room he stood in, every surface was covered in blood, slick and fresh. The blood he later found out to be his parents. Who knew two people could bleed that much?

Scrambling backwards he hit the corridor wall hard and with a look of terror on his face. His brother was strong and his brother would never be taken down so easily. Never. That blood still wet and fresh. It had to be the person who tried to attack his elder brother. That was the conclusion the little Sasuke had drawn before running to his parents room.

Water was bubbling over and the flashback was interrupted. He poured a very nearly empty kettle of water onto a tea bag, stirred in some milk and left the kitchen without adding sugar. He sipped the boiling drink with no care for the searing pain in his mouth, he could handle it, plus there was a more pressing matter at hand. He HAD to find out why Naruto had attacked him and why there was an almost abrupt change in his personality. It was if he was a totally different person.

The anger that had leaked from him was terrifying and when compared to this paling fragile boy lying half splayed on a sofa he couldn't help wonder if the day had just been the after effects of fatigue, as the nurse put it. He settled on an armchair directly across from the slumbering boy and sipped his tea indifferently and settled down to his new favourite past time. Watching - (to the point where one could say it bordered obsessive) - Naruto.

Naruto was wondering through his mind. If that were possible, maybe he was only dreaming. His mind was surprisingly very bland and dull, dimly lit he walked corridor upon corridor feeling and following the pull of something that was intoxicatingly powerful. It excreted such an aura of power and evil and he was sucked in by it, like a moth to a flame. Treading carefully through shallow waters he stepped through a door and entered a large room in which was a wall that wasn't quite a wall, but a row of bars with a small paper seal in the middle. Through the darkness he made out red and the swishing of what could be two, five, maybe nine tails. "Hello," he called out. Nothing. He walked to the bars and leaned as close as he could swishing his hand inside the bars cautiously.

"Hey brat, nice to know you came to find me for once. What do you want? Finally giving up hope and letting me do what we know needs to be done?" It was here Naruto saw through the dim light a giant fox, with eyes blood red from years of murder, padding to the opposite of where Naruto was it's nine long vibrant tails silently swayed around it. This was the face of his nightmares. This was what had caused so many people around him to die and this, beast was what had caused him to suffer.

Anger bubbling up underneath his skin he screamed at it through the "safety" of the cage it resided in. "What do you want huh? Thought I'd set you free? I hate you! You live in me and give me pain, I finally get to see your cowardly, yes cowardly, face and you dare ask me to let you run riot? You hide behind me and…I hate you. You're the worst kind of trash you know?!"

"You came this far to tell me that? You're more hopeless than I thought,"the fox replied.

"Oh shut up! Leave me alone and stay out of my life! I can deal with things my way. It's better this way. How many times? It's. Better. This. Way," Naruto shouted so loudly at the fox his voice became hoarse and he felt himself slip back into reality, sinking to the floor of his mind he felt calm wash over him and missed the words of the fox as he left."You can't hold me for long you know? Watch the seals."

Jerking himself awake Naruto once again awoke to unfamiliar surroundings. He took a look around to find his, friend. His friend Sasuke was sleeping on an armchair with a cup of forgotten tea that lay at his feet. He took this to be his home. He rose to his feet slowly and went to go find the nearest bathroom, he was sweaty and needed to think. He was sure Sasuke wouldn't mind him using the shower after all he had brought him here.

Locating the nearest bathroom on the first floor, after many failed attempts I might add, he stripped down to nothing and turned on the water to a boiling degree. He stepped into the shower wincing slightly as the hot water ran over his sore muscles. Rubbing soap between his hands he washed slowly, methodically. Something he had never done before. Even with his "condition" he was an all over mess. Some old habits really do die hard.

Stepping out and wrapping a dark towel round his waist he made his way to what appeared to be Sasuke's bedroom and began to scavenge around for clothes he could wear, after all Sasuke did bring him here, might as well take advantage while the opportunity presented itself. He looked through a chest of drawers picking out some plain boxers and socks, He sifted through a wardrobe picking out a t-shirt with an unnaturally high collar and some white shorts. It was almost déjà vu how he ended up borrowing people's clothes. Changing into them he ran a troubled hand through his hair and wondered how on earth he was going to explain the running, flinching, general psycho-ness. Not to mention he had, by the looks of the sky outside, missed his meeting with the one who owned him. God was mocking him he was sure. "Damn you god. Damn you to hell!" he whispered.

Sasuke awoke to the sound of a running shower and shifted around on the sofa working the kinks out of him. Pacing towards the stairs he approached his room wordlessly and as he opened the door he saw Naruto wistfully staring out the window with a tear making a track down one of his cheeks. "Hi," he whispered. Naruto turned around and clumsily wiped the stray tear from his face trying his best to not show any more weakness.

"Hey," he replied.

"Clothes fit well?" Sasuke inquired.

"Just about, I think I might need a belt though," Naruto answered

"What about the one you wore…" asked Sasuke.

"NO!.. I'd rather not have it on more than I have too, mind much?"

"Go ahead, third drawer down, left." Sasuke directed in monotone, he watched Naruto move noting how he winced and couldn't help stare at the retreating back. As his friend bent down to retrieve a belt he caught a glimpse of something marring almost perfect skin. He had to know. He brought him home. He… he cared. Quickly moving from his spot near the door he sped over to where Naruto was pulled him up by the back of his t-shirt and used his weight to pull the boy to the floor. Straddling him he used one hand to pin the slightly smaller boys hands while said boy gaped in shock and did a very accurate impression of a fish.

"Sasuke! What are you doing! Let go bastard!" Naruto shouted in vain, he twisted and writhed, bucking and fought like a trapped animal, which essentially he was, but gave up as he looked at the normally cold hard eyes of Uchiha that had flickered worry cross them every so often. Breathing in deep, cheeks flushed he asked as calmly as he could "What are you doing Sasuke? Why not get off me ne?"

"No"
"Why?!"

"There's something going on."

"And that is your problem how?!" Naruto asked indignantly.

"You're my friend, Plus I am responsible for you seeing as you're in my house"

"Argh! Why? Just let me go, I have something to take care of! Let go you… you bastard!"

"Moron stay still" Sasuke was loosing his grip and Naruto could feel it, using what control he did have he did the only logical thing he could. He awkwardly turned Naruto around so he lay flat on his stomach and Sasuke sat on his legs just below his arse. Was this considered compromising? Re-grabbing his "guest's" arms and pinning them to his back he lifted up the t-shirt the boy was wearing, ignoring protests and cries to "stop!" and "let [him go," he pulled the t-shirt as high as it would go.

What he saw shocked even him.

Littering this apparently perfect boys back was scars old and new, bruises old and yellow and purple and fresh, lash (whip?) marks criss-crossed red and blushing from the heat of the recent shower, open sores and burns were also common. The thing that shocked him the most was a word carved, hacked if one would like the exact method, into Naruto's lower back. It was the word 'Killer' and underneath that was a the word 'Monster.' Who did this?

"Who did this?" He asked, his voice hoarse and dry. He neglected to notice Naruto had stopped struggling and lay quiet and still. The perfect enactment of a corpse. He let his captor turn him around once again and lay lifeless as his arms were let go and Sasuke repositioned himself on top of him. He let the question die in the air once more before finally allowing the tears threatening to fall do just that. He shouted into the nothingness and looked Sasuke dead in the eyes, he saw the boy was shocked and smiled.

"Happy? I told you stop! I told you!! Why don't you ever listen, no-one's supposed to know so why? Huh? Tell me why you had to look? So are you satisfied? Is your curiosity well fed now? Why the shock? Tell me. Do you think you can actually help? Don't make me laugh" Naruto let his voice soften as he ranted on, it was better this way, push people away and they don't get hurt. He wouldn't kill or hurt anyone anymore.

Sasuke looked at the boy whose head lay on it's side, chest moving slowly up and down in an uneven rhythm, he was hooked, but Naruto was right, he had wanted to know and the real question was, was he done here now that he knew? He wouldn't let anyone else suffer. Who said he couldn't save this one? Slapping the boy across the face he said in a voice with no room for negotiation "I am going to help you, You are going to talk. You have no say in the matter. Talk. Now."

Naruto looked at the source of the voice that was strangely soothing. It was giving orders, orders he could handle after all they were simple. Follow well get rewarded, fail and feel pain. He could follow orders but did he want too? Did he want to tell the secrets that no-one knew and to this complete stranger who had entered his life less than two weeks ago? "Talk brat. Obey."He started his well rehearsed (head wise) story with glazed over eyes and a static voice.

"A long time ago there was a small town not to far from here, in this town there lived a boy. He was lonely, he had no parents and no friends since people avoided him. Living in a decent apartment kindly provided by the mayor he watched the days and people go by. One day he was sitting on a swing outside the town academy hatefully watching the other kids who despised him be picked up by parents who looked at him like he was a monster. It was that day he met a boy with lifeless eyes like his own and the most amazing hair he had ever seen. It was the colour of blood.

They formed a close bond after almost beating each other up to within an inch of their lives, one fighting for death and the pleasure taking life can give, the other fighting for the precious gift given to everyone, one that shouldn't be taken so lightly. They were two forks in a road. Stemmed from one they saw two different ways of life.

One day whilst at the red heads house they older wiser not so lonely boy told his friend a secret he said that sometimes he heard a voice and that whenever he was too weak to fight it, the voice took over. He was made fun of. It came to be however that the red head would find out how truthful he was because one unfortunate night he came home to find a blonde boy laying in pools of blood, a knife between his hands he caught whispers of 'Why? Why?!' He saw his family butchered. Hardly recognisable he saw only rage.

It was from then on that he made sure the blonde paid for what the voice had done. He beat him, humiliated him, dehumanised him. He made sure the other suffered. The broken boy knew he deserved it, after all he had been too weak. If only he had been stronger. So he let it happen all the while for a year, oblivious to those around him he took the punishment and paid with blood, sweat and tears," Naruto finished on a low almost inaudible note, repeating words said to him often, it was definitely easier to think of then say out loud, he had no idea why he made it into a story but it felt appropriate. His tale was one no-one would believe after all his murders had been well covered up on the account of his friend wanting personal revenge.

Sasuke didn't know what to say, this boy he was sitting on had suffered so much, he knew more but understood little. Voice? Murder? What had…no he would wait. He would stop this first. So there they sat, Sasuke straddling Naruto with new revelation and relations formed. Their breathing slowed to synchronicity of one another and Sasuke moved off him to lay beside him. He held the boys hand within his own and decided an eye for an eye, so to speak.

"You know about a year or so ago there was a whole street found murdered, they never caught the culprit and all that was left was one small cowering pathetic boy. He had been spared," he stared at his ceiling memorising the bareness of white before continuing, listening to the now steady breath of Naruto. "I was coming home when I saw the emptiness of my road. I ran to our house thinking my brother could help. He wasn't there. I found warm blood covering the walls of his room and thought if couldn't be my aniki. No he was too strong. But I was wrong. Running to my parents room I found him hovering over the bodies of our parents the katana he used still dripping. He had killed everyone and left me alive. He left me with words of hatred and the fear who could kill hundreds and get away. About a year or so ago I found out my aniki killed all my family and escaped, It was then I promised revenge and been occupying myself every waking moment with thoughts on how to and training to become stronger.

If I can, I will kill him for killing everyone I cared about. That's my aim in life. The saddest thing is that at one point I trusted him so much and looked up to him, he stuck up for me and saved me from my dad so many times, no I wouldn't even care if my dad ignored me as long as he was there. I miss the fact I had a family. A year or so ago Sasuke Uchiha died with the rest of the family."

When he finished they still both lay on the floor fingers entwined, both had shared the grief of past mistakes and both were paying for it. Sasuke sat up and helped Naruto up to, carefully avoiding anything he saw to be fragile. He looked down through his lashes at the boy he had come to acknowledge and watched him tremble slightly in his grip, 'so hurt,' he thought. He pulled away and walked towards the bedroom door and as he was leaving he half ordered a single word.

Naruto looked up through his lashes at the Uchiha boy who had taken care of him, been assaulted by him, overpowered him and opened old wounds with him and sighed. All this in one day with someone he barely acknowledged as well. He trembled slightly as the pressure on the grip holding him increased and warm breath tickled his face. He felt slightly hurt when the other pulled away and left him colder than before. That was before he heard the order Sasuke gave at the door. He said "Stay."

And of course Naruto could always follow orders, they were simple, but did he want to? "Obey."He nodded and mumbled a quick reply before following Sasuke out the room where they had somehow formed a friendship of sorts, he followed to the only one who might be able to save him from his friend…master. His old friend and new owner who went by the name Gaara. Nothing more and nothing less.

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Soo sorry for the wait, I haven't been able to get online, damn TALK TALK. How I LOATHE you... Anyhoo read and review anyone? Please and thank you...