Naruto left the classroom quickly. What on earth was Uchiha playing at? Naruto shook his head, he knew when Kakashi had held up two fingers he meant ten minutes. He could listen to his music in a small corner and calm himself. Maybe finish his drawing of the Itachi wolf.

But suddenly he was slammed into a wall roughly, he found himself looking into the dilated angry eyes of Kiba. There was nobody here to save Naruto this time.

Itachi frowned. Naruto had been gone for twelve minutes, and Kiba had snuck out after him unbeknownst to the Cyclopes scarecrow of a teacher. Sasuke nodded to Itachi, telling him to save Naruto from the stupid mutt.

Naruto whimpered as Kiba kicked him in the head again. His vision was blurred and dark around the edges like when Jiraiya gave him Sake as a joke. Naruto was sure that his arm was broken, and his skull felt tender. He knew that his already broken ribs were now shattered. Kiba picked him up,

"Itachi's not here to save you this time, faggot. This time I'll kill you." Kiba growled in Naruto's ear.

"I don't think you will." Itachi's voice rose behind Kiba. The boy towered over both prey and predator. The last thing Naruto saw before he blacked out was Itachi slamming Kiba's head into a locker door.

Itachi had never been so angry in his life. He wanted to kill the dark haired mutt for hurting Naruto so bad.

"Itachi!" a voice yelled. He looked up to see Sasuke's surprised face, "He's already unconscious. You need to bring Naruto to the office so that he can get to a hospital. Look at his arm and his head." Sasuke said. Itachi looked over to the boy, and saw what Sasuke meant. Naruto's head had a dent in it around the size of Kiba's shoe. His right arm was twisted and bent at odd angles. Itachi brushed his hair out of his face, and calmed himself down. He didn't have any clue why he felt so strongly about this boy's mistreatment. He told himself it was because of his Family's interaction with ANBU (here this is basically FBI CSI and SWAT mixed together.), but he knew there was something more, he knew this boy was innocent but hated for no reason. He scooped Naruto up and carried him into the office. Tsunade and Shizune looked at him, Shizune's eyes immediately teared up, and she ran screaming,

"Iruka! Help its Naruto!"

"It was Kiba." Itachi droned, answering Tsunade's unasked question. "He's unconscious in the hallway; Sasuke has probably hog-tied him for the police."

"Why is he unconscious? I've never known Naruto to fight back." Tsunade asked as she dialed 911.

"I didn't fight back, I did." Itachi answered. He was just about dining with full sentences. Moments later there was paramedics putting Naruto on a stretcher.

"WE can take one person with us." The paramedic in a white suit with a cherry blossom emblem on the breast pocket said.

"I'll go, Tsunade. I can keep in touch though phone, you need to stay here and take care of Kiba. Call Naruto's father or... something. Make sure Kiba's behind bars, or I just might kill him next time I see him." Itachi snarled.

"Ok. One question, why do you care so much?" Tsunade breathed.

"Because Naruto is innocent, I can tell he never did anything to bring Kiba to attempt his murder."

"Murder?" Tsunade's eyes widened.

"Kiba's words to Naruto were exactly: Itachi isn't here to save you this time, faggot. This time I'll kill you." Itachi told her then got in the ambulance.

A few hours later found Itachi in the ER waiting room. His knuckles were bruised sore and crusted with dried blood. He didn't usually fight, he was very pacifistic, and so his knuckles had split easy. If I'm a pacifist why did I throw that away for Naruto? At his old schools, He had been known as someone who could, and would turn the school bitch into his personal bitch within a week of entering the school. But he didn't really want to do hat to Naruto, sure the small blonde was cute, but there was something else. Itachi didn't want to turn the little boy into his personal sex toy; he actually wanted to get to know the boy.

'Ita-nii."

Itachi looked up into Sasuke's dark obsidian eyes, "You need to tell me what is your plan or Naruto. He doesn't deserve to be treated like your last 'Boyfriend"."

"I… don't know what my plan is." Itachi frowned. He didn't know if he should explain it to his brother. They was the terrified look in Naruto's blurry blue eyes struck a chord in Itachi, or if watching the boy smile, the one smile he had seen when the boy looked at the Cyclopes teacher had made Itachi want to smiled back. He shook his head,

"I don't know about him. But I won't do that to him, he's worth more than that." Itachi frowned, more than me.

Two days later, Naruto opened his eyes to see a dark clad boy with spiky hair smiling at him,

"Hey there Kit, you gave your Granma and Grandpa quite the scare." Sasuke smirked at the boy, "But you'll live."

"What happened?" Naruto blearily croaked. He felt as if he had been run over by a semi.

"Itachi saved your life. Quite literally." Sasuke frowned, 'When you left, Kiba snuck out after you, and when you were gone for more than the allotted ten minutes, Itachi went after you. Kiba said he was going to kill you, and you were already half dead. Itachi broke Kiba's jaw, and now the mutt is in a juvenile home in Kirigakure." Sasuke explained. "He shattered your ribs, caved in the left side of your skull and broke your left arm in three places. Itachi is in court right now arguing his case that his assault on Kiba was completely logical."

"Oh." Naruto frowned, 'Why… why did he?"

"Why did he what?" Sasuke frowned.

"Why didn't he let me die? Why are you here? And where's Baa-Chan and Ero-ji?" Naruto closed his eyes as if the effort hurt him.

"Well I don't know why Itachi helped you. I'm here because Itachi helped you, Im here because you need someone. I asked Gaara Sabaku about you. He said you have no friends, and you've been teased since seventh grade for being gay. That Kiba or Neji had beaten you up nearly every day, until Hinata stopped Neji, then Kiba took up the full weight of your mishaps with a fist. Or a foot." Sasuke smiled, "I'm here to be your friend."

Naruto's wide blue eyes welled up with tears. "I… I don't believe you." He closed his eyes and began to cry.

"Believe it or not Naruto, in Iwa where we used to live, they hated me, because in ancient times, the Uchihas were nearly wiped out, and tried to destroy Iwa. I know how you feel, Naruto. To be hated is a bad feeling. I want to be your friend." Sasuke turned and walked away leaving Naruto to ponder this thought, he wondered what it would be like to have a friend.