Choza sat in his car waiting for his partner to get back. He laid back on the chair and closed his eyes resisting the urge to drift off to the rhythmic patter of the rain. His lolled back and he was beginning to enter dream land when a loud crack brought him back to the land of the living. He saw his partner, Shikaku, running towards the car with his gun drawn. Choza immediately pulled his own pistol before opening the door and resting his arms on it to steady his hands. The rain was so thick he couldn't see a few feet past his partner, then another figure appeared behind him. The man was wearing nothing but his birthday suit and held a large butcher knife in one hand.

"Shoot!"

That was the only provocation Choza needed as he squinted and looked down the sight of his pistol. He pulled the trigger tenderly almost as if he was coaxing the gun like a living being instead of a piece of metal. The bullet that left the barrel entered through the naked mans skull, splattering blood on the wall behind him and throwing him onto his back. A large hole could be seen in the middle of the mans forehead, he was a relatively easy target for the top marksman in the department. "You okay Shikaku?"

"Yeah I'll be fine just a cut on my arm." Shikaku dropped his gun into it's holster and brought his uninjured arm up to put pressure on his injury. Choza dropped back into the car and pulled the radio to his mouth. After calling for medical assistance and more officers to tape up the scene he helped Shikaku into the car and locked the doors. He pocketed the keys and pulled his gun out once again. Shikaku watched as his partner slowly advanced towards the dead body and shoved it with his foot, the body slumped over completely still and he continued forward until Shikaku couldn't see him anymore. A few minutes later he saw Choza walking back, when he got into the headlights of the car he holstered his gun and flashed a grim smile to Shikaku.

Shikaku was finally relaxing his cut was throbbing but the adrenaline rush had worn off and his heartbeat had slowed. His heart picked up again when he saw Choza put his hand back on his gun and whip his body around. Shikaku strained his ears to see what had alerted Choza and heard something that sounded like crying, no it was...laughter? Choza quickly pulled his gun out and Shikaku saw a figure in the distance. It looked emaciated and was completely naked the darkness seemd to be absorbed in his pale skin.

He heard Choza shout out a warning before raising his gun up. The figure grinned and Shikaku heard a loud thump on the car roof. Choza did also and spun around, unfortunately he wasn't fast enough and a naked woman jumped off the roof of the car and onto Choza clawing at his face and hand which held his gun. The other figure sprinted at Choza and the lady and began beating Choza with a bat.

"CHOZA!" Shikaku fumbled with the door as his fingers trembled. He cursed the damn lock he forgot it would unlock unless you have the keys. He cursed and started kicking the windshield. After stomping on the windshield twice and getting nowhere he pulled out his gun and fired three shots through the glass before stomping on it twice more. One of the figures lay on the ground holding their chest where a bullet and fragments of the glass had lodged itself and the other continued to beat the unconscious Choza. Shikaku fired his last bullet and hit the mans leg, he went down for a moment but got back up and continued to wail on Choza. Shikaku now desperate broke through the rest of the windshield. He was covered in glass splinters and cuts but he pushed off the hood of the car and tackled the figure onto the wet dirty ground.

They both went down and he used his uninjured arm to drop heavy punches onto the mans face. Even after the man was knocked out he continued to wail on him. He was unaware that the backup had even arrived until two officers pulled him off the barely recognizable body. He didn't realize that he was crying until he felt the salt from his tears burn the lacerations on his face. He was wrapped in a blanket and sat on an ambulance and watched the medics load Choza's lifeless body onto a stretcher and into the ambulance which took off at full speed. One of the paramedics attended to him cleaning up his cuts and wrapping the deep on on his arm. The other paramedic checked on the assailants. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.

Naruto looked around the classroom surprised to see a few of his friends missing. "Hey, Dogbreath where's Shikamaru, Chouji and Sasuke?"

"Why would I know? Dumbass."

"It was just a question Peanut-brain."

"U-u-ummm I heard their parents were i-injured on the job last night and they are at the h-hospital."

"Errr thanks Hinata." Naruto flashed her a polite smile and turned back to Kiba. No matter how nice Hinata was she always seemed to creep him out, he couldn't help but thinking she was weird. Naruto turned towards the front of the room when a rubber eraser hit him in the side of the head. At the front of the room was a pissed off looking Iruka. "Sorry ." Naruto recited the rehearsed line.

"Just pay more attention Naruto."

"Yes, Sir." Iruka sighed knowing that he got the same response but it still didn't help anything. He could only shoot Naruto one last disappointed look before he continued to teach his lesson. Naruto just closed his eyes and laid his head on his arms before drifting off into wonderland.

Naruto quickly sat up and let out a quiet gasp, his eyes opened widely and pushed his notebook off his desk onto the ground. He heard the class snicker at him and he grinned sheepishly and picked up his stuff.

"Naruto, see me after class." Naruto looked up to see an agitated Iruka giving him the stink eye.

"Yes, sir." Iruka sighed once again, this wasn't a pattern he enjoyed and would take the steps necessary to get Naruto out of this funk even if it meant paying for another one of his rather, expensive, meals. Iruka continued teaching and he saw Naruto go back to sleep.

Naruto this time was awoken by Iruka gently shaking his shoulder. He glanced up to see Iruka was out of his teacher mode and his eyes were the gentle, compassionate ones that belonged to the man he began to love as an older brother.

"Naruto, whats going on? All you've been doing in classes recently is sleeping. It's starting to worry me, no matter how much sleep you get in class you still look tired." Iruka took a seat on the desk in front of Naruto.

"I'm sorry Iruka, it's just that well...I'm having trouble sleeping. Whenever I get a few hours of sleep I'll have a nightmare and wake up. I've gotten like eight hours of sleep in the past three days." Naruto rested his head against his palms and looked up to Iruka.

"How about tonight I take you out for ramen, all you can eat, then I'll try to help you get to some sleep. Don't tell anyone but I've got some pills that really help. I used to have night terrors when I was your age, I saw my parents killed by some kind of wolf in front of me and I kept seeing it in my dreams."

"Not tonight Iruka, I've got to go visit Chouji, Shikamaru and Sasuke at the hospital how about tomorrow night?"

"That's fine Naruto, tomorrow it is." Iruka flashed Naruto a smile before walking up to the front of the room. "I think someone is waiting for you." He walked out the door and Naruto looked up. In the doorway stood Sakura, a worried look in her eyes.

"Narutttttoooooo." She called out and walked over to him wrapping her arms around his head and pulling his face into her bust. "Why didn't you tell me you were having troubles sleeping. I'd help you sleep or stay up with you at night, whatever you want." Naruto sighed unable to muster the strength to resist Sakura right now, and her warm touch felt like it was just maybe helping.

Naruto and Sakura walked into the hospital and got the Nara and Akimichi room numbers and their visitors badge before walking to the elevator. After arriving on the right floor they walked to the Nara's room and knocked on the door. They saw Shikimaru pull his head up from a game of shogi that he was playing with his dad and waved them in.

"Hello , Shikamaru." Naruto said nodding and waving respectively. Quiet greetings were heard from Sakura. After exchanging get wells and other pleasantries the real talk began. "So what happened to you guys?" Naruto asked bluntly before he was nudged by Sakura.

"That's kind of rude Naru." She said under her breath.

"No, don't worry about." Shikaku waved it off. "Last night we were attacked by three men. Choza got it a lot worse then I did." He looked off into space for a moment and continued. "There has been an unusual amount of assaults and homicides recently. In fact we were only called down for public intoxication. When I went down I could immediately figure out why there was a man stumbling around naked. I went to help him out and he caught me in the arm with his knife. It was careless of me and I could have avoided the entire situation." Shikaku sighed.

"I'm sure there was nothing you could do." Naruto said trying to comfort the grown man. "Me and Sakura should be going now, can you send Chouji are apologies we can't go see him since he's in the ICU."

"Sure." Shikamaru nodded and waved goodbye. When Naruto was almost out the door Shikaku called out.

"Be careful Naruto what happened to you is like getting struck by lightning, it will probably never happen and even if it does it won't strike again but with your luck, I don't know. Something is happening in this city something bad and you need to watch your back kid. ". Naruto smiled and gave Shikaku a thumbs up.

"Don't worry I'll be fine."

Naruto and Sakura walked down the brightly lit hallway slowly as if trying not to miss anything that could get them hurt. "Have you seen Sasuke lately?" Naruto asked looking up to the night sky. He had asked for his room number in the hospital since Hinata had said that's where he was but the attendant had said that there were no Uchihas booked in at the moment.

"No, why haven't you?"

"Not for like a day or two." Naruto changed his course taking a left instead of a right.

"Where are you going Naruto? Your house is right."

"We're going to see what's going on with Sasuke." Naruto said as he lead the way towards the Uchiha compound.

When Naruto and Sakura had gotten to the compound Naruto had already called Iruka and found out that Sasuke's brother had called him out for the last two days. Naruto called Sasuke but he didn't pick up. He violently kicked on the gates and yelled for someone to open up but nothing had happened. "That's it I'm going in" He said and jumped up grabbing the top of the fence and pulling himself up.

"Narutooooo, wait for me." Sakura called out easily hopping the fence. Naruto grimaced when he dropped down from the fence and ripped his shirt.

"Ugh, I just got this shirt." Naruto complained as he walked into the courtyard of the compound. Even being as oblivious as Naruto was he could tell that something was up. It was completely quiet. "Why is it so quiet?" Naruto wondered aloud looking around looking for some trace of life.

"It smells like death Naru..." she said and clung on to him since she was given the excuse. Naruto just let her cling onto him and walked to Sasuke's house. He stepped up the porch stairs and slowly pulled open the door making an eerie creak ring through the silence. The house was dark and the only sound that could be heard was the ring of a television. Naruto took a few steps forward and felt something wet and sticky under his shoes. He held his breath and felt his heart race as he walked toward the sound of the tv. As he passed a corridor a dark figure jumped out dropping him to the ground and bashing his head against the wall. The figure lifted a knife and began to bring it down on Naruto before Sakura flew out of nowhere tackling the figure. Whenever somebody hit the ground the wet substance on the ground splashed up onto clothes and the wall.

Naruto could tell what it was now, since the struggle of the three figure broke out it disturbed the settled liquid releasing the rotten metallic scent into the air. All over the floor there was at least an inch of blood. He quickly scrambled up when he heard Sakura cry out and started stomping on the man that had attacked them. The man took the knife in his hand and lodged it into Naruto's leg before getting up and running out of the house. Sakura screamed loudly when she saw Naruto get stabbed and chased after the figure, she slipped in the blood and fell to the ground hard. She too had been stabbed in the stomach and couldn't continue to give chase.

Naruto helped her up after releasing the contents of his stomach onto the already wet floor. They stumbled closer to the sounds of the tv determined to find Sasuke before they left the hellhole. When they got to the room where the sounds of tv where the loudest they threw open the door and Naruto gasped in horror at what he saw. The room was dark and the only living in the room was Sasuke. He was nailed to a chair in the middle of the room his head strapped with a belt so he had to look forward. His eyelids were stapled so he couldn't close them and all around him were dead bodies. The room stank of rotting flesh and in front of Sasuke was a tv monitor playing footage of every Uchiha member being slaughtered. Sasuke was gently shaking and Naruto couldn't hold it anymore. He couldn't see his best friend like this. He dry heaved before he ran to Sasuke yelling his name trying to snap him out of his trance. "Sakua...Sakura...SAKURA!" Naruto screamed breaking her out of her trance, she almost seemed to be enjoying the sight before her. "Call the police and the ambulance anything!". She nodded vigorously before whipping out her phone. Hoping he wouldn't notice she took a quick snapshot of the scene before her before calling the emergency services.

lol I've had this written for a few months just found it when I was cleaning out my google docs. Forgot I wrote it to be honest. Hope you guys like it, I'll try to update if I get some freetime from BF3 which I'll be playin with most of my time. Hope chapter doesn't fail too much, as always R&R. Thanksiez in advance. For my readers, stay

Swag

~MuffDiver