Disclaimer- Naruto is not mine, if it was I'd make the manga chapters twice as long so we don't have to continually wait til next week just to finish a single convo! JEEZ!

CASH MONEY TO: madamadadanechibisuke, LivingGlow, fishbird, UchihaUzumaki baby, Ai Megami Murasaki, ali ebel, Lazerbot, Vampy-Note, Srta. Kinomoto, RachieM, KitsuneNaru, Kingkakashi, Bloodluvingirl, Flightless Bird, ooxshinobixoo, Nik0laiCarpathia, PERSONWHODIDN'TPUTTHEIRNAMET-T, foreverboundtopain, Suave Jiraiya, KCWolfman, Kakashi Rocks The World, Hokage Hinata Hyuga, mementomori666, Uniasus, Xiashadow, YaoiLuvr, LovelySinner7, and Picopicox3 FOR REVIEWING! (Review and u too MAY win! ^^) (Omg! Almost 100 reviews for 3 chaps?! YOU PEOPLE RULE, SUPER SIZED BLANK CHECKS TO ALL!)

ALSO MANY COINS TO THOSE WHO FAVORITED OR STORY ALERTED THIS STORY!!! : P

Sorry to everyone I confused about the pairings! I didn't go over the spell check and it put really weird stuff O.o What it was SUPPOSE to say was I'm writing a NaruHina ending AND a SasuNaru ending ^^

Chapter 4: Escape

~*~

And when it rains

Well you always find an escape

Just running away

From all of the ones who love you

From everything

~When It Rains by Paramore

~*~

The weather had steadily worsened as the night went on. The wind thrived in the cool atmosphere, as if the darkness itself began to amplify the air's strength and speed. Clouds could be seen in the dark skies as dark shapes that blocked the light of the stars behind them, causing the sky to seem even darker and bitter. Still, the climate had little effect on the social activities and plans of the citizens of Konoha. If anything, the cool air and dark night seemed to attract more potential customers to the main street of the shinobi village. Groups of friends were meeting outside popular restaurants, couples were walking down the street hand-in-hand, and bright lights shone from every window on the road. But though it seemed that the exultance and jubilation shared by the villagers was incongruous, the mood of the night seemed fit under the light of the full moon.

Naruto seemed to be the only factor of the night that was out of place. The 16 year old had stormed out of the barbeque restaurant and, after taking a moment to collect himself, made his way towards the rundown sorry excuse of an apartment he called home. Unlike earlier, the wind now blew against his back, causing his shoulders to hunch against the extra force. Out of habit, the blonde stuffed his hands in his pockets and keep his face to the ground to avoid eye contact with any of the villagers. In this sense, he'd consciously made himself as small as possible, in hope that everyone else would ignore his existence as they did whenever he was in need of their help. His strategy didn't work however, and his presence seemed to affect everyone he passed. The group of friends stopped talking to glare, the couple swerved further to the right a good ten feet in front of him just to avoid going anywhere close to him, and even the lights seemed to dim in the shops until he'd completely passed in a half-hearted attempt to make it seem as if the store was closing so the blonde wouldn't attempt to come in.

As if he would anyway. Even with the domino effect his presence seemed to have on all whom saw him, the atmosphere of the town was still too joyful. The light mood seemed to suffocate the teen, and their shrill laughter pierced his ears. In his pockets the blonde boy clenched and unclenched his fists, repeating the action over and over again. He could handle elation. He could handle contempt. He just couldn't handle them together.

Unable to stand the surrounding cheer, he turned down the closest alleyway and headed deeper and deeper into the "bad" side of town.

Many other villages considered Konoha to be some kind of Utopia. They imagined the village to look exactly as the main street had: full of happy people going into nice little stores and having perfectly nice lives knowing that they had a great Hokage and strong shinobi to protect them from harm. But the village Hidden in the Leaves was still a city, and it only took two lefts and a right for Naruto Uzumaki to find himself in the middle of the "slums". Here, there were no shops, save liquor stores. The streets were mainly lined with bars and homeless people surrounded around a small fire pits. Few people visited this area, at least few sober people. And unlike the main street, the air here was heavy and shouting was the only thing that could be heard.

Normally, the blonde teen avoided the area like the plague just as everyone else did, even though it was the quickest route to his apartment which was at the far end of the area, on the edge of the two contrasting neighborhoods. He'd learned from a young age, the drunker a man was, the more likely he was to get violent. In fact, almost all of the beatings Naruto suffered were done in this part of town. After all, people were likely to hear him screaming if they weren't there to hear him, whether it be physically or conscious wise, it didn't matter.

Still, tonight the teen was willing to take the risk. He was anxious to get home, just counting the seconds until he'd lock the door and wallow in self despair like the worthless piece of junk he was. It was bad enough he'd let his mask drop in front of his team, it was even worse that he'd basically thrown it at Sasuke-teme's face, but to have to continue acting like nothing was wrong? That was unbearable.

But that wasn't the only reason he was rushing. His right arm was practically aching for his razor. He could feel his hand jerking in his pocket. It took all the self control he still had not to just stop in a nearby alley, grab a kunai from the pouch on his knee….The boy had stopped sometime during that thought and he'd begun eyeing a nearby alley. But who knew that was a little too risking, and, gritting his teeth, he regained his composer and picked up speed.

Thankfully, the spiky headed male made it to his home without conflict. The sight of the old complex seemed to calm him down, and instead of bounding up to his apartment, he took each step one at a time and slowly took out the keys to the lock when he reached his door. Even going slowly, it only took a few seconds before he was inside with the door locked behind him. He stopped for a second, wondering whether or not he should go get his razor from his bathroom or just use a kunai. The blonde felt strange. On days that were only half as bad as today, he wasted no time coming home and cutting. It was almost like second nature to him, it gave him energy, it gave him life. Today…he just felt tired.

At that realization, his body seemed to grow heavier and the boy's legs struggled to hold the extra weight straight. The fox like boy sighed, dragging himself to his unmade bed while extracting a kunai from his pouch. The blonde turned as he reached the edge of the mattress before plopping onto the hard springs which creaked beneath his weight. He stared at the sharp weapon in his hand with no particular emotion in mind. No relief, no awe, no curiosity. Without even thinking about it, the blonde held it to his wrist. Again, he had that weird sensation, one he could only compare to watching himself from outside his body. The boy he saw was, for lack of a better description, depressing. You'd think that having a knife to your wrist would at least get some adrenaline pumping through your veins or that'd you'd experience some anticipation of what would come, and usually Naruto did. What was so different now?

When was the first time he cut again? He couldn't remember. He could remember how paranoid he'd been afterwards, how he'd spent the following two weeks going crazy about someone seeing the mark it left, but not the event itself. How did if make him feel? Obviously it had felt good enough to do it again, or else why did he continue cutting? The blonde pressed a little harder against the soft flesh of his wrist with glazed eyes, though he continued to argue with himself. What was the point of cutting again? He had no masochistic need, no morbid fascination with blood.

'Control.' A little voice said in the back of his head, but the Naruto shook his head. Why would he need control? He had everyone around him in the palm of his hand. With a simple idiotic mask, he controlled what everyone thought of him. Hinata's concerned face from earlier that day popped into his mind, catching him off guard and causing him to loosen his grip on the kunai. Just as quickly, pictures of Tsunade's hurt and guilty face and Iruka giving him a worried glance entered his mind.

Naruto growled as guilt began to rise within him. It had to be the fox's fault he was even thinking about them at a time like this. The blonde had never felt guilty before, he never felt the need to. They had no right over what he did to his body, cutting was just like him deciding to get a tattoo or piercing. Why would he think of them now when he truly had a reason to cut? Again, he pressed the kunai to his wrist, this time even harder. The last image of his teammates staring at him in surprise and Sasuke staring at him with guilty eyes as he ran from the restaurant just minutes before filled his mind. Again, he growled. Where was this coming from! He never cared before, he shouldn't care now. So what if he didn't know why he was cutting, cutting was his.

Though the teen was at war with himself, the aching of his arm hadn't receded. In fact, the presence of cool metal in his hand seemed to make the sensation unbearable. Even though he was arguing for or for not cutting, it felt as if his hand had already made the decision for him. It was as if even here the choice was no longer up to him. The blonde screamed in frustration and threw the kunai at the far wall.

"What is wrong with me!" Inside his head, the teen heard deep, booming laughter.

So the gaki finally feels guilty. Heh, I knew you wouldn't last.

Shut up Kyuubi! You're the one messing with my mind!

Am I now? And this morning?

The boy hesitated, struggling for a response. What had been the reason he told himself that morning to not cut?

It wouldn't have stopped bleeding in time.

That never stopped you before. Admit it gaki, you're weak. Even if none of those other worthless humans really care what you do to yourself, you don't want to hurt them by doing so.

By now, the blonde teen was utterly confused. It was true, he knew that they'd blow the situation out of proportion and worry about it, but he'd never really thought about that happening before. But obviously he had, seeing as he was always so careful not to get caught. So, he did care what happened to him, and he did care about what it did to his precious ones, though the teen wouldn't allow himself to fully believe they cared for him for fear he was just getting his hopes up. Again, Naruto groaned, while pulling his legs up onto the bed and dragging his knees to his chest. Just like everything else in his life, he found something that made him happy only to have it ripped out from beneath him. …That is, if cutting even made him happy. Still, now he doubted he even had that option.

As if on cue, the boy heard a knock at the door.

O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.# O.o 8-O #.#:3

The "dobe's" departure meant that all eyes fell upon Sasuke's lone standing figure. Everyone remained silent a moment longer as if they were waiting for a second reaction, a part two to the drama that was playing out in front of them. That act never came, however, and as Sasuke slumped back into his team's booth, the restaurant picked up it's previous lively hood, though the topic of their conversations surely were redirected to what had just happened.

Team 7's booth was the only one that stayed silent, as all in deep thought about their fellow teammate. Sasuke was content with the lack of speech. It was obvious that all were at a loss for words and if they did attempt to keep a conversation going it'd be nothing but half-hearted. More importantly, the silence allowed Sasuke to think through what had just happened, just as he was sure everyone else was doing. The Uchiha hated to admit it, but he was shocked and confused. Naruto's present and reaction had been unprepared for and thus, he had reacted mainly on instinct. The black-haired teen already felt guilty about what he'd said, but now that the heated moment between the best friends had passed… In truth, Sasuke felt disgusted with himself. He'd always known how to push the blonde's buttons; he even took pride in that fact, and over time he learned exactly was within limits of "just teasing" and what could tear the other boy apart. Obviously, his last comment obviously fell into the latter of those two categories, if not into a worse one. After all, the other teen had agreed with Sasuke. Previously Naruto had backed down, quieted down, he'd even upped and left on one occasion, but agree? It wasn't like Naruto.

Time passed and the silence that hung over the team seemed to grow more uncomfortable. By now, the silence was lasting far too long, perhaps a whole two or three minutes at most. Still, no one wanted to break the silence first, for fear conversation would be considered rude in the absence of their friend. Finally, Sakura cracked.

"Um, shouldn't someone go after him?" Everyone turned to look at her. Again it was silent for a second until she caught what they were insinuating. "Not me! Why should I have to do it? It's not like I did anything!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at how childish she sounded. I mean, really? "It wasn't me?" What was the point of pointing out the obvious when obviously no one was willing to do it from the start? Still, it was ultimately the next step that one of the group had to take. They couldn't very well just leave the hyperactive blonde to sulk or whatever he was doing. It was unbecoming of the boy who always smiles to act so out of character, and more than just worrisome.

After waiting another second for some other kind of response or retort, Sasuke stood up again.

"Fine."

"Wait! Where are you going Sasuke?" The pink haired girl asked with a shocked and confused expression. The standing teen turned to look at her with an "are you really that stupid" expression.

"To find dobe." With that, Sasuke left the restaurant with a far less theatrical exit than his friend.

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Again, Sasuke faced the challenging task of locating one Uzumaki Naruto, but this time he had a pretty good suspicion as to where the boy was. Without wasting anytime, Sasuke took to the roofs and headed for the blonde's apartment at top speed. The Uchiha wasn't quite sure why he was rushing exactly, what reason was there to rush? Still…

In a couple of minutes, Sasuke had reached his destination. It'd only been about six or seven minutes since the other teen had stormed off, maybe a little longer. Climbing up the steps, the onyx eyed male heard thunder. Sure enough, as he reached the second floor of the apartment complex he felt a drop of rain fall on his check. The boy growled in frustration. Sasuke hated rain. All it did was get everything wet, including Sasuke. If he'd wanted to get wet, he would've taken a shower or jumped in a body of water, why on earth would he want water to fall from the sky? Supposedly there were practical reasons, such as watering the surrounding vegetation and replacing water that had evaporated, but it wasn't worth all the trouble it caused for a training shinobi like him.

Still somewhat annoyed at the prospect of having to walk back home in the rain, the teen knocked on the correct apartment door. The Uchiha waited, listening for any movement. When he heard none, he turned to leave, but stopped mid-step when he heard a soft groan. Again, he waited, this time impatiently. When he heard no foot steps or other signs of movement, he knocked again.

"Oi, dobe. It's me." Again, Sasuke waited for some reply, but got none. The teen scowled and knocked more angrily against the wooden door. "I already know you're in there baka, open the stupid door before I just knock it—"

Sasuke was cut off before he could finish his threat by the door opening sharply about five or six inches.

"What!" Naruto asked angrily, though only half his body was visible through the door crack. The Uchiha merely shrugged as he studied the other male.

"Team sent me." The blonde rolled his eyes in response.

"Sure they did. Well, you came, I'm here, now go back to celebrating, and try to not go overboard with the illegal underage drinking." With that, Naruto brought up his arm to slam the door shut, but Sasuke caught the edge of the door with his own hand. The blonde glared at the dark eyed boy, more than annoyed by the other male's nerve, but said boy's narrowed eyes were fixed on the younger teen's wrist. Following his line of vision, the fox like boy saw what the Uchiha was staring at.

The teen instantly went to pull his arm away, but Sasuke caught his forearm before he could have the chance.

"What's this?" The black haired boy's voice was hard and commanding as he shook the other teen's arm, motioning to the bleeding wrist. The cut wasn't deep, but it was long, and the movement had caused the blood to drip down the sides of the wrist and fall to the ground. Naruto didn't reply, instead opting to try to yank his arm from the other boy's grip.

"ANSWER ME!" The blonde caught the other boy's eyes again. Onyx eyes filled with anger and fear stared into cerulean eyes void of any emotion but annoyance.

"Mind your own business."

"This is my business!"

"Since when has MY life become YOUR business?"

"How long have you been doing this for?" Again the blonde yanked his arm, but the Uchiha's grip was too tight. "ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

"WHY SHOULD I?! You are NOT in control of me, you have NO right!"

"Hey!" Instantly, both boys swiveled towards the new voice. They didn't know what they were expecting, however the fairly large man who stumbled into the hallway certainly wasn't what they would have guessed. "What are you two little—oh! Look! ...it's an…Uchiha! Finally…taking care of the demon, are ya? About time! Need some…help?"

Sasuke sneered at the obviously drunk man who was slowly but surely making his way to the two arguing teens. Naruto, however, paid no attention to the other tenant of the apartment complex and tugged at his arm once more, which, thanks to Sasuke being distracted, came loose from the other teen's grip. Before the Uchiha could respond, the blonde slammed the door in his face and there was the audible turn of the lock. Swearing, the blacked haired teen banged on the door, preparing to break it down. However, he noticed that wasn't going to be an option because he felt a chakra enforced guard surrounding the wooden door. Again, Sasuke swore.

"OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!" When he received no reply, Sasuke ran his fingers through his hair and considered his options.

He could break down the door with a chidori or any other of his larger techniques. That, however, would create a lot of excess damage and may instigate a fight between him and Naruto, whose mental condition was already unstable. The other option was to go around and try the window. Of course, it was almost certainly chakra enforced, and though it would be easier to break down, it would also initiate a fight. That left going to Tsunade.

Sasuke swore. Going to the Hokage would waste time, and time was never a friend in situations like this. Naruto could try to off himself, and maybe even succeed¸ before he could return with backup and take him to the hospital to get psychiatric care for the blonde. But, then again, he was wasting time by just standing in front of his friend's door.

"Don't…worry Uchiha-san. Me and my friends will…get back at the demon for ya." In a flash Sasuke was behind the drunken man with a kunai at his throat.

"If I so much as hear you speak in such a way about my friend again, I swear they won't even find your ashes!" The drunken man was so scared he could barely keep standing, but he somehow managed to nod. With that, Sasuke disappeared in a flash again, this time having jumped out the window.

The rain had really started to fall as he made his way towards the Hokage tower. Sasuke hated the rain.

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Sasuke had never made it to the Hokage tower so fast before, but then again it wasn't as if he ever tried to. Despite the somewhat late hour, there were still quite a few people in the lobby, most of which seemed annoyed by the wait. Sasuke didn't even give them a second glance as he ran through the crowd at top speed.

"HEY!" The chunin receptionist yelled behind him. "Arg! Not again. Fine, whatever. I don't really care anymore."

It took him a total of a minute to make it to Tsunade's office, and he wasted no time bothering to knock. Inside, the fifth had all but fallen asleep on top of a pile of papers, but the sound of the door slamming open woke her from her nap.

"What now!" She said as her sight slowly returned to her. "Oh great, you. What on earth are you doing here?"

"Tsunade-sama, it's Naruto." That got her attention.

It only took a few minutes of explanation before she'd called for Shizune and started barking orders to call a squad of ANBU to bring Uzumaki Naruto to her by any means necessarily (alive of course). After the commands were given, Sasuke nodded and left to return to Naruto's apartment. Tsunade sighed as she once again fished for her sake inside of one of the desk drawers. This boy was going to be the death of her.

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By the time Sasuke reached the rundown apartment complex the ANBU Tsunade had called for had already arrived. Of course, that wasn't very surprising considering they were ANBU and they were trained to respond at a moments notice. What was surprising was there was only one and he wasn't doing anything. As a matter of fact, he was just standing in front of the closed apartment door. Furious and soaking wet, the teen stomped over to the ANBU ready to blow up.

"Sasuke-san. Uzumaki is not in his residence as previously believed. My comrades have spread out in search of him. We suspected, however, that you would like to study your teammate's home due to some evidence of the current situation we found inside, so I remained behind to grant you entry and update you if news was to come of his location."

Deflated, and feeling somewhat stupid for having doubted such trained shinobi, Sasuke merely nodded in response and entered the apartment.

The room seemed like the Naruto they knew; it hadn't really changed since they were genin. Old posters, most dating as far back as Academy days, hung on the wall. Most of the cabinet doors were left open revealing their empty contents, though a few contained instant ramen. A couple of chipped bowls were set to dry on one edge of the counter by the sink, while a single cup sat at the opposite edge, probably waiting to be washed. All was normal enough. The teen turned, and instantly his attention was caught by a kunai resting in the corner of the room. Walking towards it, Sasuke saw that it indeed had blood on it meaning…The male turned away from the weapon, feeling sick just from looking at it.

"Have you found him yet?"

"Iie. Perhaps you'd have a clue as to where he'd go at a time like this?" Sasuke shook his head.

He didn't know anything about the blonde anymore.

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Despite it being so dark that it was practically impossible, let alone probable, to distinguish one piece of mass from another, one young Hyuuga had spent the majority of the last hour sitting in front of her single bedroom window staring blankly outside. Of course, it wasn't as dark as it currently was when she started, but it still gave a discouraging image of the girl to the other members of the large Hyuuga complex. After all, if one had the time to sit and do nothing, then one had the time to help do the daily chores around the house or train. In Hinata's defense, she particularly liked looking out the window. To her it was the same as taking a break to read a book or such: just another form of entertainment and relaxation. Everyone deserves a break now and again, or so many believe, though few receive the number they believe they deserve, and after a long day of training and watching Naruto train, she felt she could afford an hour of doing nothing. Besides, it'd begun to rain, and the Hyuuga heiress loved the rain.

In fact, Hinata's infatuation with rain was nearly as bad as her obsession with Naruto Uzumaki. If she could, she would have sneaked out the backdoor as soon as the first raindrop fell upon her window pane. But, that was not an option due to her father's current annoyance with her last sparing session she had with her cousin Neji just hours ago. The girl had preformed so inadequately that her father had revoked her "flower collecting" privileges until she could somewhat hold her own in a sparring session, or at the very least behave in a way that was appropriate of an heiress. (Hinata had a well-founded suspicion that her father knew what she had truly spent her "flower collecting" time doing earlier that day, but due to the fact that she was not suppose to have a guard on duty, he had no way to disclose that knowledge without admitting to his own wrong doing.) So, the lavender-eyed girl had no choice but to settle with just watching the drops of precipitation land on the glass instead of having them land on her flesh. Surely, it was strange how much the rolling droplets of water fascinated her so greatly, after all they were just a liquid formed by multiple molecules consisting of one hydrogen atom and two water atoms kept together by polar bonds. But, the rain soothed her. It was as if the rain cleansed her, without actually getting her wet. Certainly, the dark thundering clouds and roaring winds were not the preferred atmosphere of relaxation and serenity, but Hinata was a steadfast believer that new life follows every storm.

For the second time of the day, one lady Hyuuga had drifted from the confines of reality and into the expanse of her thoughts. Such lack of concentration set the stage for her utter surprise and alarm when there was a knock upon her window. When that knock came, said girl fell backwards from her seat with a loud squeak. She was prepared to follow said loud squeak of shock with a scream when she saw that there was a person at her window, but stopped mid motion, despite her mouth being wide open. As earlier mentioned, it was nearly impossible to see anything besides what was on the window itself, however Hinata could tell that whoever was at the window was moving his hand back and forth in wide motions, as if telling her to stop. Now, it goes against all instincts to listen to a complete stranger whom had somehow gotten past multiple security guards and snuck up to your window at night, but the normally shy girl did just that. She actually went further than that. In fact, she stood from her place on the floor and walked over to the window, unlocked it, and lifted it so that it was completely opened.

"HINATA!" Despite herself, the poor shocked girl jumped again, but held enough awareness to motion for the figure to be quiet. The stranger smiled and gave her a thumbs up. Regaining the rest of her sense, she realized that the figure in front of her was not stranger at all, but

"Naruto-kun!" Again, the figure smiled at her as he nodded. "How—how did you get here?"

"Walked of course!"

"But, the guards—"

"Heh, them? No problem! It's so dark out here, I think even I tripped over my own two feet a couple of times."

"But—"

"Um, any chance we can continue this conversation inside? I'm freezing my butt off out here!"

Hinata hesitated. If it was solely up to her, she'd allow the boy in without a second thought; however, she was in a very fragile situation. Her father had a psychotic episode when he found out she had been staring at another male, after all, just imagine what would happen if the man came to check on his daughter only to find that same boy she'd been staring at in her room in the middle of the night. She would be forbidden from leaving the house ever again! …After Hiashi had killed the fox like boy, of course. Still, Hinata couldn't just leave the boy she loved outside in the cold and rain. Despite her better judgment, which she seemed to be going against a lot as of late, she nodded and stepped aside so the boy could climb in. Grabbing onto the top of the window ledge, the boy gracefully launched himself into the girl's room feet first, and landed with ease only a few centimeters from the bed. After the boy had landed, the Hinata girl rushed back to the window to shut it, lest more rain soak the already wet floor. Only then did she turn back to the blonde, and when she saw him she gasped.

"You're soaking wet!" She squeaked. The boy rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, I was, um, kind of standing in the rain." She hesitated again, but then shook her head.

"Ano, ta—take them off."

"The clothes?" Naruto asked, completely caught off guard. Hinata nodded in reply, too embarrassed by the statement to repeat it. The boy smiled again, and proceeded to take off his jacket. Once again, the poor girl was put in the awkward situation at hand, and she quickly turned away. She hadn't meant the statement in a bad way at all, she merely thought it best to get the other teen out of the wet clothes and to minimize the water inside her room. (After all, how does one explain the sudden appearance of a puddle in the middle of one's room when that person was not supposed to go outside?)

"I'm decent." The timid girl turned with blush evident on her face, causing the other occupant of the room to laugh. The boy had stripped himself of his jacket and pants, but one could consider the male to still be fully clothed. After all, the blonde teen had retained his black t-shirt and was wearing boxers that reached mid-thigh. Even so, the heiress maintained her blush. Sure, she'd once seen her cousin in only a towel before, but that was family…this was her crush. And though she tried not to stare at the boy, she could not help but notice that he seemed…different from earlier. No longer was his whiskered cheeks sunken in, but instead each was plump and healthy. Actually, his whole face seemed more vibrant and well. There no longer were rings around his eyes, no more red among the whites; overall he seemed in perfect condition. But one thing hadn't changed: his eyes still were dead, though they had a small sparkle of amusement currently in them. Acutely aware to the fact that she was still staring, she turn away from the blonde and blushed a deeper shade of red. One could only imagine how much at ill ease the girl was, but though she felt out of place, Naruto was not affected by the situation in the least.

"Yeah, so, where do I put the clothes?" Happy to have some sort of distraction, Hinata took the drenched clothing from the blonde and scurried off to wrap them in a towel she'd used earlier to dry her hair. The girl may have already taken enough risks allowing her love entrance; she didn't dare hang his clothes in one of the restrooms to dry. When she turned, the girl was greeted with a new scene, one including her crush lying in her bed. Had she not changed over the last couple of years and become bolder, this was surely where she would have fainted by now. Thankfully, she was somehow, and even she was unsure how exactly, able to find the strength not to fall flat on her back. Naruto, who seemed to be quite oblivious to the delicate situation he'd created, seemed quite comfortable under the covers with his hands behind his head.

"You were saying earlier?"

"Ano…why are you here? Not—Not that I wouldn't want you here or—" The blonde waved for her to stop as she struggled to correct her first rude statement as if it was nothing, but all cheerfulness and amusement he'd had since he'd arrived had left his face.

"Can't a friend visit another friend every once in a while? No, I know what you meant. Let's just say I did something bad and I've got a feeling baa-chan is lookin for me." The teen smile half-heartedly, but didn't bother to elaborate on his answer. Knowing that it was best not to push him to talk, Hinata didn't ask him to either. It was silent for a moment, but it was not necessarily an awkward one. Truly, it was more of a break for both to consider what they were going to say next. Naruto spoke first.

"You know you can sit down, right?" Hinata, whose blush had just started to recede, blushed once more and nodded. Slowly she walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of the soft mattress. Naruto sat up and grinned at the shy, embarrassed girl. "Aw, come on! I don't bite!" Hinata shook her head, still too embarrassed to actually reply. Finally, she spoke.

"How did the celebration for Sasuke-san go?" The change of atmosphere in the room was immediately evident. No longer was Naruto looking at the female, but at a single spot on the bed, as if avoiding her eyes. The blonde teen's grin had vanished and left no trace that it had been there in the first place. In fact, the boy's light hearted attitude and joking seemed to vanish as well, causing Hinata to bite her lip in anticipation.

"Depends what you mean." She waited for him to continue, but again he gave no sign of explaining the statement, so she continued.

"Did…something happen between you two?" The blue-eyed boy flinched at the harmless statement, and it went quiet again.

"It wasn't…well…something changed. He…I…let's just say, dinner wasn't all jokes and smiles—I wasn't all jokes and smiles." One could obviously see that the admission was somehow of great importance and that it took a lot of will power for the boy to admit, however, Hinata struggled to find what this importance was, beside the fact he hadn't been happy. Before she could comment on his reply, she heard talking in the hallway.

Both shinobi jumped from the bed and stood at attention. The voices talking, though now it had escalated into yelling, were rapidly approaching causing Naruto to swear quietly under his breath. Quickly, the blonde gave Hinata a small hug and a barely understandable "thank you," before he sprinted towards the window; lack of clothing and all. He'd barely thrown open the window, however, when the door slammed open revealing a very furious Hiashi and two masked ANBU behind him. The spiky headed teen didn't miss a beat, and he swung his feet outside the window, only to be pushed back inside by yet another ANBU. Falling to the floor, all just stared at the trapped boy. Again, Naruto swore, this time more loudly, but he raised his arms in submission.

"Fine, fine. You caught me."

As if afraid the fugitive would change his mind, the ANBU strode into the room and quickly hand cuffed the teen with chakra stabilizing bands. The bands had barely touched his skin when Naruto changed. Instinctively, Hinata brought her hand to her mouth in a weak attempt to stifle her gasp. The healthy Naruto who just minutes earlier had been laying lazily on Hinata's bed was replaced by the Naruto she'd seen that afternoon, if he was not in worse condition. He seemed to have aged at least a decade from his previous state, and he seemed thoroughly exhausted. But what truly caught her eye was his wrist and leg. Around his wrist was a haphazardly wrapped bandage, which seemed to have been wound too tightly and had spots of blood seeping through it. Worse yet was his leg which had rows of scars running down the thigh that were hardly concealed by his boxers. Tears could be seen filling the heiress's eyes, and Naruto gave her a sad smile.

"Might be a while til I can come visit you again Hinata-chan. If you don't get in too much trouble, come visit me in lock down, okay?" With that he winked at her and allowed the ANBU to steer him from the room. Hiashi glared once at his daughter, before following the ANBU to show them out. For once, however, Hinata wasn't afraid of her father; she had more important things to worry about.

One had to get their priorities straight, after all.

D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I D: :-? : I B-D

Lol, yeah, I swear I'm getting addicted to all these smilies XD I mean, who knew there were so many O.o (I'm still partial to my normal ones, though…)

Anyway, there's my update! Sorry it's about a weekend late, I had a bunch'o parties last weekend and non-stop planning! -_-'

Which leads me into my other news:

THERE WILL NOT BE ANY UPDATES UNTIL AT LEAST THE FIRST WEEK OF JULY!!!!!!! (gasp!)

Yes, well, you see. I'm leaving for up North on June 6th then I'm going to JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOP!!!!!!!! : D So, yeah, no writing, no time! : P But that's why I gave u an extra long update! (Over 7,000 words!!!)

On this chapter: Sorry if I kinda messed up with the Hinata writing style: it is 1 AM, and I've been getting an average of 6-7 hours of sleep for the past week cuz of all my worrying and planning, not to mention staying up for hours writing! -_- I'd go back and re-write the whole thing, but I felt I owed one more chap before I left, so sorry to all! Maybe I'll fix it later…………

Well, it seems everyone's cool with the multiple endings! (I think I only had one person who said I was being silly XD) And, I know some of you are concerned whether I'll be able to do it, but the way I write: I come up with multiple endings first, rest of the story later. Then I end up just using whichever one fits best, so on this story I'll just use both ^^ If it really become a prob, I'll just do some other people suggestions and make two separate stories, but that seems even MORE troublesome to me X.X

Oh, and I know this is random but answer me this: Who do you consider as the "bad guy" in this story?

Told you it was random! Sorry, I just kinda had a literary debate with myself about it…it was kind of funny actually : P So, I'd figured I'd ask for your opinion!

Okay, enough with the super long Author's Note! Any news or updates I have on when I'll update will be on my Profile!

REVIEW AS IF YOU LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!!! ……it might actually depend on it (*evil glint in eye* *cue evil laughter*)