For your protection clean version

Chapter 2

Tear fell down Naruto's face as he ran. He had never intended for this to happen no matter what Kakashi thought, it wasn't like someone had told him all about the nine tails and what it could potentially do. If Naruto didn't have so many trust issues maybe he could have found someone who would be willing to talk about it with him. Naruto didn't want to believe that his Sensei could so easily blame him when truth Naruto didn't really have any clue what was going on.

A few miles away from Konoha, Naruto realized he was still wearing his leaf headband, knowing he probably wouldn't be allowed back in his village. Naruto ripped it away from his forehead and allowed it to fall into the dirt. Naruto knew his life as a ninja was over before it even began. No one would want him around their kids when word of what had happened with Sasuke got out.

Running again, Naruto refused to look back as he left his headband in the dirt. Naruto wanted to cry for his broken dreams but he was afraid if he started he'd never stop. He had to think of this as a mission to find a better life, but still it didn't help the ache in his heart that longed for someone to tell him that it was going to be okay, that he didn't have any reason to be afraid. Naruto just wasn't sure how he was supposed to leave behind the memories of pain and cruelty. How did one forget that they had been beaten time and time again because of something they carried within them? How was he ever supposed to forget all the cruel things that had been said to him? If his team members knew Naruto suffered maybe they wouldn't have been so quick to be so harsh to him.

Naruto paused his running when he had gone a few more miles, feeling exhausted he didn't know what he was going to do. He was afraid of showing up in another village knowing that as soon as Konoha realized he was gone they would label him a missing Nin. Naruto was sure they would send his own Sensei to kill, that thought made Naruto sad. He had always liked Kakashi even if he did spend more time with Sasuke. Naruto supposed that Sasuke was the more talented of the two. Now Naruto would never find out who would be better, because if Naruto revealed his skills he would be killed for sure.

Sighing, Naruto decided to stop for the evening. He had already put a good distance between himself and Konoha. As Naruto lay at the base of a tree he wondered what he was going to do. He wouldn't betray Konoha by going to an enemy village, though he thought it would have served them right if he did. Naruto needed to be able to survive in the wilderness because it looked like he was going to be here for a while. Maybe even the rest of his life (if the nine tails got lose, he wouldn't live long to be sure.)

He wondered if there was anyone out here who could help him with the seal, if that was the case if he found them maybe then he could return to Konoha. Though he wasn't sure why he would want to. The villagers took pleasure in beating him over and over again. The more Naruto thought about it it, he wondered if that was why he was starting to lose control over nine tails. Naruto guessed that that was probably the main reason, the seal would weaken when Naruto was in a great deal of pain. Unbeknownst to the members of Team 7, Naruto had been beaten and left bleeding in the streets the night before. At this point it was a miracle that Naruto even held onto even a little bit of humanity. Naruto endured enough pain that it would make a normal person go insane. Naruto had never truly intended to hurt Sasuke but Sasuke had gotten too close to him. It was only a matter of time before Sasuke saw through Naruto's facade. Naruto refused to burden his teammates with the reality of what Naruto had to deal with. Although, Naruto supposed Sasuke had his family to help him understand Naruto's pain if he really wanted to know. Truth be told, Naruto wanted someone to care enough to try and find out what was going on. Naruto just wanted someone to care period.

Even as Naruto lay there, loneliness began creeping in and Naruto wanted to cry for what seemed like the millionth time. Why didn't he deserve the same that love that he had observed his teammates receiving? Was he really the monster everyone thought him to be? Naruto clinched his hands into fists. It hurt so badly knowing he wouldn't ever have any affection in his life. Closing his eyes, Naruto tried to sleep, however sleep refused to come and Naruto couldn't force the hurt and loneliness away. It filled him until Naruto could feel a tear fall down his cheek. This was the loneliest that Naruto had ever been. It wasn't a feeling that he liked and he knew out here away from everyone it would only get worse. Naruto wondered if he should just give up and go back, but then his mind drifted back to the night before, memories of being held down as the men threw kunai at him, and then when they had tired of doing that, they had slashed Naruto's back into pieces, leaving barely an inch of skin untorn. Naruto pleaded for them to not hurt him. Memories of the harsh pain of them slicing his back, tearing his skin and the pain having been more than Naruto had ever gone through, remembered trying to shove the man off of him, but someone had kicked him in the face, causing him to black out. After that Naruto had suffered through more men throwing kunai at him. When they had finished, they had left a broken and bleeding Naruto lying in the alley. Naruto had somehow stumbled home through the pain, aware that he was bleeding quite badly. He had seriously considered killing himself that night knowing that no one would care if he died, not even his teammates.

The next day Naruto had been stiff and slow in his movements because his back and sides were bleeding from the kunai attack, which had been why Sasuke had been able to so easily beat Naruto. With Kakashi and Sakura across the field, Naruto had known that they wouldn't notice anything unusual. Then the entire incident with Sasuke had happened and Naruto didn't have to worry about anyone finding anything out.

Naruto sighed and shifted his position, the wounds on his back where beginning to bother him again. he didn't think he would ever feel comfortable. Those men had really wanted to harm him by throwing those kunai at him. He wondered why the fox wasn't healing him like he usually did, maybe it was because Naruto refused to let the fox out to harm the ones that caused Naruto such pain. The longer Naruto sat there the more he began to think about his teammates. He wondered about Sasuke's condition. Naruto hadn't thought that he had hurt Sasuke that badly but maybe he had accidently killed his teammate. He knew as soon as Sasuke's parents heard about what happened, they would be hunting him down, especially Itachi who was extremely protective of his little brother. If Itachi caught up with Naruto, he'd be dead for sure. He wondered what it was like to have someone care that much about you that they would hunt down the person that had hurt the one that they loved. Feeling a sharp pang in his heart, Naruto tried to steer his thoughts in another direction. Thinking about the things he'd never have only served to depress him even further.

Closing his eyes, Naruto drifted off to sleep. Almost immediately was transported back to the alley.

"Does the demon want to play?" a cruel voice asks as he picks Naruto up and slams him against the wall. Taking a kunai the man roughly pinned Naruto's jacket to the wall, knowing that no matter how hard Naruto pulled he wouldn't get it loose.

"Let's see how many kunai it takes to make him bleed." the man sneered as the Nin and his friends began throwing their kunai, ignoring the pained cries of the kid as their kunai hit a little too close. Naruto closed his eyes, fighting to break free, where were his teammates when he needed them? Why couldn't they see what he was going through?

"Help" Naruto cried out as a kunai got a little too close to his eyes for his liking. "Please stop."

"You never thought about stopping when you attacked the village." The Nin growled "why should we stop for a pathetic little creature like you?"

With a jerk, Naruto sat up gasping for air. It had only been a dream, but it had been like going through it a second time. Breathing hard, Naruto wiped at the sweat that covered his forehead. He hoped now that he was away from the village he would never have to go through that again.

Let me out!An evil voice said from within Naruto's mind. Let me out and I will pay those men back for hurting you!

"No" Naruto grunted as the seal began burning again. "I won't let you hurt them!"

Why not? The fox asked It's not like anyone in that village cares about what you go through.

"Maybe not" Naruto said "But I still care about what happens to them, especially my teammates."

Your teammates are blind as bats. They've never once cared about anything you've had to go through.

"I never wanted to burden them with my pain." Naruto snarled. "They don't deserve to have to live with the shame that I do." he growled. "No one should ever have to live with that!" Naruto knew that his teammates didn't care for him, but that didn't mean that Naruto wouldn't do anything to protect them, even if it meant Naruto had to leave the village to do it. Naruto would never hurt another teammate as long as he lived.

Meanwhile back in Konoha

Sasuke regained consciousness in the hospital, his chest wrapped in bandages. For a moment he wondered what had happened for him to end up in the hospital.

"I see you're finally awake little brother." he heard Itachi say from somewhere on his left.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked "I remember I was sparring with Naruto. Why is my chest so sore?" Itachi sighed wondering what to tell Sasuke.

"Naruto appears to be having some trouble with the seal that is keeping the village from being destroyed by nine tails. It would seem that Naruto allowed the fox to nearly take complete control over him." he settled on finally saying. Sasuke frowned.

"What would happen to make the seal fail like that?" he wondered though at the moment if Sasuke came across Naruto he would kill him just for the amount of pain that he was in.

"I'm not exactly sure, but I bet Naruto had signs of the seal failing before now." Itachi said. Sasuke's eyes narrowed he was plenty angry at Naruto, his teammate should have known something was going on with his seal and should have told the proper authorities so that it could get taken care of.

"You can have your turn at him when I finish with him." Itachi said darkly his voice promising pain that Naruto wouldn't likely ever recover from. "and probably after mom and dad finish with him too."

"If their involved nothing good can happen for Naruto." Sasuke said.

"Are you kidding?" Itachi asked "They want him to be executed but I bet they will settle for jail time."

"Where is he anyways?" Sasuke asked. Itachi shrugged.

"No one knows. He ran off and no one has seen him since."

No one cares either Sasuke thought and in that moment he almost felt sorry for the other 13 year old.