Chapter 3 of I'm Leaving You Behind

Reading Format: ½, it makes it easier to read, and it looks longer that way ^_^

Disclaimer: I know this sounds weird, but I'm glad that I don't own Naruto, because I would have given up on it a while ago ^_^"

Previous: A storm is coming and Konoha is preparing for it. Naruto has been training and travelling all through the night and is now dreaming about Sakura's smile. Sakura and little Nato have some bonding time together. Sakura breaks down in front of Nato, and he helps her again. The storm has started and it's raining, heavily.

Help: The Italics (wonky writing) is the flashback/memory.

Chasing After You

There was another reason why the blonde really liked Sakura, the first reason was because he thought that she was really pretty and kind, but when she met Sasuke she only showed her kind side to him. The second reason was from a vague memory from his past. While Naruto was thinking about her in his dreams, he relived the painful, but happy, memory again.

(AN: listen to "Sadness and Sorrow" from Toshiro Masuda)

A blonde boy was at the playground, there were about 8 more boys and girls playing there as well, but they all seemed to avoid the little blonde boy. Their parents said that they shouldn't go near him, so they ignored him and played with their friends, never knowing the true reason why their parents didn't want them to go near him. The blonde boy was sitting against a tree, he had his legs up against his chest and had his little arms wrapped around his shins. He looked lonely, his ocean blue eyes seemed to send a message to anyone who bothered to look at him. 'Please be my friend, I'm lonely and weak.'

That was what his eyes said, the blonde noticed a boy his age walk past him, he gave the other boy a hopeful look, only to be sniggered at. Tears formed in the young blondes eyes and he quickly buried his face in his knees. Naruto's shoulders shook and he began to cry, he was breaking down, no! he mustn't! That would just make everyone laugh at him again, he didn't want that. He wanted to have a mommy and daddy, and an older brother or sister to play with. He wanted to go exploring with daddy, he wanted mommy to hug him. He wanted to play 'ninja' with his siblings.

'Where are my family?!' he thought. He was lonely, too lonely.

"Hey are you okay?" the blonde's head shot up at the sound of the voice. He quickly realised that the was still crying and that the evidence was still on his face and whiskered cheeks, he wiped it away with his left hand. He looked up at the girl in front of him, she had dark pink cherry coloured hair (AN: her hair gets lighter when she gets older) and pretty lime eyes. Naruto blushed a little, he had never seen such a pretty girl before.

"I-I'm not lo-lone-ly, ju-just fo-rget a-about m-me." The young Naruto said, he was afraid and nervous, last time someone had said that to him they had said that he should shut up and dissapear. So he said just what they wanted to hear. The pinkette frowned, Naruto instantly cowered under her firm gaze, was she going to bully him? Was she going to spit on him? Was she going to hit him, just like the other grown-ups did? What was she going to do to him?!

She did something that he never would have thought of.

The young pinkette bent down and put one of her fragile hands on his right shoulder. Naruto flinched, was she going to slap him now? A small whimper came out of his lips, he was really afraid of her now, the pinkette sensed his distress and her lips pulled down into a more pronounced frown. "Why are you alone?" the question tore through the little blonde's mind like a rampaging bull. "Where are your parents? Where is your family?" Again, the question only seemed to hurt him more, and more inside his brain.

The blonde thought about the pinkette's questions for a long and hard time. Where were his parents? Where mommy and daddy perhaps in heaven? If so, what about his family? All families have a mommy, a daddy, a brother or sister, a grandma, a grandad, an auntie, an uncle and some cousins. But where where his? Perhaps they were also in heaven?

"I ... I don't k-know whe-re m-m-my mo-mmy and da-ddy are, or my family, do y-you know where th-ey are?" The little girl's face changed, she was looking at him with, ... with pity. "Don't you have any friends then?" Naruto suppresed the urge to cry again, it wasn't working. His throught felt raw and dry, and his eyes hurt a bit and his vision was slightly blurry. It didn't help him that some of the childeren that were at the playground were looking at him and the little pink haired girl.

"N-no. I've always be-been on my own. But I want to see my mommy and daddy, I don't want to be lone-ly anymore." Naruto hiccuped. He buried his face in his knees again and cried his heart out, not loudly, but silently, the only indication that he was cying was the fact that his shoulders were shaking and that a few unsuppressed sobs came from his mouth. The pink haired girl hadn't come to see if he was okay, she came here to bully him.

Nobody loved him, he would always be on his own, always be bullied, always be the demon that the grown-ups called him, always look at the playing childeren from afar, always sit on the lonely swing under the tree and have no one to push him, have no one to cheer him up. He was going to be alone for the rest of his life and he knew it.

"Then ..." there was silence, Naruto stopped crying, was she going to call her friends over so that they could also bully him?

"Do you want to be my friend? I'm also lonely, but no one knows that I'm lonely." Naruto creased crying comepletly now and was looking at the pinkette with a never seen before emotion. Love.

"Do you want to be my friend?" the pinkette repeated herself to make sure th\t he hadn't misunderstood her. "Y-ye-s please!" New tears started to form in the little blonde's blue eyes, this time the tears weren't because he was lonely, this time it was because he was really, really happy. The little blonde boy sat up properly and gave the pinkette a big, smothering, warm hug. She retuned it, they both began to cry quietly. "I'm happy that I've got a friend now. My name is Haruno Sakura."

"Me too. My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" they stopped being friends 3 months after Sakura was introduced to Sasuke. "I don't think that we should be friends anymore Naruto."

The memory dissapeared and everything was just black. The 17-year-old Uzumaki Naruto was now sleeping under a cherry tree in the middle of a storm. A single tear escaped the young Uzumaki's eyelid.

Little Nato was resting on the windowsil of Sakura's bedroom window. Sakura was busy writing a report about one of her latest B-rank missions, her thoughts strayed away from what she was supposed to be doing and she found herself staring at the back of little Nato. She remembered the time when she had first met Uzumaki Naruto, they were both 5 at the time, and she broke their friendship at the age of 8.

3 years, 3 years had she been friends with one Uzumaki Naruto, and she had spoiled it when she had fallen in love with Uchiha Sasuke. She alwasy had a shoulder to cry on when the other girls made fun of her hair or her forehead. Naruto had always to her that her forehead did not look big at all, they were just saying that because she had a beautiful face.

She had spent 5 years chasing after Sasuke, she was apparently head over heels in love with him. But now she knew better, he was just a revenge seeking bastard that only thought about his clan and his older brother.

"I'm not going to keep on chasing after you Sasuke, you where never there for me, but Naruto was. I've been incredebly dense haven't I, little Nato-kun?" The little fox kit stopped lookin gup at the crying heavens and leapt over to his master. Nato curled up into her lap and she began to stroke his crimson red fur. "Nato, that tickles." Sakura giggled, Nato had began to lick her fingers while she was stroking him.

"I think that if our own little fox doesn't return in one year that I'm going to go chase after him." Nato looked at her in a confused way, as if to say "Who's the other fox?" Sakura giggled at the fox kit's face, it looked a lot how Naruto would look when he was forced to eat vegetables. "The other big fox is Uzumaki Naruto, he's your other friend."

AN: OK so chapter 3 is up people! I can't believe how many people have put this onto their favourets!

So far I've had 5 Favourites, 3 Story Alerts and 2 Reviews! Thank you every body who bothered to read this stuff.

I hope that you liked how I made Naruto's lonelyness more clear and from his point of view. Can you tell me if it seems like Naruto is explaining his fear correctly? I'd like that.

SHANNARO! The nest chapter will be called: "Hold Me Tight"

Did you know that our little Haruno Sakura is afraid of thunderstorms?

And Uzumaki Naruto is all out in the open, he could be in danger out there.

Chapter 1: I'm Leaving

Chapter 2: Wait For Me

Chapter 3: Chasing After You

Chapter 4: Coming Soon

Can you please do me favour?

Can some of you guys think up of an Japanese name? Please? I'm gonna need it in the next (or the one after that) chapter.