Chapter 1

OOOOOOO

With a groan, Naruto opened his eyes and started at the vaulted ceiling above him. 'Where am I?' he thought groggily as his eyes slowly slid to the side to reveal that we was in a large empty room, laying on a futon.

'What happened?'

"So, you are awake." A quiet voice said as the person entered the room through the sliding door. Slowly he turned his head to look at the person as they set a tray on the floor next to him. "You…" he said weakly as he attempted to move away.

A black eyebrow arched as red eyes watched Naruto's struggle silently. Finally, the owner of the eyebrow sighed and said in a dispassionate voice, "Be still. I didn't take care of you injuries just to have you rip open the stitches again."

"Why… would… you… help me…?" Naruto asked slowly as pain knifed through him.

"I have my reasons."

"Your… bosses… just…. want… the… kyuubi."

"They don't even know that you are in my home."

"Why?"

"I have my reasons."

Naruto just looked at the man as he turned to the side. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes…"

"Good. That means that you are healing. I have some broth here for you. You been out for over a week so you need to build yourself back up slowly to real food."

"Is… it… drugged?"

"No. If I wanted to harm you, I wouldn't have taken care of you, baka."

"I… don't… understand… Itachi."

"You don't need to. Just eat your broth."

As Itachi gently propped him up, he started at the older brother of his teammate and wondered, 'When the hell did I fall down the rabbit hole into wonderland?'

For a long while, the only sound in the room was the pain filled breathing of Naruto and the quiet clink of the spoon on the bowl and Itachi steadily fed the broth to his reluctant patient. When the small bowl was finally empty, he helped Naruto lay back down and covered him up before gathering the tray and heading for the door.

"Thank you."

Itachi stopped a hairs breath from the door and looked over one shoulder. Silently he looked at him before giving a slight nod and let, sliding the door shut with a quiet thump. Walking down the hall, he entered the kitchen and deposited the bowl and spoon in the sink to wash later.

Sitting at the table, he pulled out his katana and kodachi and placed them in front of him on the table before picking up a sharpening stone and began to sharpen the already lethally sharp edges.

"Thank you."

The words disturbed him. Never before had anyone besides his little brother Sasuke thanked him. It had always been taken for granted that he would do whatever the clan had wanted of him without the need for anything but more orders. Not even the hokage had thanked him for anything even when he went above and beyond what was expected of him.

"Thank you."

Such a simple saying. Most people only said it because it was the polite thing to say whether they meant it or not.

"Thank you."

A child who had every right to never say those words had said them. It confused him greatly that Naruto had turned out the way he had as no one had ever care for him or helped him before.

Itachi knew the story, had seen how the villages acted towards him. A number of times, he had had to defend the boy after he was knock out or injured by the 'good' people. It never failed to amuse him how people could say and act like the best of people. The most noble, the most innocent, and yet turn around and try and destroy someone just because they were different.

"Thank you."

Setting aside his blades, he drew out some shurikans and began the same steady sharpening of them as he had with the longer blades.

'That boy is one of the most determined, loud, and outgoing ninjas I have ever seem. He has the potential to be the best just as I did and all those people saw was a nuisance, a monster. Something to be stepped on as hard as they could, as often as they could.' He thought as he laid down the first throwing star and picked up another.

'He has been an outcast his entire life, shunned for what he is. Much like I was, he is feared for his potential, but unlike me, he is so happy all of the time. He is happy to be acknowledged in any way, even if it is with anger.'

Looking up at the door to the kitchen he listened to the silence that reigned throughout the house.

'May he never be like that again.'

OOOOOOO

"Where is he?! I bet he's just off goofing around again!" Sakura screamed as she lean against the bridge railing as she waited with Sasuke for the rest of team seven. It wasn't the first time she had said something like this. This was the fifth meeting in a week that the spiky blond had missed, and while she was getting worried, she was far angrier.

"Hn."

"I don't see how you are so calm, Sasuke. He never misses a meeting or a mission. And now he's missed five in a row. What are we going to do? We are supposed to be a three man team, not a two!"

"He just gets in the way. I'm just glad I haven't had to deal with his stupidity." Sasuke said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yo." With a poof of smoke, Kakashi appeared with his smiling eye. "Sorry I'm so late but a little old lady broke her hip and I needed to find ….." he trailed off as he looked at the two children standing on the bridge before him. "Where's Naruto? Still sulking?"

"Don't know, don't care." Sakura snapped.

"He is your teammate. We should go check on him." Kakashi said with a frown, not that they could see it behind the mask.

"Why? He'll just be in the way." Was all Sasuke would say.

"He pulls his fair share on this team." Kakashi said, a warning clear in his voice.

"Hn."

"So, are we going to go check at his house?" Sakura said with a sigh.

Nodding Kakashi turned towards Naruto's apartment building and hopped to the nearest roof in one long bound, the children not a heartbeat behind. As they sped across the city, only one thought kept circling his mind. 'Why haven't you been around?'

No one had seen any sign of him since the day they had walked away from him after training. Not one peep. Not a single blond hair, even at his favorite ramen stand. But no one was worried except for Iruka, Hinata, and Tsunade. Everyone else was just breathing a sigh of relief that the blond menace hadn't bothered them.

Arriving at the address he had been told, he found a rundown building with caution tape fluttering off to the side of the building where it looked like cracks were beginning to run up the side. An overgrown fenced off yard extended from the back; tangles of weeds and tall grasses that looked no one had bothered to go in, much less cut it in years.

"Is this where he lives?" Sakura whispered in shock. She had passed this building before, but had always assumed that it was condemned. She never saw anyone coming in or out, or even a sign that there was anyone living there.

"This is the building that I was told. His apartment should be on the eighth floor, number 89." Kakashi said as he looked at the hole where he front door should have been. Instead, only the splintered remains hung on one hinge, propped open so that anyone or anything could pass by freely.

"How could he stand living here?!"

"…" Kakashi had no answer to that horrified remark so he started forward, Sakura and Sasuke right on his heels. As they crossed the lobby, they took in the grungy walls, the litter covered floors, the broken windows. The stairs weren't much better, creaking and threatening to collapse with ever foot that fell on them. The railing was missing large chunks so that for long stretches at a time there was nothing to hold on to.

Finally reaching the eighth floor, they stared at the stretch of hall that showed more destruction than anywhere else in the building did. The carpet had large burns in spots while other areas looked like someone ripped it to shreds with a blade of some sort. There were large bloodstains liberally scattered from one end of the hall to the other, all very old. There were holes in the walls, some small like a fist, others large enough to fit a child through. Only one flickering light lit the long hall, sending shadows bouncing across the walls.

"It should be at the end of the hall." Kakashi said as he started forward, keeping his eyes on the door at the end of the hall.

Skirting around a disturbingly large bloodstain, Sakura looked at her teacher, seeing the blankness on what was visible of his face. Turning, she looked at Sasuke and knew that he was affected as well. The tight skin around his eyes showed that the bloodstains were more disturbing than anything else that they had seen was, and she knew it was the bloodstains from how his eyes bounced from one to another to another.

Reaching the door, they looked silently at the ten locks on the steel door. All the other doors that they had seen were wood and had only the one in the doorknob, but this one looked like it had been made to stand against a full on assault.

"Why does he have so many locks? And why does he live here? How long? And what happened in this hall?!" Sakura burst out, her voice shaking as she looked wildly between to two males.

"I don't know. The third would have know, but he never told anyone and that information was never anywhere else but his mind." Kakashi said as he turned back to the door and began picking the locks.

Surprisingly, it took quite a while to open the door; the locks specially made to keep out most ninja. Only those with the special skills would have stood a chance to open them, and Kakashi was one of the extreme few that could.

Pushing open the door, he stepped inside and caught the knives that flew at his face, chest, and legs. Placing the knives on a small table next to the door, he moved out of the way so that his two students could enter.

"It's so…clean." Sakura said in confusion. It was more that that though. While the furniture was old and slightly worn, it was well taken care of. The couch and loveseat had slipcovers in a dark green that were clean and neat, large pillows on either side to lean on. A floor lamp was positioned to shine light on whoever was curled up on the couch, perfect for reading. Across the room, a bookshelf held a number of scrolls and books.

Not seeing any sign of him, Sasuke shook his head and head for the bedroom door, which was slightly open, showing glimpses of dark colors to the trio in the living room. Pushing open the door all the way, he flicked a finger on the light switch and looked about as the bedroom was illuminated.

In the corner was a futon folded up to make room with a small lamp place next to it. The covers were black with red swirls on them; Naruto's symbol. A weapon rack against the wall across from the bed held rack after rack of weapons, from the longer blades of a kodachi, tanto, and katana, to the smaller kunai and shurnakins. There were containers for exploding tags and razor wire and a huge rack full of scrolls that Sasuke was sure were new jutsu. The entire floor was covered in mats, making it a perfect place to do some training when the weather was bad and one entire wall was a series of mirrors, so that the person working out could correct their form by watching themselves in the mirrors. It was a perfect combination of bedroom and dojo, though it was much smaller than a normal dojo.

The room showed that Naruto was serious about his dream to become the best ninja and become hokage. What it didn't show was where the blond was. It was obvious that no one had been there for at least a few days with the dust settling on the various surfaces and the musty closed in smell of the room needing to be aired out after being closed in the summer heat.

Looking in the closet, he saw the neatly hung clothes, most of which was not orange, which surprised him, and the blonde's travel pack. There were no note, no sign of struggle, nothing missing, and nothing to indicate anything but that he left to go to meet them and never came back.

Closing the door, he went to join the others in the kitchen where they had been looking. "It looks like he never came back from meeting us that day. Everything is in order, nothing is missing." He said as he leaned on the doorframe.

"Something's wrong." Sakura said softly as she looked around at the men. "A fourteen year old boy doesn't just disappear without even packing anything, especially Naruto and his ramen."

"Come on, we're going to go see the hokage." Kakashi said and lead the duo out of the apartment.

OOOOOOO

"What do you mean he's missing?!" Tsunade roared as she slammed her hands down on her desk, threatening to collapse the entire massive structure.

"We thought that he was sulking because I told him that he didn't need to learn the chidori because only Sasuke needs something like it to defend himself with." Kakashi said, a bland expression on his face belying the tension in his frame.

"For over a week?! He missed five meetings, no one has seen him, and you think he was sulking?!" she screamed at his face. "And need I remind you that he had an organization after his head? If anything, he has MORE of a need to be able to defend himself with something like that than Sasuke!!"

"But Orochimaru is trying to kidnap him!!" Sakura exclaimed, only to shrink back at the glare that was directed at her.

"And the Akatsuki is trying to kill Naruto and rip the kyuubi out of him. I'd say that is much worse than kidnapping. At least Sasuke would be alive to try and save."

Turning from the shinobi in front of her, she walked over the window to look out over the town. "About a day or so after you last saw him, a civilian was found beheaded over near the slums. He was killed from behind, but the man had a bloody knife in his hand and a large pool of blood on the ground in front of him. There was also evidence of a mob hat had been there, but no witnesses have come forward."

"What are you saying?" Kakashi said quietly, an intense look on his face.

"I don't know. Itachi was seen leaving the town by the west gate, carrying something, a large bundle over his shoulder."

Sasuke's head snapped around to stare at the hokage, anger burning in his eyes, the sharingan active and spinning. "He was here?!" he growled, hands fisting at his sides.

"Yes, and he may have Naruto."

OOOOOOO

"Can I please have a bath?" Naruto whispered as Itachi carried their dinner in on a tray.

"Hn." Was the reply with a short nod.

Placing the food on the floor, he handed over a bowl of broth and settled back with his own bowl of rice and vegetables. Silence surrounded them as they eat, only the sounds of chopsticks on enamel breaking the silence. Finally when he was done, Naruto turned back to the man that had, for some reason, saved him.

"Can you just point me in the right direction for the bathing room?"

Finishing the rice leisurely with out answering, Itachi studied the boy in front of him as he fidgeted. At length, he put all the dishes on the tray and stood up. "Follow me."

Naruto struggled to his feet, careful not to pull on the stitches, Itachi watching carefully though he was pretending not to.

Nodding, he turned, leading the way down the hall. He stopped briefly in the kitchen and deposited the tray on the table, before he continued to the bathing room. Sliding open the door to the changing area, he motioned for Naruto to precede him.

Warily edging pass the taller man, he kept his back to the wall as Itachi left momentarily to fetch a few thick towels. "Strip in here and then wash up in the next room. Just leave your clothes in the basket, I'll get you something else to wear after I fill the furo."

Naruto nodded and he pulled away from the wall to bend down to pull his pants off. Unfortunately, he didn't get very far with that for as soon as the pants were near his knees, he abruptly pitched forward, and completely losing his balance as the pain tore through him. Just as he was about to hit the floor, a pair of arms gently grabbed him.

Flinching violently at the feeling of hands touching him, he ripped himself away, then crumpled the rest of the way to the floor as the pain flared even higher. Gasping in pain, he became aware of Itachi standing above him. Looking up, pain filled blue met cold black.

"Don't touch me…" Naruto gasped as he edged backwards. Curling up against the wall, he watched as the older man nodded and turned back to the tub.

Turning off the water, Itachi heard the hiss of breath as Naruto finished pulling his clothes off as he sat on the floor. Knowing that Naruto wouldn't get in the furo as long as he was in the room, he turned and walked out the door and headed down the hall to his room. Entering, he glided over to the dresser and opened the bottom drawer. Inside were the last of the clothes that he had brought with him when he had left Konoha.

Rifling through the cloth, he pulled out a pair of black pants and a black button up shirt and placed them to the side. Pushing aside a few more things, he pulled out an old, bloodstained shirt; much smaller than anything else, and gazed at it for a long moment, and then tucked it away once more under his outgrown clothes.

Naruto listened to the quiet slaps of Itachi's feet on the hard wood floors as he left the bathing room and leaned against the wall for a moment before he tossed his clothes in a basket and slowly crawled forward to the stool to wash the filth off his body.

'I feel so dirty.' He thought as he dumped a pail of cold water over his head. Grabbing a sponge and some soap, he worked up a lather and began to scrub his body, slowly getting harder and harder. It wasn't until about the time that he realized that he was crying that he realized that he was scrubbed himself raw. Shaking his head, he filled his bucket again and rinsed before lurching to his feet in an attempt to get in the furo.

Nearly falling headfirst as his toe got caught on the edge; he threw out a hand to catch himself, just catching the edge. He gasped as the pain spread through him in a flash, causing him to let out a slight moan as his vision darkened for a minute.

Settling himself gently, he closed his eyes and leaned back against the rim of the tub. 'That was to close. I need to be more careful.' He thought as the pain began to ebb. Opening his eyes, he gazed blankly at the ceiling.

'Why? Why is he helping me? What does he want from me?'

"Here are some clothes for you." Itachi's voice came from the changing room, startling Naruto enough that he banged his head on the rim as he started to slip under the water in surprise.

Popping back to the surface, he rubbed his new bump and swore quietly to himself.

"Naruto? Is everything well?" Itachi asked as he heard the splashing and then the quiet swearing.

"It's fine." He gritted out.

"Do you have everything that you need?"

"Yes."

"Very well then. I shall be in the kitchen."

Naruto listened to the quiet footsteps fade away before he relaxed against the rim again. Looking at the ceiling again, the thought flashed through his head again. 'What does he want from me?'

OOOOOOO

Limping down the hall, Naruto warily glanced around. The house was very spartan with only the bare minimum of furnishings. There were no pictures on the walls or anything to suggest the touch of anyone's hand but Itachi's.

Entering the kitchen, he glanced at the man sitting at the table writing and edged past the doorway, looking around for traps. Seeing none, he inched to the table and slowly sat across from him.

"What do you want from me?"

"Nothing."

"Bullshit. You've been trying to capture me for years now. Why save me?" Naruto snarled angrily.

"Yes I have been." Itachi said and went back to writing. They sat in silence until he was finished writing and put the paper to the side to let the ink dry. Finally looking at the bond, he ad, "There are things no one should go through." And left it at that.

Shaking his head, Naruto waved his words aside. "It's happened before. Most likely, it will happen again. It's something that I've gotten used to over the years. Since I became a genin, they've backed off, but it will never stop."

"And still you want to become hokage and protect them! You defend them like it is nothing to rape a child, to try and kill them!" Itachi exclaimed with more passion and vigor in his voice than Naruto had ever heard, or expected to hear, from the stoic Uchiha. Not even Sasuke had ever sounded like that about anything, not even in his desire to kill Itachi.

Thinking for a moment, he studied the older man, taking in the clenched fists and the anger in the unusual black eyes. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth and shocked Itachi enough for the sharingan to flare to life, brightening the deep black to a burning red.

"You had it happen to you, didn't you?"

"…!"

"You were raped before, weren't you?"

Standing up, Itachi glided from the room after sending one last glare at the blond, who returned it with a calm knowledge in his crystal blue eyes.

OOOOOOO

Itachi went to his room and closed the door behind him, leaning against the door frame for a moment before heading over to the dresser and pulling out the bloodstained T-shirt again.

Closing the drawer, he went to the lone window and sat down, leaning back against the wall underneath. Placing the T-shirt on his upraised knee, he leaned his head back and tiredly rubbed his eyes.

OOOOOOO

Flashback

OOOOOOO

A young Itachi, about seven years, raced through the house, bursting with excitement. "Father! Mother!" he called as he looked in the rooms he passes as he flew down the long hall. Wheat he found instead was one of his many uncles and his son.

"Well, well! If it isn't little Itachi! Why are you here instead of the academy?" Uncle Makoto asked, a strange gleam in his eyes.

Uncle Makoto was an older man, tall and thin, but with muscles that showed through his sleeveless tunic. With black hair only touched by gray at the temples, he was one of the main people on the Uchida council. His son, Sota, followed in his father's footsteps and was like a younger copy of him. The only difference was that Sota wore his hair short and spiked while his father had long hair that reached the middle of his back.

"I was sent home early because the teacher said that I was to good at the bunshin jutsu to stay for the rest of the day. I was the only one ale to do it on my first try!!" Itachi exclaimed happily as he bounced up and down on his toes in excitement.

"Really? That's good. Now why don't you come here, I have something for you." Uncle Makoto said slyly as he ran a hand through his hair, as his son chuckled maliciously behind him.

Oblivious, Itachi ran forward, only to be punched in the gut, hard enough to be knocked to the ground in pain. Looking up, his eyes locked on the quickly spinning sharingan.

Makoto cast a genjutsu on him and suddenly he found himself unable to move, speak or see anything in the black space he found himself in, though he was still able to hear the two men speaking.

"Perfect, he won't be able to do anything." Sota sneered and he felt rough hands stripping his shorts and underwear from him. "His ass looks so delicious."

"His ass is mine." Makoto snapped and Itachi felt rough hands grab his legs and wrench them apart, a heavy weight settling between them.

Suddenly, he felt a ripping, excruciating pain explode from his bottom. Unable to scream anywhere except in his mind, tears began to drip from his wide, unseeing eyes.

"Look, he's crying!" Sota exclaimed, and began to laugh.

Struggling to do something, anything, Itachi began to cry harder and harder until he began to hyperventilate.

"Shut him up before someone hears him, they're going to want him for themselves."

Anger began to fill him as he felt a large hand clamp down on his nose and mouth. Unable to breathe, he instinctually began to gather his chakera. Felling like he was going to explode from the stain of holding it all in, he released it, breaking the genjutsu's hold on his mind.

But even as he started to struggle franticly, the blackness started to swamp his vision again as the lack of oxygen started to get to him. Feeling a burning in his eyes, he blinked furiously, even as the hand left his mouth and nose and pouched him across the face, knocking him out.

OOOOOOO

Itachi awoke in his bed, his body throbbing and his eyes burning. Looking around blearily, his eyes fell on a figure standing by the door, arms crossed over his chest. Scrabbling up, he fell to the floor, the blankets tightly wrapped around his body and felt a sharp flare of pain in his chest, a pain he didn't remember getting. Looking down, he saw a hole in his shirt with blood all around it. Underneath, he could see a bloodstained bandage peaking though hole. Even as he watched fresh blood began to seep though.

"Wha… what happened?!"

"We found you just outside the compound walls." Makoto said with false sympathy in his voice, a sick grin on his face as he moved over to the bed and it's occupant who was still entangled in the covers.

"You… you did this!!"

"So? I'm a Uchida. I can do what ever I want. After all, you just went through a very traumatic ordeal and are lashing out at anyone and anything. While I'm a member of the Council. Who's word do you think they'll believe? Besides, anyone else would do the same and they probable will in time. after all, your parents don't mind."

Itachi stared at him, fury and horror swirling through his mind, his eye's tingling furiously.

"Well, well, it looks like you even activated your sharingan. Congratulation!" Makoto chuckled cruelly and left, leaving a wide-eyed Itachi.

OOOOOOO

End Flashback

OOOOOOO

Itachi looked at the shirt clenched in his fist and sighed. Standing, he placed it back in the drawer and headed outside to practice and work his frustrations out.

OOOOOOO

Hearing the sounds of impacts, Naruto crept to a window and peeked out, careful not to be seen. His eyes widened in surprise as Itachi flashed past, attacking another Itachi, both wielding katanas. As the two clashed, the first one lashed out with his leg. The second Itachi disengaged and leapt back, throwing a shower of senbon needles, which the first blocked with his blade.

Naruto watched in amazement at the speed and skill that the two displayed, which was high above what the blonde had seen him display against Sasuke. Thoughtfully, he turned away from the window and hobbled back to his room and sat down on the futon.

"Well, maybe he's not going to kill me after all. He could have done it at anytime." With a sigh, he curled up and pulled the blanket over himself.

Well? What did you think? Good, bad, stupid? Review!! You know you want to tell me about what you think! The next chapter should be out soon, hopefully. And maybe you'll keep reading this!!

Shinigami-chan

7/13/08 Dividers were put in for scene changes,