Chapter Ten

Kakashi had to admit that his plan was neither creative, nor brilliant, but it was the best he could come up with on short notice. And he wasn't entirely sure that it was a good idea.

He had decided that he would take his team to dinner. That part was fine.

What wasn't fine was that he was currently leading Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to a dingy bar. He was sure he could get into a lot of trouble.

"Where are we going?" Sakura asked nervously. It was getting late, and she wasn't exactly used to Konoha's night crowd.

"We're going to meet up with someone." Kakashi said evasively.

Naruto was being unusually silent. He didn't like drunks, and they were going to the part of town that was home to the many bars that were overflowing with drunks every night of the week, especially on Saturday. He was getting a really bad feeling.

Sasuke really didn't care what was happening. He had the nagging suspicion that this was one of Kakashi's plans, although what he could possibly achieve by whatever it was he was trying to pull was far beyond Sasuke's comprehension of the man.

They ended up in a small, quiet bar that was surprisingly uncrowded. A few people sat in booths around the place, and another handful sat around the bar, occasionally ordering more drinks.

Naruto felt the dread drop into his stomach like a bomb when Kakashi led the way up to an already occupied table.

"Kakashi! Long time no see!" Shiroi slurred, taking a long drink of sake. "And I see you brought the crew!"

Kakashi forced a smile, and ushered Sakura into the seat next to him, leaving the seat to his right for Sasuke, and forcing Naruto to take the seat between Sasuke and Shiroi.

The blonde sat down stiffly, looking anywhere but at the smelly man on his right.

"Hey, Naru-chan! How's it goin?" Shiroi leaned over and leered at the boy, laughing when Naruto tensed and discreetly moved closer to Sasuke.

Sasuke was glaring at the man, and at Kakashi, who was watching Naruto closely.

Shiroi stared intently at Naruto, who was still looking everywhere else. He grew impatient with Naruto's silence.

"Boy! I asked you a question!" He slammed his cup down on the table.

Naruto jumped. "It's going okay." He responded quietly, inching away from the man until his chair was pressed against Sasukes.

Shiroi laughed, and turned his attention to Sasuke. "You still looking out for this little shithead?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and chose not to answer the man, instead turning his glare back to Kakashi in full force.

Kakashi was already starting to regret bringing the kids there. He had been hoping to corner them into admitting that they had been friends, and maybe open the door for explaining their past, but if anything, this was only making it worse.

Sakura was watching the whole scene with interest. She had no idea who this man was, why Naruto was so obviously afraid of him, and she definitely had no idea what the heck was going on.

Shiroi downed the last of his drink, and reached for the bottle, only to discover it was empty. He frowned, and shoved the empty bottle towards Naruto.

"Go fill it up!"

Naruto immediately jumped up, clutching the empty bottle. "Yes sir." He made his way to the bar, ignoring the shocked looks both his teammates gave him.

"Worthless piece of crap." Shiroi went on, loudly enough that Naruto could hear him as he stood at the bar and waited for the bartender.

"He never was good for much of anything." Shiroi went on. "He was loud, and obnoxious, and a complete idiot! He had quite the mouth too."

Naruto was fidgeting nervously as the bartender raised an eyebrow at him, but filled the bottle none-the-less.

"And believe me! I tried to beat it out of him! But nothing worked! He's a completely useless piece of shit!" He started laughing.

Naruto hesitantly turned back toward the table, and froze at what Shiroi said next.

"That's not true. There was only one thing he was good for!" The man was laughing harder.

Naruto took a step back away from the table, hoping against hope that the man would choke, or pass out, or drop dead. Anything to keep him from saying what he was about to say.

"He was good for a rough fuck!" Shiroi was absolutely howling with laughter at this point.

Everyone else in the bar was silent, either looking at the man responsible for the drunken confession, or at the blonde who was frozen in horror. Kakashi was in shock. He had definitely not been expecting that. At all.

Naruto was out the door before the bottle he had been holding smashed on the floor.

The sound of breaking glass seemed to spur everyone into motion.

Sasuke launched himself over the table, knocking the man out of the chair. Kakashi just barely managed to grab Sasuke's arm and keep him from driving a kunai through the man's throat.

Sakura was screaming something about how sick the man was, and she wasn't the only one urging Kakashi to let Sasuke take care of the 'sick bastard.'

And Sasuke was putting up one hell of a fight to do just that.

"This is not the solution!" Kakashi firmly pulled Sasuke away from the drunk who was no longer laughing.

"Let me go!" Sasuke fought as hard as he could to get at the man.

"Listen to me! I need you to go find Naruto. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Kakashi ordered.

Reluctantly, Sasuke stopped fighting, and a few seconds later he burst out of the bar in search of Naruto.

Kakashi, after making sure that Sasuke was indeed out of the way, turned his glare to the man who was still lying on the floor where Sasuke had tackled him.

In a flash, Kakashi had him by the collar of his shirt and was dragging him out of the bar. Sakura followed unsurely.

"Let me go!" Shiroi shouted indignantly. "Get yer hands off me!"

"You're a sick bastard." Kakashi didn't stop when the man tripped over his own feet, just kept dragging him along. "He was what? Eight? Nine years old? We're going to see the hokage, right now. Need I remind you that he is rather fond of the boy you just admitted to molesting. And I promise you, if he doesn't make sure you get punished, then I will, and I can make sure they'll never find your body."

Shiroi gulped, and Kakashi led the way to the hokage's house where the hokage was not pleased to be woken up, and where he was nothing short of murderous over the reason for the late night call.

3 ½ years earlier

Naruto had expected it to hurt, but not this bad.

Sir was hitting him, and kicking him, and he couldn't breath.

He was coughing up blood, a lot of it, and still Sir didn't stop. He was lying on the ground, and he couldn't move. Sir stomped hard on him, and he felt something crack, causing an unbearable wave of pain to rush through his body.

Then, Sir grabbed his hair and dragged him out of the kitchen, and out of the house, to the tool shed in the back yard. He threw the blonde roughly in, and closed the door.

"Not so cocky now, are you?" Sir growled.

Naruto didn't answer. He just wanted it to be over. Sir swiftly undid his belt and dragged the boy to his feet long enough to drop his pants to his ankles then pushed him back down on his stomach.

Naruto started to scream when the man slapped the belt harshly against the bear skin on his bottom, but the large hand quickly stifled the sound. He was forced to remain silent as he was beat until the burning stopped and everything went numb.

Finally, Sir let the belt drop to the ground, and Naruto was relieved for a moment, ignoring the man behind him until his hips were jerked into the air.

Then, he felt as if he was being torn in half, and it was undoubtedly the worst pain he had ever felt.

Once again, his screams were stifled, and he had only the vaguest idea what Sir was doing to him. All he knew was that it hurt in the filthiest, dirtiest way imaginable.

And the pain only got worse as Sir pounded into him, harder and harder until all at once it was over, and he felt a burning explosion of heat inside him.

Sir stood up, carelessly kicking the boy out of the way as he zipped up his pants and put his belt back on. Before he left, he spit on the blonde.

"Remember this. It's the only thing you'll ever be good for."

Then, he was gone, leaving Naruto alone and bleeding in the dark.

Naruto finally got the strength to move a few hours later. He pulled up his pants, trying to ignore the puddle of blood that had become sticky around him. He tried to ignore the pain every movement caused, and he tried to ignore the fresh blood that was still oozing steadily down his legs.

He passed out once on his way out of the shed. When he came to again, he left the foster home as fast as he could.

He felt so dirty, and he wasn't quite sure why.

What he did know, though, was that he was still alive. And that meant he was a complete and total failure.

Deciding that he couldn't give up, Naruto slowly wandered the city, looking for anything that could help him do what he needed to do.

At this point, Kyuubi suddenly made his way into the boys mind. He was down right frantic. Naruto ignored him when he said that this wasn't the right answer. Naruto knew it was the only answer. He just had to find it.

That answer came outside of a bar.

Now, Naruto didn't know that at two in the morning the bars closed. He didn't know that the ninja he was currently looking at was completely wasted. He did know that said ninja was an expert on killing, and therefore knew exactly how Naruto needed to die.

"What they hell do you want?" The man asked unsteadily when Naruto pulled on his sleeve.

"I need to die." He told the man. "But I don't know how. I need help."

The man snorted, barely glancing at the kid. He didn't look like he was going to respond, but a second later he handed Naruto a little pouch.

"These should do the trick kid. Very strong poison."

Naruto took the pouch from the man, and decided to ask another question before the man stumbled away.

"Will it hurt this time?"

He look down at the kid, seeming to try to grasp the seriousness of what was happening and giving up. "Probably. I can't imaging it'd feel pleasant."

Naruto nodded, and emptied the pouch into his mouth, swallowing despite the bitter taste.

This seemed to make the man sober up a little, because he suddenly looked horrified.

"What they hell do you think you're doing!"

Naruto winced when he yelled, and slowly backed away.

"You can't just eat that stuff! It'll kill you!" The guy was going into full blown panic mode.

"I want it to kill me." Naruto said pointedly, putting more distance between him and the man.

All at once, he suddenly felt hot. Very hot. He was burning on the inside. He yelled loudly, and fell to his knees.

In a split second, the man had picked him up and was dashing over the rooftops. Naruto screamed and yelled, and kicked and cried, but the man still didn't put him down. He didn't stop running until they were at the hospital.