Naruto Uzumaki and the Dark Path of Shinobi Chapter 6: Hospital Again, a Harry Potter + Naruto Crossover fanfic

"Blah": Talking

'Blah': Demon speaking/ Inner Sakura

'Blah': Naruto's Thoughts/other people's thoughts

'Blah': Harry talking to Naruto

Sorry for the delay again, folks. My beta reader took forever to get me back my manuscript. This should have come out last week, but oh well. There's nothing more for me to say here, so here you go!

Remember: Reviews are welcome and wanted!

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto,

Harry Potter is property of JK Rowling,

Naruto kept running through the forest as fast as his legs could possibly go. The weather had grown worse now, rain splashed onto his clothes and face mercilessly. And lightning flashed every few seconds and thunder boomed loudly overhead.

Naruto ran through bushes and ferns, not bothering to run down any clear path in sight. The plants he ran through tore up his wet orange jumpsuit to shreds, but he didn't care in the least bit.

Harry spoke out to Naruto in a low tone, 'Naruto.'

Naruto didn't answer him, because horrific images began to plague him ruthlessly. Painful memories of his childhood flashed before his eyes along with the lightning that flashed up in the sky. With every flash of lightning, another bad memory resurfaced in his brain. The public shunning and humiliation, the constant torment, the numerous people who had abandoned him which in turn haunted him. Next he saw Hayate's corpse, dementors, and then finally, one peculiar flash of lightning he saw a cursed Sasuke with a Chidori chirping madly in his hand. In a twitch and cringe of fright, Naruto lost his balance and tripped into the muddy earth painfully.

Trembling in pain, he pulled himself off the slippery ground and kept on running.

Harry's voice was raised higher, 'Naruto, stop it!'

But Harry's words fell on deaf ears as Naruto continued to run, much slower now that his clothes were heavy with water and he was missing one of his sandals, stepping painfully onto branches and thorns.

'Naruto! Stop it right now, god-dammit!' he yelled.

"No!" Naruto yelled aloud.

Harry sensed the physical pain Naruto began to feel in his legs and urged to him, 'You're still not fully healed! If you push yourself too much, you could die! Stop it right now!'

"I don't care!" Naruto yelled out as he limped past the trees.

'Where are you planning to go, huh? Where?' Harry argued.

"A place where no one will ever find me. Anywhere is better than here!" he shouted.

'Naruto, don't do this, you can't even Apparate right now! You don't have to go anywhere. Everything will be okay.' he tried to comfort his little brother.

"No it won't!" Naruto wailed, "Our life is finished! It's ruined! Everything we worked for-gone!"

Tsunade, Shizune, Iruka, and Kakashi chased after Naruto desperately, fearing he would do something horrible to himself. They zoomed through the trees and darted their eyes in all directions to catch a glimpse of their Naruto. Several ANBU followed them in pursuit, but the latter soon dismissed them and told them that they had it covered. Once the ANBU had stopped in their tracks, the group pursuing Naruto began to get desperate and tried to reach Naruto with their voices.

"Naruto, please wait!" Kakashi beckoned desperately.

"Naru-chan, come back! It's okay!" Iruka cried.

"Otou-otou, wait!" Shizune called.

"NARUTO! GET BACK HERE, OR SO HELP ME, YOU'LL GET IT!" Tsunade roared like a dinosaur.

They all searched high and low for their favorite blonde in the direction he took off and didn't stop for over twenty-five minutes. They searched until they all sensed his chakra signature up ahead and sped off, Iruka surprisingly in the lead.

Naruto dragged his damaged body through the monstrous, heavy rain, absolutely exhausted. His legs may as well have been lit on fire with the pain and turned into solid iron as he felt pain surging inside them. Naruto's infamous orange jumpsuit was now shred beyond repair as he plowed right though bushes and wild plants. Large holes and long rips were lined all over his final ridiculous jumpsuit, exposing some of his still bandaged skin. The teen dragged his tiring body through the trees as his vision began to fail him again and turn his world dark.

"Gotta-get-outta-he-re-" Naruto panted in exhaustion.

His body could no longer enabled him to run, he could barely even push himself to walk without his much needed crutches. He tried to grab hold of a tree branch to pull himself forward, but then he collapsed onto the ground and into a pile of mud. Naruto tried lifting his head up with what little strength he had left and saw the remains of the forest fade away and his face fell back into the mud. And there he fell, completely unconscious.

'Naruto!'

The search group swept the trees, their eyes shooting everywhere possible, desperately looking for Naruto. Kakashi darted his head and searched frantically for his lost student. He had even removed his headband from over his eye in the hopes that his Sharingan eye could possible help him out in spotting the faintest trace of Naruto's chakra signature. But to his misfortune, the Sharingan probably wouldn't enable him to see Naruto at all, due to the fact that the boy's chakra was almost completely drained from his body. Shizune, as she jumped from tree to tree, got her chakra flowing and ready to heal or diagnose Naruto at a moment's notice. Tsunade did the same thing, only it was much easier for her, due to her numerous years of past emergency experience and her unnaturally powerful healing abilities. Iruka looked down as he jumped off from a thick tree branch, as he spotted Naruto's orange, unconscious body face down in the mud.

"I found him!" he called to everyone else.

He jumped down from tree to tree until he landed gracefully on the ground. Shizune and Kakashi landed nearby him, and Tsunade followed in tow. Iruka ran over to Naruto's side and carefully picked up his limp form easily and cradled his smaller body close to him to provide his brotherly comfort.

"I gotcha now... Aniki is here... It's okay, Naruto..." Iruka said despite himself.

Shizune rushed forward with a glowing green hand, and placed it on Naruto's exposed forehead and performed her diagnosis jutsu. Her shiny, beetle-black eyes were closed in concentration and a few seconds later she spoke.

"He's just passed out from exhaustion. He doesn't have any superficial wounds, just a few scratches and a few reopened minor lacerations. He'll be okay." she assured the recovery group.

Tsunade closed her eyes and said something under her breath that sounded as if she had no doubt in her mind that Naruto was permanently damaged. Kakashi gave a heavy sigh and so did Iruka. Shizune removed her hand from Naruto's exposed forehead and looked over at Iruka.

"He'll be just fine, so long as we get him out of this storm really fast. This heavy rain and low temperatures isn't doing his body any good at the moment." she said.

Tsunade called, "Take him to the hospital right away."

Kakashi took this as his cue and approached Iruka to take Naruto back himself. He calmly reached his hand out and started to say, "I'll take him to-"

And then swiftly, Iruka whacked Kakashi's outreached arm away with surprising strength. Recoiling, Kakashi looked up and saw Iruka give him the nastiest, hateful death-glare he had ever seen the young man express. Kakashi couldn't deny, yet again, that he did feel very intimidated to be at the fixated point of Iruka's unspoken anger. Iruka's pupils had turned tiny with livid rage, and that alone made him looked nothing short of a terrifying monster.

"Haven't you done enough to him?" Iruka stated coldly, as if Kakashi were to blame for all this.

He held Naruto closer to him, protectively away from the Copy Ninja. Tsunade suddenly appeared in between the two men in order to prevent any possible hostility to break out between them.

She looked at Iruka, grasping his full attention, "Iruka, you take Naruto back to the hospital, then."

The chunin nodded in understanding, Tsunade looking more sad than authoritative now, "Can you also stay with him until he wakes up? It looks like Harry failed at trying to calm him down. I'm sure he's very upset and I doubt he'll listen to anyone but you right now."

Iruka nodded again, looking down at Naruto and saw tears mixed with rain on the young blonde's miserable-looking face.

"You don't have to tell me twice, ma'am." Iruka responded with a tone of sadness in his voice.

He then turned back to the village and Shushined away with Naruto securely in his arms, Shizune and Tsunade decided to walk back to take everything that had happened in and figure out how to adjust to the changes they knew would happen. Kakashi, however, stood alone in the rain, down trot at the fact that he barely did a thing to help his poor student. What's worse, he felt that deep down in his heart that he could have prevented this whole thing from even happening, had spoken against Danzo when he sent those two ANBU to bring him to the courts.

'What is wrong with me?' he grieved sadly.

Feeling depressed, he slowly walked back to the Memorial Stone in the heavy downpour of rain. In order to think and process everything he experienced and learnt on that day, and share his new memories with his deceased loved ones.

Somewhere far away in the mountains of the far west, in the center of a giant field that was surrounded by a pine tree forest, there stood a massive oval-shaped Quidditch pitch. The tall stands surrounding the pitch were draped in colors of black, white, scarlet, gold, green, silver, yellow, blue, and bronze. The spectators stood inside of these twenty towering stands that were each way over fifty feet tall. Every second stand would be decorated with the colors of one team, and every other stand with the colors of the opposing team. A loud horn sounded and the audience roared and cheered with excitement as fourteen players rose into the air on their broomsticks. The colorful players zoomed around the perimeter of the pitch and showed off spectacular feats and tricks while still flying at blinding speeds. Some players jumped up on their broomsticks and rode them as if they were surfing, others made flips, and did barrel-rolls wile they waved and smiled at the spectators. Several players on both tams even blew kisses at certain audience members, causing said people to either blush, squeal, or even faint out of excitement. One or two female audience members even had nosebleeds.

After the players zoomed around the pitch three times, an unknown announcer yelled influentially, "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! To the final match of the year! The Konohagakure Reds verses the Otogakure Purples! Whichever team wins this match will go home with the fabulous pure-silver Quidditch Cup!"

The unnamed announcer made the audience roar and bellow in excitement as he turned to present the promised trophy that would go to the winning team. The commentator of the match looked back to the pitch and placed his bendy-looking wand against his throat so as to magnify his voice through magic.

"And here comes our hero team The Konohagakure Reds! Here's Takahara, Sanju, Tobira, Wasabi, Rei, Myamoto, Sakamoto, aaaaand UZUMAKI!"

The seven players of the Konohagakure Reds zoomed around the pitch once again, showing off their scarlet red Quidditch robes, and spotlighting their star player, Naruto. The young teenager was zooming around the pitch, with his scarlet robes flapping in the wind, his feet planted firmly on his brooms bipod, and his hair flying straight back. Naruto was wearing, apart from his Quidditch robes, a set of high-quality armour and gauntlets, boots, and a pair of brown goggles that he wore over his eyes for protection against bugs. Naruto looked over to the stands and gave some kind of salute, a few seconds later they speakers blasted with life and the song Revolution by the British band named Orange started playing with the volume cranked up all the way. The crowds became more and more aroused and pumped with every second they delayed the match from starting, but didn't care, since waiting for the game to start was truly half of the fun.

Naruto and the rest of his fictional team flew to the center of the pitch and surrounded the central circle. The opposing team from Otogakure no Sato took their turn around the pitch when the commentator announced their names in a less than enthusiastic voice. A lot of people were booing at them and their team owner, Orochimaru himself. Naruto looked over to where Orochimaru was sitting, in one of the towering stands. But for some reason, Orochimaru was extremely fat and was currently taking up over two entire rows of seats. He had his own group of followers sitting loyally at his sides, including Daikoku Funeno, the late Sound Five (minus Tayuya), and several Otogakure soldiers, identical to the ones Naruto had to escape from when he left Konoha to find Jiraiya in the town of Pleasure Avenue. They sat down in any seats that Orochimaru's massive rear end wasn't occupying, but was shortly lived when they started to edge away from him as if he smelled of something foul. Naruto laughed once he saw that Danzo was in the stands with him and covering his face because of the nasty smell Orochimaru was giving off, as if the Snake Sannin had just defecated his pants or something.

Naruto looked over on the other side of the pitch and smiled when he saw his Uncle Jiraiya, the proud and muscular owner of the Konohagakure Reds. He was wearing sunglasses and a form-fitting red t-shirt and baggy, black pants. He was drinking a large cup of beer and sitting with Naruto's Aunt Tsunade, who was dressed up in colors of red and black in favor of her surrogate nephew's team. She seemed to be enjoying herself even though she was sitting next to the biggest pig she had known in her life. But at the same time, she looked content to be sitting with him, even while he roared loudly and spilled his beer once or twice. Next to Tsunade, were Shizune and Anko. They were both wearing matching cheerleader outfits emblazoned with the colors red and black and cheering for the Konohagakure Reds. But because Naruto saw these two women as his older sisters, neither one of their outfits had their navels showing or any revealing part of their body. Iruka was seen jumping up and down along with the girls on Anko's side, wearing a leisure outfit that were the same colors as his cheer-leading counterparts. He was heard and seen cheering and jeering in the crowd while the opening theatrics commenced. In the row down in front of Jiraiya, there sat Sarutobi, yelling at Jiraiya for having spilled beer right on top of his head. But right next to the old man, there stood Harry himself. Completely whole again and with his own body, he wearing a set of black and red robes and sitting down calmly as the Golden Snitch and Bludgers were released into the air.

In the time Naruto took to observe his surroundings, the starting whistle at last sounded and the match had commenced.

"LET THE MATCH BEGIN!"

The roar of the crowds helped Naruto snap back into focusing on the game and began to zoom and fly around the stadium in search for the Snitch. The Quaffle was passed from Chaser to Chaser on the Konohagakure Reds. They all showed such amazing grace and swiftness as each player passed the ball to each other. With their combined teamwork and fast-paced flying, they managed to score five goals perfectly in a row. The Otogakure Purples, while they were equally fast, failed to come up with as good a strategy as the team from Konoha. They kept messing up and passing to the wrong teammates. The result being that they kept dropping the Quaffle. But after some trial and error, Orochimaru's team did manage to score at least three goals in the first twenty minutes of the game. After they started to catch up, the Otogakure Purples started to play dirty by attacking Konoha players while they were still in the air, earning them a significant number of fouls. Throughout the match, players zoomed across the stadium, some were tackled in mid-air by both opposite players and zigzagging Bludgers. Before long, the match became bloody and brutal.

"GO! GO! NA-RU-TO! GO! GO! NA-RU-TO!" The spectators would chant alongside Naruto's family watching in the stands as they watched him fly.

Naruto flew on his broom with perfect velocity and precision as he chased after the glistening Golden Snitch. He kept finding the Snitch and chased after it for a while before a player from Otogakure got in the way and tried to either crash right into him or throw him off his flight pattern. Each time this happened, Naruto would lose sight of the Snitch and had to start over.

Following close behind our hero, was no one other than Kabuto Yakushi, traitor and enemy Seeker. His face was terribly scarred from the twin injuries both Naruto and Hayate Gekko inflicted upon him with swords. The two-faced spy flew with just as good of skill as his rival Seeker, but Naruto remained in the lead as he went on with his search. Kabuto was following behind Naruto and trying to cheat his way to victory, instead of using actual skill and searching for it himself. When Naruto spotted it again, Kabuto would apply a boost of speed to his broom and tug at the tail of Naruto's broomstick, earning him a number of fouls. Becoming irritated with Kabuto cheating, Naruto got a very good idea on how to get back. He took a sharp turn and started flying in and out of the towering stands, whizzing and brushing past them at dangerously close distances and incredible speed. Kabuto actually brushed against one of the stands too closely and bumped into the stands multiple times. Until finally, he accidentally let his broom handle hit against the wood of one of the stands. Kabuto was then sent spinning out of control and just barely managed to handle his broom again and stop. Naruto let himself hover in the air and watched as Kabuto spun out of control and laughed.

"Sloppy, very sloppy, Kabuto!"

And then the young teen spotted a glint of gold shining next to the opposing team's goal hoops. Remembering a good battle tactic he had read in a library book, Naruto decided to blind his rival Seeker by irritating or enraging him.

"Hey, Kabuto! What's the matter? Has Orochimaru been tiring you out in bed lately? Given his change in size, I'm not surprised!" he taunted.

Kabuto heard Naruto's cruel and offensive remark and glared daggers at the blonde wizard as his eyes turned red behind his glasses. Naruto turned his broom around and started speeding away from Kabuto as fast as he could fly. He turned around for a quick look and saw Kabuto's purple robes whipping behind him as his tiny black eyes were fixed on Naruto. The blonde teen turned his attention back to the Snitch and flew as fast as he could towards the enemy goal posts. The enemy Keeper tried to get in Naruto's way and tackle him, but the blonde was hoping this would happened and leaned forward to apply more speed to his broom. Naruto sped right for the Keep, and at the last possible second, he jumped right off his broom and leapt over the Keeper. His broomstick flew underneath the Keeper's feet and Naruto just barely grazed a few of the enemy's hairs before he landed back on his broom and followed the Snitch. The unexpecting Kabuto did not expect for Naruto to jump up into the air and ended up crashing into his own teammate and they both fell off their brooms and landed on the field in a messy and bone-breaking heap.

"NO!" outraged a badly-tempered Orochimaru as he threw heaps and heaps of garbage and wasted food at his own servant.

Naruto had scared the Snitch away from the goal posts, causing it to flee upwards and towards the center of the pitch over a hundred and fifty feet up in the sky. Naruto pulled his broom up towards him and flew up high into the sky to follow. Sensing Naruto's presence, the Snitch took a desperate attempt to escape from capture by diving down towards the very center of the Quidditch pitch. Naruto followed it, making a death-defying nose dive. He stretched out his arm as far as he could, opening up his gloved hand and speeding closer and closer to the tiny golden ball as he got closer and closer to the ground. The crowds supporting the Konohagakure Reds stood up all at once and held their breath as Naruto showed no signs of slowing down. Orochimaru smiled, believing that the boy that had caused him so much trouble would end up diving to his own death.

The stadium turned totally quiet as Naruto pulled up an inch before he crashed and then-

"HE'S CAUGHT IT!"

"Naruto Uzumaki wins the Quidditch Cup!" the announcer cheered in excitement.

Naruto pulled up his broom and yelled out, "DATTEBAYO!" in victory as he clenched the tiny golden ball in his fist, it's silver wings flapping uselessly against his fingers. Naruto had closed his eyes and waited for his imaginary teammates to come flying out to him and try hugging him all at once until the crashed to the earth together.

But it wasn't until then, Naruto realized the cheering voices had disappeared so suddenly.

He opened his eyes and looked around, wondering why everyone had gone quiet. He tried rubbing his eyes a little to get better focus, only to discover that everyone had vanished from sight. Not only was the audience gone, but his teammates, the referee, and the opposing team as well were gone as well. As if they didn't even exist. Even his family had disappeared along with his enemies. It was just like something out of that TV mini-series indirectly based on Stephen King's: The Langoliers, only it didn't take place in a random town somewhere in Maine.

(A/N: What is Stephen King's fetish for that place in all of his stories?)

Naruto became worried, he steadily landed to the ground and jumped off his broom and called out to anyone, hoping they could hear him.

"Hello? Where is everybody?" he called.

Naruto looked around the pitch, looking for any sign of a single person to be found. He looked and looked around the area, when his eyes fell upon a dark, shrouded figure standing outside the exit/entrance to the pitch. Whoever it was, they were directly across from where Naruto was standing. As soon as Naruto had spotting him, the figure turned away and ran out of the vacantly empty stadium. Naruto chased after him, leaving his broomstick on the ground, forgotten, along with dropping the Golden Snitch and let it fly away and out of site.

He ran after the mysterious figure, and he led him out of the stadium. He continued running out into the field which the pitch was built in, and into the dark pinewood forest at the end of the field.

Not feeling winded at all, Naruto tried to keep up with the, he realized now, cloaked figure using his shinobi prowess, but the mysterious being kept pressing on ahead of him. Naruto had been running in so deep and far into the forest, that he failed to realize that the pinewood trees had blended and changed into the familiar Konoha-indigenous trees. The scenery grew more exotic and green as the dark-colored bark of the pinewood had transformed into that of the light and smooth bark of the trees from Konoha.

Many branches and leafs whacked into Naruto's face as he desperately tried to follow the figure. He tossed aside one particularly large fern with one of his gloved hands and the forest vanished before his eyes instantly.

He was now in Konoha.

Naruto stood in the direct center of the town square, as if he had Apparated there. He then noticed that his clothes had changed along with his environment; his scarlet and black Quidditch robes and gear were gone and now he wore his distasteful orange jumpsuit with his jacket-part unzipped, showcasing Tsunade's cursed necklace resting on top of his plain, black t-shirt.

Despite being back at home, something was very wrong with the village to Naruto. The buildings were the same, nothing was under attack, and everything was quiet. But that was the big problem, the entire village was completely devoid of any life. It was empty, absolutely, positively, undeniable empty. Naruto looked around, and to his shock saw the Hokage faces on Hokage Mountain were completely and utterly blank, as if someone had taken an eraser and etched out the faces of the Shodai, Nidaime, Sarutobi, and Yondaime Hokage.

Naruto spun around, hearing footsteps coming from behind him. And to his surprise, it was the figure he was following. He revealed himself to be an average civilian, which was strange that he managed to run so fast without the physical advantages of chakra. Confused, Naruto called over to the male villager, wanting answers, "Hey! Where is everyone?"

The villager responded monotonically, "You do not belong here."

His voice, despite being very far away, was heard all too well. Naruto then felt very uneasy by the hatred laced in the man's uninviting words. He began to back away from him slowly just as another person had appeared.

A woman's shrill voice sounded from behind the blonde, "You absolute freak!"

"Demon!"

"SCUM!"

"WITCH!"

"FREAK!"

Insulting villagers came popping out of nowhere, surrounding the people seemed to come out of nowhere and threw hateful insults at the boy. More and more people joined the fray, civilian and shinobi alike.

Naruto began to spin around, being controlled by an unknown force and saw the faces of all those that were hating him and spitting at him. Their voices grew louder and louder as the blonde teen started spinning around faster and faster. In a defensive position, Naruto closed his eyes and covered his ears with his hands, but failing to ignore the hateful crowd surrounding him. They remained in the crowd and shouted at the wizard, knowing who he was now.

Dangerous storm clouds began to form and grow in the skies above, thunder billowing lowly. The noises and insults irritated Naruto to the point the could no longer stand it and yelled for it to all stop.

"SHUT UP!"

And like magic, the crowd stopped spinning and became silent.

Naruto looked up from the sudden silence, and to an even greater surprise saw Team's 8, 10, and Guy gathered right in front of him.

Naruto breathed in relief, "You guys, thank kami, I-"

The blonde then held his breath when everyone turned their backs to him, and disappeared into the encircling crowd of hateful people. Naruto hopelessly reached out a hand to his friends, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and Hinata as tears began to well up in his eyes. He turned around in a weak attempt to hide his face, when he saw his own squad, Team 7.

Naruto felt his legs feel like jello as he pleaded to them in a blubbering voice,"P-please..."

Nobody from his squad changed their stoic expressions as Naruto's eyes welled up with tears. The only person who managed to break the pattern of emotionless expression was Sasuke of all people. The Uchiha heir looked at Naruto with his Sharingan activated and he giggled at Naruto with an evil smirk on his twisted face.

"Heh, my how the mighty have fallen again. Eh, dobe?"

He looked away from the Uchiha traitor, and gazed up into Kakashi's masked face with hope in his flowing blue eyes.

"Kaka-sensei..." he started.

But Kakashi looked down at Naruto with hatred and disgust in his only visible eye. He took a step back and kicked dirt into Naruto's face as he placed a gloved hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

The Copy-Ninja said coldly, "You do not deserve to learn."

He then promptly turned his back to his neglected student and disappeared into the crowd, abandoning the blonde yet another time. Struggling to stop himself from crying, Naruto turned over to the girl he was sure that he loved, in the hopes that Sakura Haruno of all people would still be willing to accept him.

Instead, Sakura looked at Naruto with a disgusting look on her face that made her look remarkably ugly, "You do not deserve love and be loved."

She then spat into his face and joined the crowd of haters gladly. Naruto clenched his stomach, trying to resist the overwhelming urge to break down and cry his eyes out. Meanwhile, Sasuke's curse mark spread across his body more quickly than it did at the Valley of the End. The fire-like marks engulfed his entire body in the space of a second and then it steadily started to transform Sasuke into his demon form as if he were a disgusting monster from a horror movie.

"And you don't deserve to live!" he snarled like the demon he had become.

Sasuke's mouth smirked wildly as he exposed his teeth, that had grown and sharpened into a messy, needle-like structure. Sasuke's tongue had grow to be two feet long in length and turned serpent-like. Sasuke licked his lips and unnaturally sharp teeth in a gesture of a lust for human flesh, splattering torrents of drool and saliva all over his face as his stomach growled and the arm-like wings erupted out of his back and tore off his entire shirt.

Naruto fell on his ass and yelled up to the thundering heavens, "Uncle! Baa-chan! Shizune! Iruka, HELP ME!"

The massive crowd that had gathered, comprising of everyone he knew to live in the village cheered and chanted Sasuke's name as if they were performing some kind of a ritual sacrifice and Sasuke was their god. The demonic Sasuke Uchiha lunged at the blonde like a starving wild animal, opening his mouth over three feet wide, exposing a second pair of teeth hiding inside his maw. Drool exploded out of his mouth and he roared with an unnatural pitch in his voice.

"NO!"

While all of these exciting, spectacular, and nightmarish events and things were happening, Naruto was laying down on a hospital bed, fast asleep. He was now seen tossing and turning in his sleep as the villagers and his friends were beginning to shun him out and now it was getting to the scary part where Sasuke was about to eat Naruto like a hungry and wild animal.

"No-no-no-no! He's going to kill me! N-"

Naruto was about to scream himself awake until he felt himself being wrapped in something soft and warm. Naruto tried to calm and slow down his breath as beads of sweat pored out from his skin. Naruto looked up and recognized the distinct chunin uniform, the smell, and the feel of the clothes and knew who it was.

It was Iruka.

Once awake, Iruka gently placed Naruto down on the bed and smiled down at him sadly.

"It's okay, you're safe now..." Iruka said softly.

Naruto's breath caught up in his throat and lunged himself into Iruka chest. Iruka embraced Naruto warmly as he tried to calm himself. He rubbed soothing circles onto his back affectionately, trying to calm him down as he let him cry a little bit in his chest. Naruto soon began to settle down as he melted into Iruka's embrace, feeling as if the older man had rescued him from the demon-Sasuke that tried to devour him.

Iruka sighed sadly and said, "Naruto, I'm so sorry..."

Naruto sniffed and looked up to his fatherly big brother, clearly confused, "What d'you mean, aniki?"

Iruka squeezed Naruto closer to him, "I had no choice but to tell the Council what Harry asked me to tell them, even though I promised to never speak to anyone that I even knew about it. I didn't want you to get any wrong idea. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." he said calmly.

Naruto rubbed his cheek against Iruka's warm chest and said in his uncommonly vulnerable voice, "It's okay Iruka-aniki. You just said you had no choice, plus Harry told you to (and according to him, you didn't exactly say anything to them). I can't blame you for that..."

Naruto looked around in search for anyone else in the room but there was no one. He was certainly expecting to see Sarutobi and waited for when he would reprimand Naruto for having not told him his secret in the first place.

"Where's Grandpa Hokage?" he asked.

"The Sandiame stayed behind to settle the council down. He's going to make sure he won't make the same mistake he made with his last degree. I heard that he threatened to throw out any of the council out of the village himself if they even tried any propaganda or attack against you and Harry... Jiraiya-sama said he looked really pissed off at them and Danzo especially... After what he tried to pull..." Iruka answered.

Iruka's earlier guilt felt lifted off his shoulders as Naruto sighed and remained utterly silent, but he sensed that something was still obviously bothering Naruto.

"Naruto... Tell me how you feel right now." Iruka said to him with an ordering sense in his voice while also reaching out to him.

Naruto slipped back into his bed, while Iruka sat in his chair next to said bed, resting his elbows on his thighs.

"C'mon, buddy. Tell me what's bothering you." he insisted.

Naruto eyes became shrouded by darkness as he started off slowly, "I've been completely exposed... I never wanted this to happen, not at least until I was more accepted or even until I was Hokage... My life's secret has just been made village knowledge, and now it's only a matter of time before the entire country knows about me like this... Everywhere I'll go, no matter how far I tread, people will look and point at me, saying, 'Look it's the magic-boy!' and 'Hey, do a magic trick for us, wizard!'. All the while, everyone else will just scorn and yell at me, calling me some kind of a freak of nature!"

Iruka looked at Naruto with a serious and sad look while the blonde continued to rant with a mixture of devastation and anger in his voice.

"Now, I lost my supposed best friend, my sensei abandoned me, and it won't be long before I lose all of my friends, because I never told them anything..." Naruto began to struggle holding back the tears that began to come up,

"What's worst of all, is that I put you, Anko(even though she didn't know), Shizune, Uncle Jiraiya, and Baa-chan in the middle of all my problems! And now you guys are going to have to put up with everyone in the whole village!" Naruto grew very close to crying again out of his piling emotions and overwhelming guilt, "...All of your lives are r-ruined, and-it's-all-my fault!"

Naruto collapsed in tears of remorse for what he might have caused to happen to the people he held so dear. But Iruka then placed a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder and lifted his chin to face him, causing Naruto to stop crying a little.

Iruka looked into Naruto's eyes and told him, "I cannot possibly imagine how overwhelmed you must be feeling, right now... But you don't ever have to feel guilty or worry about us."

Naruto still felt shameful, "But everyone will hate you guys for helping me now, y-you could lose your job at the Academy for all we know."

Iruka wiped away Naruto's tears with his now out-rolled sleeve, "Naruto, on the day you introduced me to Harry and brought me into your world, I knew exactly what I was going to get myself into... And I'm going to tell you this once and I'm not going to say it again: I couldn't care less about what other people think about me or what they might try to do. That includes their opinions on who I choose to spend my time with and who I choose to help out."

Naruto looked at Iruka with hopeful blue eyes.

"Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama, Shizune, and myself all knew what could happen to our reputations and our careers if we cared and helped you. And we still did, and none of us regret it. Not at all..." Iruka ensured Naruto.

The blonde smiled hopefully into the chunin's face, but soon frowned, "Life is gonna be really hard for us, huh?"

Iruka gave his baby brother a sad smile and reached out to hug him once more.

"Yeah... Life is hard for us all, but it's the people who care about you that can make it a little easier to endure...You're going to be okay..." he ended with a warm smile.

Iruka's words made Naruto feel a little better, realizing he would have his 'family' to help him down his dark road of life. And Naruto said the four words that made Iruka himself feel happy.

"Thank you, Iruka-aniki..."

Iruka smiled and said, "No problem, Naruto."

In no time at all, just as Naruto had predicted would happen, the entire village soon caught word:

Naruto Uzumaki was a wizard.

Almost half of the civilians immediately wanted to start an uproar, march through the streets with torches and pitchforks and start storming to the hospital where Naruto was currently residing. They were afraid that Naruto was now way too powerful and dangerous to be kept alive anymore, and the only logical thing left to do at a time like this was to put him to death, before he could use any of his powers. But thankfully, the Sandaime Hokage immediately put together a brand-new, fully and constantly enforced law. Every citizen in the village was forbidden to do anything to harm or assault Naruto in any way, shape, or form. The law also forbade anyone to even treat Naruto or anyone involved with him any differently. Should either a civilian or a shinobi break any of these laws to a measurable degree, they would immediately be thrown into prison without a fair trial and be executed should they not change their ways within a given time period and prove it.

No civilian would dare to defy the old Hokage anymore. Not after being reminded of his incredible strength and fighting ability while fighting Orochimaru, and his immeasurable rage and anger he displayed at the hearing when Harry came into the picture. The civilians could no longer take part in harming Naruto the way they used to. Now they were left with nothing beyond scowling at him or giving him a dirty look, so long as they weren't caught doing it.

The shinobi of the village, however, had a dramatically different reaction as opposed to their vindictive civilian comrades.

A majority of the ninja in the village no longer saw Naruto as the enemy and embarrassment of their village. Even with the information regarding his abnormality, they were strangely accepting of him and his differences. That's not to say they weren't entirely skeptical or a little bit fearful of his rumored powers and abilities. They had only just found out that Naruto not only possessed one of the most dangerous and powerful demonic beings known to the shinobi world, but now learned that he holds another power inside of him that would put all ninjutsu to shame with how simple and potent it was.

Some few older shinobi that were in the same generation as the elder Hyuga Clan Council, were beginning to believe that Naruto was some kind of a messiah, for being able to keep so much power kept inside of his skinny body and still remain on their side as a highly rebellious, yet very loyal shinobi. But at the same time, half of that same elder generation felt that Naruto was the exact opposite of a messiah, given his past behavioral habits and demonic prisoner. So ultimately, half of the elder generation, fell in the favor of their civilian counterparts, while the other half remained tolerant and understanding of the boy and his magic.

The present generation of ninja (that were keeping the village running and going) were mostly in favor of their village's lone jinchuuriki. Having heard the rumors surrounding him and Gaara during the Chunin Exam Finals, that Naruto was mostly responsible for getting Tsunade to return, and having defeated Sasuke Uchiha and prevented him from escaping to Orochimaru for power, were all points given to confirm that Naruto was nothing short of a hero in their eyes. Granted the shinobi were still very skeptical of his magical powers, but not in a way that could be defined as borderline resentment. In the end, only a small fraction of the shinobi still held onto their past beliefs that the Uzumaki boy was still a miserable freak.

It took some time, but the vast majority of shinobi saw good reason in this shocking turn of events; Having a sorcerer as an asset to the village could only benefit them in their time of weakness after they fully recovered. With Naruto in their military, it would help keep their village strong and powerful. There was absolutely no reason to be prejudice or discriminative towards the young Uzumaki.

The shinobi, after comparing Naruto to Sasuke's traitorous and cowardly actions, finally realized who the 'good guy' has always been after all these years. And felt it only right to forget the past involving the Kyuubi and forgive the blonde of the burdens he carried, feeling nothing but deserving guilt for shunning him and mistreating him all this time. They felt now that they could take this newly presented opportunity to make up for what they've done to the teen by willing accepting this young wizard and start treating him with the respect he always deserved to have.

The clan leaders, on the evening after the eventful meeting, spoke to their children and the rest of their clans of the news involving Naruto.

The blondes friend's were shocked beyond belief. Naruto, their graduating classes dobe, was a real-live wizard, with a wand and everything else that came with it.

Their opinions of him... were strangely positive... All of them, positive.

To their parents shock, Naruto's age-mates still accepted him as they did before. If not, better than before.

Ino came home the evening of the meeting to see her father and mother sitting down in their living room, waiting for here. They asked her to sit down with them to discuss what they had both learned today. Ino listened intently as her father went into detail on meeting and Ino's mother tried to convince her to still treat Naruto the same. Ino was left speechless. At first, she didn't believe what her father was telling her was the truth. She had admitted that Naruto was a pretty good shinobi, especially since he successfully defeated Sasuke by himself (and she was thankful for that), was one thing to say about him. But saying that he was a practitioner of the art of sorcery was stretching the truth a great deal. She didn't want to believe it. But this was her father talking, it was the truth.

She was stunned and impressed to the point of speechlessness.

When Shikamaru returned home from visiting Choji in the hospital, his father had him sit down with his mother and informed him of the existence of the wizarding world he was introduced to. He and his mother were unbelieving at first, but then they excepted the truth, his mother taking more time than her son. Shikamaru smirked in front of his father saying he knew that Naruto had always been hiding something behind his unrealistic stupidity. He sensed it the moment he first met him at the Ninja Academy. He kept asking himself how can a person be so elaborate and successful with pranks and yet be so bad with his grades at the Ninja Academy?

Then his father asked his son, how can someone have an IQ of over two-hundred, and yet be so lazy?

In a way, Shikamaru felt that he and Naruto now had even more in common than they thought possible. He was really eager to get to see him soon, once he had the time.

Hinata was called in by her father on the same night of the meeting. She approached her tall and intimidating father, feeling as though she had done something wrong, even though she truly never did any such thing. She sat down and listened to Hiashi as he retold the events of the events in the chamber. Hinata, upon learning that her age-long crush was a wizard, she was mesmerized and astounded to the point where she almost fainted. To her, it now sounded as if Naruto came into existence by coming directly out of a fairy tale book. She could already imagine seeing Naruto outfitted in wizarding gear and talking to her and understanding her with his wizard wisdom.

Instead of feeling fearful of Naruto as Hiashi felt would happen, she now found Naruto to be even more amazing in her eyes than she ever though she could so soon.

Hiashi soon dismissed her daughter and watched as she floated away on her feet and sung herself in a quiet, heavenly voice that reminded him of his late wife's voice, "Once I'm with the wizard, my whole life will change..."

When Shino's father came home that evening, he had the two of them sit down and Shibi told his only son everything he had learned in complete monotone. Shino simply stared at him at his father for several minutes before telling him that felt the exact same way he always felt about Naruto, since the first time they met in school many years ago. The fact that he had magical powers, didn't change his opinion in the slightest. Probably because he didn't have much of an opinion about Naruto anyway... Or anything for that matter.

But he was a little bit interested in him now.

Rock Lee, Tenten, Neji, Choji, and Kiba still had yet to hear about the news from their individual teammates. For most of them were still hospitalized and Guy-sensei hadn't yet told Tenten or Lee the news of the meeting he bared witness to. But knowing his students, Guy remained confidant that they would think better of Naruto, Lee would probably want to challenge him to a rivalry of everlasting youth, Lee's way of making a friend, Neji being in dept to Naruto for changing his ways after their Chunin Exam Final match, and Tenten... She would be eager and very curious to know more about Naruto and his abilities, so long as his powers didn't make him insane like the rest of her out-of-this-world team.

All in all, the teams were absolutely ecstatic to see Naruto and couldn't wait until he could get out of his bed on his own.

But back at the Haruno family household, pink-haired Sakura, however, was told a slightly different version of the same story.

She arrived home a little bit wet from the sudden thunderstorm. She had been walking around the village all day, trying to get over the trauma from being yelled at by her Sasuke-kun. She was also trying to get over the tension of Sasuke's trial, believing that he would actually be executed for his crimes. Once the day was out, she finally returned home just before her parents came back from the meeting. They had her sit down in their living room to talk about what happened, divulging details about Naruto's 'unnatural' and 'inhuman' magical powers and extra subconscious. She could believe her ears as her parents told her everything that they had been told. The ones that struck her the most, were when they said that Sasuke was not going to be executed and instead he was going to be sent to the Rehabilitation Center to improve himself being the ones involving the battle in the Forest of Death. The Obliviation that Harry had placed on her had finally worn off at the mention of the fight in the details her parents gave her.

But after they got through a good portion of the story, Sakura's parents got an idea that made them both turn to face each other for a few second and smile.

They went on and on, telling Sakura of their own version of the tale. Knowing their daughter's powerful infatuation for Sasuke, they told her that it was Naruto's intention and plot to get rid of Sasuke since the moment they were first grouped together after they graduated almost a full year ago. They said that Naruto had been pretending to act stupid to give Sasuke a strong sense of superiority. From there, he let himself pretend to act less and less stupid and weak until Sasuke felt that his place on the team was being threatened. Which prompted Sasuke to seek Kakashi-sensei's personal training from there on out. They then said that Naruto got Jiraiya of the Sannin to start training him and took him with him to search for Tsunade. That was probably as close to the truth as they got, when they said that Naruto started provoking Sasuke with false knowledge about his criminal brother and manipulating his way into getting Sasuke to fight the blonde and lead the Uchiha to betray the village to become stronger by going to Orochimaru. Only to be defeated by Naruto, the Plotter and finally get rid of him through the legal system and sweep away Sakura in his absence.

(A/N: Yes this is a bash, but this one is going to be more founded than most out there)

The heavily stretched truth dug into Sakura's head deeply enough to set her mind for a pretty damn long time. She thought of Naruto and his goofy, reassuring smile when he promised to bring him back her beloved Uchiha at the village gates. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows more than she ever did in her life and she seethed in a newly reinforced hatred towards her only remaining teammate. She hated Naruto more than ever before.

Sakura's parents smiled in satisfaction, for they got a part of what they wanted. If they couldn't break the Hokage's new law, then they could at least break Naruto's heart through their daughter.

The next day, Ino and Shikamaru had arrived at the hospital and were seen making their down the hallway to pay their dear friend and teammate Choji a visit. They had dropped off a whole mountain of snacks that he loved, and given him their company for as long as he could stay awake before he would have to start eating and sleeping again to gain his normal weight back.

Shikamaru was very glad that his friend was alive and getting better each and every day, after everything that they had been through on the mission. Ino looked even more relieved and happier than her lazy teammate did. She felt so horrible when she remembered how she would make fun of Choji for being 'big-boned' and ate excessively. She remembered back when she would harshly compare him to herself just to help her boost her own self-esteem.

She thought back to how she would rant on and on about how perfect and thin Sasuke always was, and would compare him to Choji, being rather fat and non-muscular.

When she saw how frail and bone-thin the Akimichi heir had become after trying to help bring back the 'perfect and thin Sasuke', she felt so guilty and horrible for having ever belittled her teammate the way she did. From that point on, Ino decided, after reasonable consideration, that someone like 'perfect and thin Sasuke', was not the perfect man for her to be chasing after. Especially if he was the one responsible for leading her chunky teammate to almost dying in combat. She had finally decided to forget about pursuing a traitor like Sasuke, and find real love in her later life, when she truly knew what it meant to be in love.

Her injured teammate was far more important to her than some old school crush.

After an hour or two, Choji had eaten his large fill of the day, thanks to his teammates, and he had to go to sleep as soon as possible so as to keep the extra weight on. Once he was fast asleep and Ino having helped fluff up his pillows, Shikamaru wanted to visit Naruto at long last. Ino wanted to go and see him too, so as to ensure that what both their father's told them was true.

As the pair walked out of the ICU and into the lobby, the hallway down towards the east wing was where Naruto's room was. But when they entered the hallway, they saw two people they weren't expecting to run into. It was Tenten Suzuki and Rock Lee from Team Guy. The two older teens noticed Ino and Shikamaru walking towards them, they both stood up from their seats in the hallway and walked over to greet them.

"Oh, Hi! We didn't expect to see you guys here." Ino greeted in advance.

Tenten and Lee as they walked up to the other genin. Tenten was dressed in her usual Chinese-style kunoichi outfit, only her usual buns of brown hair were untied, letting her hair flow down her head naturally. Lee was dressed as he normally was as well, only he was wearing his arm in a sling and had a heavily bandaged leg to keep his muscles from straining too much, forcing him to walk in limps.

"Hey... you're name is Ino, right?" Tenten asked.

Ino asked, "Yep! You're name... it's Nine-Nine, right?" Ino asked genuinely, causing the brunette to cough back her irritance,

Tenten coughed in irritance, "It's Tenten, actually... So... who are visiting?"

Shikamaru answered for her, "Ino and I just got back from visiting our friend Choji. So we decided to check up on the others, Naruto is next on our list."

"That's who we're about to see! Want to go together?" Lee offered enthusiastically.

"Hmm." Shikamaru nodded lazily, and the four of them walked down the hall towards Naruto's room.

"So how's Neji been doing, by the way?" Shikamaru asked.

Tenten answered, "He's doing so much better, but he can't get out of bed yet. He'll soon be back on his feet, thanks to Lady Tsunade."

Lee giggled, "Isn't that the tenth time you've mentioned Tsunade-sama today, Tenten?" Lee laughed, "And you say I'm too obsessive sometimes!"

Tenten flushed in embarrassment, "Shut up, Lee!"

She outraged and punched Lee in the arm for having embarrassed her for the umpteenth time, but not too hard for his still-injured arm.

"ITAI!" he yelped and started caressing his arm.

Smiling satisfaction Tenten lead the way to Naruto's room, "Anyway, Naruto's going to need a lot of supportive visitors considering what he's endured lately."

"What do you mean?" Ino asked, but she was conveniently interrupted by a sudden loud voice boomed from right behind them.

"Hey! You guys are here too?" asked the slightly still bandaged Kiba Inuzuka. Following close behind the mad gunslinger were his ever so loyal teammates and good friends Hinata and Shino.

Shikamaru grunted lazily, "Hey."

"Hi, everyone." Hinata smiled kindly.

Shino asked, "So I presume we all wish to see Naruto?"

"I guess so," answered Ino.

The pale, blonde girl looked around, expecting to see her best friend/rival show up at any moment. She was hoping to inform Sakura that she was pulling out of their race to win Sasuke's heart and become friends again.

Ino asked, "Say, has anyone seen Sakura?"

Tenten, unsure who Sakura was exactly, asked the group, "Is she the pink haired girl who yells a lot?"

Everyone answered in unison, "Yep!"

"Then there she is." Tenten pointed to the familiar girl with hair of pink.

Sakura came walking up from around the corner slowly. She was wearing her usual attire of red and white, her long uncut hair remaining as well-kept as she had been keeping it for several years now. She looked clean, and well preserved for having finally stopped going out into the village to let the rain of the past few days pour down her face as she despaired over Sasuke's once uncertain future. As she walked down to the gathered group so slowly, she seemed a little bit less pleasant than usual, or less of what degree of pleasantness she normally had before, starting today. Sasuke's absence was now starting to effect her negatively. Without the stoic Uchiha in her presence for most of the time, it seemed that she would become less and less bubblegum-happy as when she usually was whilst thinking about him.

"Hello, everybody..." she greeted a little irritably, before sitting down close to Lee.

"H-have you come t-to see Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked curiously.

Sakura cringed ever so slightly at the very mention of Naruto's name and squeezed out, "Yeah. I came here to see him..."

Everybody felt a slight chill in the air as she said those words aloud, feeling as if she had dipped them in poison, before letting their ears feast upon them.

Ino then remembered something that Tenten was saying before, "Oh yeah! Tenten, what did you mean earlier about Naruto?"

Tenten said, "I heard he got it bad from the Uchiha-boy. Naruto had both of his arms dislocated and almost managed to rip them out of their sockets. Not to mention that Uchiha thrusted a full charged version of that lightning jutsu Chidori he knows, right through his left lung. Naruto had almost died from his injuries. All of this coming straight from Guy-sensei. And trust me when I tell you this, he would never stretch the truth about something this bad..."

This caused the group to become shocked with wide-eyed faces. Sakura was the only person to lean inward, wanting to hear more about what had happened to Naruto. But it was not out of concern for her teammate's well-being, more rather because she started to enjoy hearing about how much Sasuke had hurt him. The genin stopped half-way to Naruto's room to sit down at both sides of the hall and discuss what had happened before seeing the blonde in his room.

Ino was horrified, "Sasuke-kun did that? B-but how could he do something so cruel to his own partner? That's just-"

"-A low move. An all time low to do to your own friend and teammate." said Kiba, "I know that he wanted power real bad and all, but that's just a dick-move to go as far as killing your own teammate just to do it."

"Honestly." Shikamaru agreed,

"In all in the name that is youthful..." Lee grieved,

Sakura growled and grew angrier with each negative comment that came out of the mouths of these people. The words and snide comments that judged her precious Sasuke-kun, caused her to feel an anger that boiled in her stomach.

She remained quiet until she stated aloud, "That baka could have killed Sasuke-kun, that stupid moron!"

Everyone else looked at her with confused looks upon each of their faces. They really found it to be flat-out unreasonable that she would insult Naruto all of a sudden, when it was Sasuke that did the most damage to anyone.

Ino asked her, "Uh... Sakura, you are aware that Naruto is the reason Sasuke is still here, right? He had no choice but to bring him back by any means he could."

Everyone noticed it, including Sakura herself, but nobody would say anything about it in the future. When Ino referred to Sasuke, it was the first time in her life that she didn't remember to place the 'kun' honorific after his name.

Shino stepped in to voice his reasoning is Sakura's harsh criticism, "The fact that Naruto managed to survive such an impressive feat for you deserves nothing short of great praise for his accomplishment."

Tenten added, "That is still amazing, though. Naruto Uzumaki finally defeated Sasuke Uchiha, Rookie of the Year."

"He finally did it." Shikamaru sighed with a smirk on his face.

Kiba looked down at the floor in a tad bit of jealousy, but he was very happy that Sasuke had finally gotten his ass kicked, "He actually beat up Uchiha..."

"Yeah..." Ino breathed admittedly, a bit shameful of her previous behavior and opinions about Naruto.

"H-he's really amazing sometimes..." Hinata praised quietly.

"You got that right!" Lee agreed enthusiastically.

While the gathered group of genin were talking about and appreciating their blonde friend, Sakura grew more and more angry with every good word the gave to that manipulative pig. She could feel her boiling anger start to get hotter and hotter with each passing second, the heat in her shaking body beginning to give her the powerful desire and drive to explode in a violet rage. She wanted to see Naruto now, she wanted to face him and see what he would do and say once he say her. Sakura wanted to see Naruto happy and enthusiastic to see her so that way she could bring him in with false hope before she would unleash all of her pent up aggression and destroy his heart and body.

But back at the hospital room his friends were going to enter shortly, Naruto was resting in his bed and staring up at the ceiling. He had been debating for the past hour an a half whether or not he should get out of bed and try to walk around the hospital to see if his legs were functioning normally again. Before he could make any decision, however, he heard a low knock on his door. The teen slowly picked up his wand from the nightstand and pulled his covers over most of his body. There, he hid his wand bellow the sheets and held it in his right hand as tightly as he could possibly hold it. He cleared his throat and then called out to the stranger, expecting it to be an enemy or someone who wanted him for his revealed abilities.

"Come in!"

The door slid open gently and in walked in a young boy around the age of thirteen, with pale skin, brick-red hair, barely visible eyebrows, green eyes, and black tanuki eye rings. He wore reddish-brownish shinobi-styled overalls with long sleeves and an upright collar. He also wore a white cloth over his right shoulder and the left side of his hips. He had mesh armor on his wrists and ankles and carried around a large gourd on his back that was attached to a wide leather band system over his left shoulder and right side of his hips.

Naruto slowly unraveled the sheets over his torso and lessened his grip over his wand as he sat up and opened his eyes and mouth in a pleasant surprise.

"Gaara…?"

The young genin from Suna walked in slowly and gave Naruto the tiniest smile that could ever be accomplished by a human being.

Naruto smiled, only his was much wider, "Gaara! It's so good to see you again!"

Gaara stopped smiling out of habit and bowed his head to Naruto, "As it is to see you, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto struggled a little bit with trying to turn his body and face Gaara while also sitting up. Naruto cracked his neck a little bit and then relaxed as he was finally reunited with his fellow jinchuuriki.

"What are you doing all the way out here in Konoha?" he asked.

Gaara let himself stand up and answered, "We received word that Sasuke Uchiha betrayed you and the village and defected to Otogakure no Sato. My siblings and I were called at the request of your Sandaime Hokage to help with the retrieval effort."

Naruto asked, "Well, what happened?"

Gaara closed his eyes and said, "My brother helped by saving your crazy friend Kiba Inuzuka, and my sister finished off that girl with the red hair for your other friend, the smart one."

"What did you do?" he asked.

Gaara sighed through his nose and sat down on the bed next to Naruto. He too also let his feet dangle down and try to touch the floor, just as Naruto had been for awhile.

"I caught up with the boy I had fought back at the Chunin Exams last year. I helped him fight the ninja that grew all of those weapons out from his bones. Kimimaru, I believe his name was. He had died of some internal injury, so neither myself nor the spandex-wearing ninja could fairly claim a victory in that battle. We both equally contributed in eventually forcing him to overexert himself."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding, "So that's how it all went down…"

Gaara then said after a long hesitation between the two of them, "Naruto Uzumaki…"

Naruto looked over to him in questioning, "Yes? But would you mind if you just used my first name from now on, please…?"

Gaara nodded his head before lowering it as he struggled with his feelings, "Sorry… Naruto…"

Gaara hesitated. Unable to put together the right words he wanted to tell Naruto. He contemplated over this for some time before he finally forced himself to relax and went out and said it.

"Thank you, Naruto… Thank you so much…" he said slowly.

Naruto raised one of his eyebrows, "For what…?"

Gaara closed his eyes again, "You've saved me, Naruto … Just as those people that you said loved you and you loved in return… You've opened my eyes on that day and saved me from the same darkness that you've been saved from as well…"

Naruto looked at Gaara with softened eyes, "I… helped you…?"

Gaara then said, "I remember asking you that if it were possible if I could be more like you… If… you and I could be friends… Were you telling the truth…?"

Gaara turned his head away from Naruto, expecting the worst to be said.

Naruto paused and remembered what he had said and promised on that day after they fought. He then remembered. He was telling the truth to Gaara despite being very weak and very tired at the moment, he wanted to seek out Gaara and officially solidify their promised friendship. Naruto did not wish to leave Gaara alone in the darkness for any longer. He now wanted to be his friend.

Naruto smiled, "Yes… We are friends, Gaara…"

Gaara felt it as Naruto placed his bandaged hand on top of this shoulder and rested it right there. Gaara felt as if Naruto's hand gave him some kind of a warmth that slowly infected him and spread throughout his body like some kind of injection. He looked over his shoulder and saw Naruto's face smiling down at him with one of the simplest and yet kindest smiles he had ever seen on so very few people he actually saw smile towards his direction. He looked into Naruto's shining eyes, which he mentally noted to be filled to the brim full of genuine kindness and untold warmth. One of the numerous traits Naruto had inherited from his mother.

There, Gaara felt warm on the inside for one of first times in his life and couldn't resist the urge to give Naruto one of his own very rare smiles, that didn't make him look as if he were a deranged lunatic.

After some time of simply sitting down and taking in the realization of their solidified friendship, Naruto removed his hand from Gaara's shoulder and the two of them merely nodded their heads while occasionally smile at one another awkwardly.

After minutes had passed, Gaara unexpectedly broke the ice between them, "Naruto… Lately, I've been hearing some very strange rumors about you and your recent reputation."

Naruto lowered his head and said with a smile, "I should really be expecting these questions from people more often from now on…"

Gaara said, "If you don't want to-"

Naruto lifted up his hands and said, "Nah, it's okay. I'll talk about it to you."

Gaara relaxed and asked, "Is it really true that you're what the people call a wizard?"

Naruto looked at him saying, "You already know the answer to that, Gaara… You saw me using my spells and curses back during our battle in the middle of the forest last year. So in short; yes, I am a wizard. Not a fully fledged sorcerer yet, but I'm about four years away from total mastery. Once I turn seventeen."

Gaara wracked his brains and tried to clearly remember the finer details of the fight. He did distinctly remember back when he and Naruto were both locked in a alternate version of Priori Incantatem and quickly shook his head to forget what he had heard from the connected beam of light. The voices of the many people, innocent and not innocent alike, that he had killed to prove his existence.

Gaara nodded, "Yes… I believe I can say that I do remember that quite vividly…"

Naruto nodded as his friend did, but he averted his gaze slowly.

Gaara saw this and said, "But you don't have to worry about me treating you any differently… I don't think I even care about the fact that you can use magic… You're still my friend…"

Naruto smiled a smile no one else could rival. Because hearing Gaara say that he didn't even care about what Naruto was able to do, was like a weight off his shoulders. It was a sign of hope that maybe not everyone Naruto knew was that effected by the news of his deepest secret. It was a true comfort to know that Naruto had at least one friend that wouldn't treat him any differently. Now he had one friend that he could actually feel comfortable around.

Gaara smiled subtly before he raised his brow and sensed the crowd of genin that were coming from down the hallway. He heard them sit down at the benches outside while they discussed what they knew about their class clown.

Gaara looked over at Naruto and said, "The rest of your friends are waiting outside. Would you like me to help you to meet them?"

Naruto looked uplifted and answered, "Yeah, could you help me get up, please?"

Gaara helped to pick his best friend up and out of bed. Naruto slipped on the pair of slippers that Tsunade left for him to keep and put on his bathrobe before walking to the door with Gaara's assistance.

Tenten then said something that made Sakura stop growling to herself and come back to reality.

"Hey! There he is now!" she announced pleasantly.

Naruto had just come out of his room his re-obtained crutches, wearing a pair of hospital-made pajamas and an open bathrobe. He had fewer bandages on his face than he did when he was returned to the hospital, and now most of his bruises and facial lacerations were almost gone.

Sakura stood up and sauntered towards Naruto, her eyes shadowed as she advanced. Naruto showed off his old goofy grin as he waved to his teammate and the other genin.

"Oh! Hey, you guys! Sakura-chan, I did it! Just as I promi-"

Naruto's friendly greeting was cut short when Sakura got in close and punched him square in the face. The force of the blow caused Naruto to fall on his back hard, he dropped his crutches with a loud clatter, and he slide five feet away from her, stopping right before another room door. Gaara didn't react as fast as he could have, for the whole thing was so sudden. That and Gaara thought it was accustom to see Sakura hit Naruto like this before, in their first encounter.

"You stupid BAKA!" Sakura yelled at Naruto who was cupping his now bleeding mouth and nose.

"Oww... What was that for, Sakura-chan?" he whined back at her.

"It's your fault that Sasuke-kun is in trouble! You're the reason he decided to leave! If you hadn't always tried to outshine him, and accept defeat then he would still be with me! He didn't have to lose to the likes of you-you-you FREAK!" she roared at Naruto.

The blonde felt the blood drain from his head and felt a lump begin to form in his throat, to the point where it practically choked him. Upon observing the contemptuous look on Sakura's face, Naruto felt as if his heart fell into his stomach and his intestines. He felt absolutely shaken to his very core by Sakura's hatefully laced words. Sakura was about to make a step forward, causing Gaara to step forward and protect his friend, when Ino stepped up to stop Sakura herself. Shikamaru grabbed Gaara and told him to go get some help in case things were to get messy, and had him run back to the lobby for security. Shikamaru just wanted Gaara out of the way, fearing that he could lose control and respond to violence with even more violence.

Ino whirled Sakura around and yelled at her, "Sakura, what is wrong with you? If it weren't for Naruto, Sasuke would be dead or worse!"

Sakura pulled herself out of Ino's grip and slapped her friend across the face, "SHUT UP!"

"...Sakura-chan, why? I went after Sasuke for you... I risked my life for you..." he whimpered in a broken voice.

"Well then, you should have croaked!" she yelled wickedly.

Sakura then pulled out a shuriken from the weapons pouch she brought with her and set her sites on Naruto, getting ready to either throw her weapon at him or run up and stab him with it.

"Sakura, NO! STOP IT!" Ino yelled for her 'friend' to stop, holding her sore cheek and reaching out her other hand to stop her. Suddenly, Hinata dropped whatever she was holding and focused a large amount of her chakra into her feet. She released a great burst of energy from her feet and vanished out of site for a few seconds. She reappeared in front of Sakura maintaining a strong Juuken fighting stance, fully ready to defend Naruto with everything she got. Sakura stopped.

She yelled, "Out of the way, Hyuga! He's mine!"

Hinata forgot her stutter completely, and stared down Sakura with raw courage.

The shy girl chewed out angrily, "I won't let you hurt him."

Sakura advanced forth. Then, Hinata rushed forward at the same time, she psyched Sakura out with a false attack. Hinata stepped forward and then took another step backward and kicked the shuriken up from Sakura's hand, embedding it into the ceiling directly above them with swan-like grace and elegance. Sakura flinched back and was about to grab for another weapon, not caring which one she grabbed next. But before she could reach for her pouch, she was stopped, completely frozen against her will. Shikamaru was holding his own signature handsign, signaling the use of his family's Shadow Possession Jutsu. He made Sakura remove and throw away her weapons pouch and kept her frozen.

"That's enough. You go any further and you'll be in more trouble than you can possibly handle, Haruno." he threatened

Sakura seethed at Shikamaru while Hinata, Lee, and Kiba came to Naruto's aide. Soon Gaara arrived with a few hospital staff workers and their Jounin sensei's.

"The hell's going on here?" asked Asuma.

Kakashi looked at the still-possessed Sakura and the other genin, confused as to what had happened.

"Sakura, what's going on?" he demanded, Kurenai backing him up.

"What's happened here? Kiba?" she questioned, noticing the shuriken embedded into the ceiling, and suspecting that maybe Kiba had done something, given his dramatic change in behavior with weaponry.

Kiba answered, "Haruno's gone nuts, I tell ya! She attacked Naruto and went in for the kill with weapon in hand!"

"Sakura!" gasped Kakashi.

He and the other jounin were absolutely outraged that Sakura would lash out at her teammate that badly.

Sakura had Shikamaru's jutsu removed from her and she turned to her sensei to sharply reassert herself.

"He deserved it! He's nothing but a stupid dobe! He's an embarrassing miscarriage of the village! My parents were right about him! He's nothing but a FREAK!" she yelled.

No longer able to take any more harsh criticism from the girl that he thought he loved, Naruto pulled himself up from the floor and tossed aside his friends help, running away from everyone and leaving behind his crutches and slippers. He turned down the hall with a burst of chakra-induced speed, not wanting anyone to see him crying rivers of tears.

Sakura laughed at catching a glimpse of his tears and yelled, "That's right! Run away! YOU STUPID FREAK!"

Sakura was then forcefully turned around by Ino, and the pale blonde girl slapped her across the face, surprising everyone into motionlessness. Ino looked at her 'friends' eyes with untold anger in her own teal-blue eyes

"Leave him alone!" she yelled.

"This has nothing to do with you, Ino-Pig!" Sakura yelled at Ino, referring to her in enemy mode. Sakura looked at Ino, feeling absolutely betrayed by her best friend.

"How can you do that to him?" Ino yelled back, "He did the favor of a lifetime for you, and this is how you treat him? You selfish bitch!"

While this was happening, Kakashi tried to stop Naruto, "Naruto, WAIT!"

But it was way too late, the boy had slipped right past him and already disappeared. But Hinata chased after him with Gaara, Shino and Kiba following behind.

Hinata cried, "Naruto-kun! Hold on!"

The genin and jounin sensei's were suddenly silenced when they sensed a powerful presence enter the corridor and in came the bad tempered, lab coat-clad Lady Tsunade.

"What's going on now?" she demanded irritably.

Guy asserted himself, "It appears that Sakura Haruno lashed out at Naruto violently."

Kakashi turned around to his superior, "The question is why. Why did you just do that to him, Sakura?" he asked Sakura with a stern voice.

She growled through her teeth,"Because I know what he is, and what he planned to do! He's a freak that deserves punishment for even existing. It's because of him that Sasuke-kun is mad with me!"

Kakashi felt exasperated that Sakura was so much like her obnoxious parents. He made up an excuse for her to cope with Naruto and said, "Oh, for the love of-Sakura, you have to understand that Sasuke is not currently 'A-okay' in the head. Just because he probably lashed out at you, which I think he might have done, still doesn't give you the right to lash out at Naruto the way you just did. He's still your teammate."

Sakura said, "It's-still-his-fault."

Her mind was completely made up now. There would be no dissuading her now.

Hinata and the small group of boys went after Naruto to try and calm him down.

Getting close to an intersecting hallway, Hinata spoke out with an out-of-habit voice of authority, "We should split up and cover more area, I'll get the left hall here!" Hinata said to her followers.

The others nodded in agreement, and split up; Gaara going right and Shino with Kiba going straight forward. Hinata made her way down the hallway quickly, being careful not to run or bump into anyone. She stopped halfway down the long corridor and activated Byakugan, in hopes to find Naruto easier. She scanned around the quiet and almost empty hallway, when she heard a muffled voice. It sounded like someone was crying.

Just when Hinata turned around toward the source of the noise, she spotted a familiar chakra signature hiding in a supplies closet right next to her. She deactivated her Byakugan and opened the door ever so quietly and ever so carefully. And there she saw her crush sitting down on the floor with his back to the open door. His body was curled up and he cried into his folded arms, that rested on his knees. And he sobbed into himself.

Naruto sensed someone had entered his hiding place, but he paid it no mind, he was too upset to care if someone saw him crying now.

Hinata approached the blonde calmly with tears forming in her own eyes. She knew what it was like to sink into yourself when you were upset. She understood when you were too ashamed to let anyone see you being so callow and weak. But at the same time, when you were like that, you couldn't stand suffering by yourself. The one thing Hinata knew what you would need in those kind of times, was a friend to confide in.

Hinata lowered herself down to Naruto's level on the floor, and before she could control herself, she turned him around and hugged him close to her. Naruto sobbed into her shoulder, realizing who it was that disturbed him. He continued to cry until he slowly began to calm down and eased down into slow, shaky breaths.

Hinata normally would have fainted by now, being this close to the boy she had been secretly crushing on for years. But somehow, after seeing Naruto so heartbroken and vulnerable as she had seen in herself, gave her the courage to reach out to him and willed her the strength to stop herself from blushing beat-red and fainting.

Hardly anyone had reached out to help Hinata ever since her mother died. She sometimes had Kurenai-sensei to look up to like an older sister, but it wasn't enough to help her deal with her true inner turmoil and insecurities.

Then she saw Naruto the way she saw herself give up in defeat. This opportunity gave Hinata no reason to let someone she cared about to suffer the same ways she did herself. And so she held Naruto close to her, until she felt his body go limp in a sudden sleep spell. Just then, Kiba and the other boys found Hinata and Naruto in the supply closet, with Kiba in the lead.

"Hinata! There you are! Did you find Naru-" Kiba started to ask until he saw Naruto himself.

But then he saw, what would appear from his point of view, Naruto having collapsed right into Hinata's breasts.

"EH?"

Kiba froze in shock, his eyes as white and round as saucers with his mouth wide open.

Gaara and Shino both stoically ignored Kiba's antics and walked past him to help carry Naruto back to his room. Gaara made a few simple gestures with his hands and manipulated the sand of his gourd to come out and lift Naruto up from Hinata and carried him away back to his room. They all left the supply closet, leaving Kiba behind, still completely frozen at seeing Naruto unconsciously motorboat his sister-teammate.

Gaara and Shino both laid Naruto down on the bed, Shino then placed the sheets over Naruto. Hinata had picked up what she had dropped before; a small, plastic vase with a daffodil flower. She quickly replaced the spilled water, and placed it on the bedside table. The other genin were nowhere to be found close by. The kids and the jounin sensei's were kicked out for having caused a disturbance in the hospital. This left Shino, Hinata, Gaara, and the absent Kiba in the free and clear, seeing as they had left to pursue Naruto and weren't yelled at by Lady Tsunade.

Gaara soon said that he had to get back to his siblings and continue their mission to help provide for Konoha. As soon as he left, having bid his farewell to his fellow jinchuuriki and best friend, he looked back at the blonde, sad that he was now suffering at the hands of the people he claimed to have cared about. He asked Shino and Hinata that if Naruto ever had the chance to come to Suna for the upcoming Chunin Selection Exams, then he should come to his royal residence for a visit, instead of having to stay at a hotel. They both agreed to tell him this and let Gaara leave, feeling comfortable.

Hinata sat down in a chair close to Naruto's bed and watched the blonde sleep for a while, Shino sat down beside her in another pulled up chair.

She couldn't believe that Sakura would do something so badly to her own teammate. Hinata got a tiny bit irritated whenever she bared witness to Sakura hitting Naruto for doing something foolish or making a small mistake. And she hid her upset feelings when her crush would do nothing to stop her and go crawling back to Sakura like a loyal puppy.

But this incident did not deserve a shuriken to be drawn onto you.

Sakura went over the edge with violence this time. And it left it's mark on everyone, including Naruto the most.

What was strange, was that Sakura had absolutely no motive or reason to do what she did. She mindlessly broke Naruto's heart for no reason (at least from the other genin's knowledge).

Hinata felt so sorry for the boy she cared for so much, "How could she, Shino-kun? How could Sakura let Naruto-kun suffer like this?"

Shino glanced to his teammate behind his sunglasses.

"He goes through hell and b-back to bring back her beloved Sasuke, and she still t-treats him worse than she did before..." Hinata slowly reached out and cupped Naruto's hand with her own, "You would've thought that after all they've b-been through in the exams, while on m-missions, or what they've experienced as a team, they would've become closer as friends o-or more." Hinata stuttered quietly.

"But instead, this happens, for whatever reason." Shino concluded.

"I guess so..." Hinata answered, still not forming a solid reason as to why Sakura lashed out at Naruto.

Shino noticed how tenderly Hinata held Naruto's hand, and the way she blushed when she looked at him, and when she would occasionally rub his palm with her thumb.

Shino asked monotonically, "You have very strong feelings for Naruto, don't you Hinata?"

"EEP!" Hinata squeaked at Shino finding her out, and finally blushed heavily and closed her eyes in nervousness, "Umm... A-am I really that obvious?"

"Uhhh...Yes." he answered, causing Hinata to sink her head suddenly.

"Oh..." she responded, a little embarrassed at being found out.

"I won't tell anyone, Hinata. But the blushing and fainting in front of him isn't exactly subtle to anyone." Shino told her.

Hinata sharply turned her head up to Shino in fright, "D-do you think Naruto-kun knows?"

Shino responded with, "Oh-no, he doesn't. He's an idiot."

Hinata sighed in relief, but then looked at Shino more earnestly, "Shino... how can I ever get him to like me or notice me? T-this stupid st-stutter of mine will not help my cause at all."

"Your stutter is really getting better. You just have to keep holding up that same courage it took for you to go and hug and comfort Naruto. As for getting him to like you, why don't you first try to become his friend and gradually grow closer to him as the days, months, and years go by." Shino advised Hinata.

"... Shino how do you know all of this...?" Hinata asked, clearly confused that Shino knew how human relationships work.

"I read it in this." Shino withdrew a white covered book from his coat that read, Miso Soup, for the Teenage Soul. The cover showing the image of an ordinary bowl of soup with a background of two adolescents walking while holding hands.

"Oh... Very helpful book." said Hinata, "But, d-do you think that might work, Shino-kun?"

Shino shrugged in response. Then Shino looked around the room and asked, "Say, where's Kiba?"

"Oh, I forgot all about him!" Hinata realized.

Shino got up and stopped Hinata from leaving her chair.

"I will get him. You can stay with Naruto. Make sure he's okay and such." Shino told Hinata as if he ordered her to do so.

She nodded in agreement and smiled when he exited the door, "Thank you, Shino-kun."

And she turned back to Naruto and watched him sleep peacefully for the rest of her time visiting him.

Later the next morning Sasuke was being escorted by his usual pair of ANBU. They led him to the village gates, his backpack was filled with storage scrolls containing almost all of his personal items from the Uchiha estate. He carried his things over his sleeves as he approached the gates with a grim look on his face.

Although he felt fortunate he was not going to jail, he was still unhappy to be sent away to this Rehabilitation Clinic. None of the sensei's were going to come to his aide to train him, and he was cut off from any other person powerful enough for his taste.

As he reached the gate, he looked back at Konoha, like he did when he first defected from it and he said to himself in his thoughts.

'... I swear to you, Naruto, wherever you are now... When I get out of rehab, I will track you down... I will find you and I will make you suffer... to your very-last-breath...You will meet the same fate as Itachi will at my hand...'

And with his everlasting vow, he turned around and followed his escorts down his road to rehabilitation.

To Be Continued

FINALS ARE OVER! Rejoice everyone, who hath suffered from thy tests and thy examinations-eth!

SUMMER IS HERE! WHOO!

Man, I am happy! Get ready readers 'cause I'll be updating a lot more frequently for the next several months.

I hope this chapter has been good. I will most likely make this a NaruHina pairing, but there is going to be a lot of development for that to be possible. I feel that maybe those Anti-NaruHina fans out there will end up liking Hinata being with Naruto, with what I have in store for her development.

That's all I have for now, guys. I hope you enjoyed it!

Next Time: The Student-Teacher Bond

Read and Review, please!