Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. *sob* I also don't own any of the songs used.

Chapter Eight

Boom, boom, boom!

Naruto and Kaa-san shot up in their seats around Naruto's big boy table when they heard the loud knock on the front door. Kushina looked down the hall and frowned, then told Naruto to stay where he was as she went to check it out. He did as he was told and picked up the bottle of paint he dropped when the noise scared him. He wasn't worried about his mom. She was the protector, she could handle herself.

There was a scream and Naruto jumped again, once again dropping the bottle of red paint on the ground. A little bit of gooey mess came out and got on the carpet and Naruto bit his lip, knowing Kaa-san would be mad when she saw it. But he left it on the floor and walked down the hallway to see what had made the noise.

He saw Kushina on her knees, hands clasped in front of her chest as she stared up at a man that Naruto didn't know. Half of his face was horribly disfigured, scarred like the rings around a tree trunk. His eyes were scary and red and he was glaring at his mom. "What do you mean he isn't here?" He had something like a knife in his hand and was pointing it at Kushina.

Naruto got scared. "Mom!" he called.

Kushina's head flashed towards her little pride and joy. "Naruto-kun, go back in the other room. Mommy's going to be okay, alright honey? Go finish your paints."

But Naruto knew better. He knew that knives only hurt people and if the man was pointing a knife at his mom then he wanted to hurt her. And he wouldn't let him. He wouldn't.

"Get away from her!" he screamed, running at the man. He got within reach of his pants' leg before he was snatched up by the back of his shirt. He heard Kushina scream for him as he was pressed against the rough chest of the evil man and the blade was pressed to his cheek.

"Where... Is... Minato?" The man growled. Naruto winced as the blade was dragged roughly across his face.

Terrified tears began coursing down Kushina's cheeks. "I-I don't know. He left this morning and - "

"Mom!" Naruto screamed as a symmetrical line was carved into his face on the opposite cheek.

"You'd better figure it out soon because the next slash is across his throat," the man threatened.

"Please, don't touch him. I-I'll call Minato, okay? I'll make him come home. Just please don't hurt my baby anymore," Kushina begged.

The blade touched Naruto's skin again a little below the still bleeding mark he just made. "Hurry it up. Every thirty seconds that passes, I'm carving a new scar in Naru-chan's pretty little features." He said the adorable nickname mockingly.

Kushina nodded vigorously and looked hesitant to leave Naruto alone with the man but quickly dashed into the kitchen to call her husband. Before she would return, Naruto would have earned three more bleeding lines. His face was coated in fresh blood and hot, salty tears.

"He's on his way," Kushina said shakily. She held her hands out, body shaking, for her son. "P-Please, let me hold my son."

The man dropped Naruto like a sack of potatoes and through his tears the little blonde was able to find himself in his mother's arms. "Kaa-san," he weeped, gripping her tightly.

Kushina rubbed his back. "Shh, it's alright, Naruto-kun, my sweet little boy. Everything will be alright. Daddy will be here soon, my darling," she whispered. "Everything will be alright."

The man's voice echoed from where he still stood towering above them. "Now, Now, Kushina. Don't make promises to the little guy that you can't keep."

BANG!

[Dream over]

Naruto shot upright, his body shaking and breaking out into a cold sweat. He looked around the dim room to see that his roommates were all sleeping soundly and undisturbed by his tossing and turning. He bit his lip and got out of bed, tiptoeing over to Sasuke who he normally went to when he had nightmares. But he paused right before shaking him awake and thought better of it. Instead he went to his own dresser drawer, retrieved a photo or two, and raced out of his room.

[Across the hall]

Sakura was sound asleep when she first heard the timid knock at the door. At first she thought she dreamed it and resolved to go back to sleep but the little noise persisted for about five minutes off and on. Until finally she got out of bed and stumbled angrily towards the door. Someone had better be dying or bleeding internally.

But when she opened the door she was shocked to see a trembling Naruto standing in the hallway clad in a pair of orange and green frog boxers, a black T-shirt, and a black pajama hat with an angry looking face on it.

"Naruto? What are you doing here? Do you have any idea what time it is?" She asked, trying to sound annoyed while hiding the blush on her face at seeing Naruto in his boxers. She hadn't really spoken to him since he asked her out two days ago and wasn't expecting the next sight she saw of him to be him in his underwear.

"It's late, I know. But can I come in for just a second? I wanna talk to you."

"My roommates are asleep."

"Please? We can go in your bathroom or something. But I really need to talk to you. It's important."

Curiosity beat out aggravation at this point. She wanted to know what was so important that he had to come visit right then. So she sighed and stepped out of the way so he could come in the room. And for his part, he was courteous about her sleeping roomies and tiptoed all the way to the bathroom on the other side of the room. Skaura shut and locked the door and followed him.

She found him seated on the edge of the bathtub, staring at two pictures in his hands. "What are those?" she asked.

Naruto looked up at her and slowly turned the pictures around so she could see. One was of a smiling blue eyed woman with shocking red hair and a giant grin on her face. It didn't take Sakura long to realize that she was pregnant in the picture - she was huge! And she always used to think that Naruto got his eye color from his dad but when she saw this woman's eyes she instantly found that the deep, bottomless blue of Naruto's matched almost perfectly with this woman's. She must have been his mom. The other picture was a photo of her, eyes squinted shut as she laughed heartily in mid-run, probably being chased by someone out of the picture. It was an ugly shot in her mind and she wondered why he had it.

Before she could ask, he said, "I usually keep them in my wallet side by side but ever since I got back I just left them in my sock drawer. They were buried pretty deep under a bunch of tube socks." He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here, Naruto?" she asked. She didn't know why stalker pictures of her in his underwear drawer was so important that he had to stop by in the middle of the night.

Naruto looked up and for a second she thought that his eyes were shining. "I need someone to talk to and you're the only person I could think of," he whispered softly.

She couldn't say no to that face. She sat down beside him and touched his shoulder. "Okay then. Shoot."

"You have to swear that nothing I say to you will be said to anyone else. Not Hinata, not Ino, not Tenten. Okay?"

"Okay Naruto, I swear."

The blonde haired blue eyed rockstar inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. "I don't know where to even start. So I guess from the beginning's good enough... My dad isn't doing too well."

"Minato-sensei?"

"Do I have any other dads that I don't know about?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. He sighed. "Yeah, him. He can't take care of the business on his own anymore. And the way everyone's talking, he's not going to get better."

Sakura instantly felt sympathy for him. "Oh Naruto-kun, I'm so sorry," she tried to console him.

He waved her off. "Ever since I've been back Tsunade-baa-chan and Ero-sen - I mean, Lady Tsunade and Jiraiya-sama have been trying to groom me into the perfect businessman. But I can't even tie a stupid tie. How am I supposed to be half as great as my dad is when I can't even hope to dress the part?" He buried his fingers in his hair. "I mean my dad's company owns half of Konoha. He's a shark! I'm... a guppy." He sunk into the empty tub miserably. "I just feel like I'm going to fail and I'm going to let everyone down. I'm already starting to lose sleep over disappointing people."

"Because you can't tie a tie?"

"That doesn't seem like a bad sign to you?"

Sakura smirked and shook her head at him. She got up from the tub and left the bathroom. Naruto sat up in the tub and looked towards the door just as she returned and shut it behind her. In her hand was a navy blue tie like the kind that they wore with their uniforms.

"What are you doing with that, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura held it out so he could see it as she plopped down on the tub's edge again. "Sit up," she ordered. Warily, Naruto did as he was told and climbed back on the tub's edge. Sakura wrapped the tie around his neck and effortlessly tied a windsor knot into it. "If that's all that's got you worried, I'll tie your ties for you whenever you need it. I don't mind. That way you can focus on more important things." She smiled, sitting back and admiring her handiwork. "And maybe this will take enough off your plate so that you can relax. You've been off the last couple of days."

Naruto looked down at the knot in wonder. "How do you..."

"I taught myself when I was younger. I figured it would come in handy one day when I would need to do it for my, erm, future husband." Her cheeks flushed.

Naruto smiled, scooting closer to her until their outer thighs touched. "I'm sorry you had to waste all that practice on me."

Sakura flushed deeper and looked at him from beneath her lashes. "Don't worry about it. Who knows? Maybe it won't be a waste," she whispered. She took a chance and scooted closer to him, too. They couldn't have been closer if they molded their bodies together.

Naruto dipped his head so that they were eye - and mouth- level with one another. "You think so?" She could taste his spicy ramen-flavored breath against her lips and they hadn't even met with his... yet.

She nodded ever so slightly. "I'm pretty sure that I know so," she whispered. And before she could know what was happening Naruto's lips connected so fiercely with hers that she lost the ability to breathe. She gasped and tugged on the collar of his T shirt to steady herself on the tub's edge and ended up pulling hard enough to send the both of them tumbling into the bathtub. Naruto landed on top of her, both of their legs hanging over the edge of the tub but neither of them could care less.

Eventually they broke apart. Naruto sat up on his upper arms and stared at Sakura who was blushing just about as much as he felt that he was.

"What was that about?" Sakura asked breathlessly, sitting up on her elbows as well.

Naruto rolled over to give Sakura room to get up if she wanted to. "Momentary lapse of self control?" he joked, recalling how the moment's after their first real kiss went.

Sakura giggled. "Shut up," she laughed. She folded her hands beneath her head, in no hurry to get out of the tub. "Hey Naruto-kun, how'd your tour go?" She hadn't had a chance to ask him before, what with them avoiding one another like the plague.

Naruto smiled. He laid back down beside her and began telling her about Bowling for Ramen's first gig in this sketchy bar on the outskirts of Konoha and how he used the pay from that show to buy his new favorite pair of orange and black checkered chucks. She listened and interrupted here and there to ask for more details. They talked like that - like they were best friends again - for the rest of the night.

A/N This chapter kind of sucked, I know. It really wasn't even supposed to end here but I don't see myself continuing it for a while. But I didn't want to leave you hanging for an update.

And you'll understand why I changed the story about Naruto's whiskers soon enough. It was a personal preference. Again, sorry for the confusion.

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