"Hola hovito!" I yell, waving my hand back and forth while the other hand holds the microphone.

"Hola hovito!" the crowd yells back.

"I'mma stop before I get sued," I say, straightening up and throwing microphone to someone back stage. "Anyway. I've got Tobi!"

Tobi comes out joyfully. "Tobi's a good boy!"

"Somewhat," I mutter before grinning. "Anyway! Would you please be a great boy and say the disclaimer for me?"

"Only if Nonya's a good girl and doesn't leave cliffhanger," he scolds.

"I can't promise that..."

Tobi pouts. "Why not?"

I shake my head. "well, maybe. You've got a fifty-fifty chance."

"Tobi will take that! Nonya doesn't own anything but the plot! We hope that you..."

"Read."

"Enjoy!"

We both throw an arm over the other's shoulder. "And review!"


Chapter 6:

Sour and Sweet

He moved to hug the one person in his life that truly cared that was left, but it was cut short when Naruto's vision was covered in darkness. Naruto was quickly caught by the Sannin and Jiraiya observed the boy and noticed how pale he was. Blood loss, he knew, caused many shinobi to fall in the middle of battle, though whether or not the enemy leaves them there and moves on was usually left unknown. He hefted Naruto onto his back and then took off towards the hospital, the note from Naruto clutched in his bloodied hand. He ended up there in record time and Tsunade saw them.

"What happened?" she demanded as she rushed forward.

"Naruto lost a lot of blood," Jiraiya said simply, his hand clutching the paper tighter.

She noticed this, but said nothing more as she took Naruto from his godfather and went into a room. Jiraiya followed and watched the healing process as he mulled over what had happened. He couldn't help but feel responsible for what Naruto had done to himself. He thought that letting Naruto stay while he left would keep him safe, so that way no one would try to attach him at an early age and connect that he was Minato's son, but it only seemed to make it worse. He also couldn't help but feel anger towards the boy's teammates, his sensei, his supposed friends. Jiraiya let the letter drop and put his head in his hands, part of his hair becoming red from his own blood as he felt tears prick his eyes.

Tsunade picked up the letter, no care for her teammate's blood, and read carefully before her amber eyes widened and she looked up at Naruto. "He did that to himself."

"He's got a cut, but he was going to... I stopped him at least," the man sighed, now unable to trust his own voice as tears fell from his face and to hide this better he took off his headband to let his hair hide his face. "I... I could've done... something before... but I didn't, I just... I just left him."

Tsunade walked over to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You did what you thought was best."

"What I thought was best was wrong," Jiraiya snapped, turning away from her.

She didn't take it personally, she knew that he was emotional, over-emotional sometimes, and it didn't effect her as much as it did in the beginning. "Jiraiya... there was no way for you to have known that this would happen if you did what you did. It might've ended up worse if you had taken him."

The Toad Sannin bit his bottom lip to keep it from trembling. "I... guess..."

She hugged him gently, rocking him gently and rubbing his back with soothing circles. "Calm down Jiraiya."

Jiraiya always felt he needed to be strong, at least in front of Tsunade and other women, but right then he felt all the emotions he'd been pushing down over the years start to release and he lifted his right hand to hold her wrist for comfort. He felt so weak right then. Luckily Tsunade was a strong women that could handle emotional wrecks like him, but he wasn't an emotional wreck... he was her teammate, her friend. They stayed like this for almost half an hour before Tsunade felt Jiraiya slump.

It wasn't uncommon for someone that had been crying for a while to fall asleep soon afterwards. She put Jiraiya on the couch, glad that she could use her chakra to give her muscles strength, and then covered him with a blanket, seeing that his face was tear stained. She decided to do him a favor and gently cleaned his face, but no matter what she did she couldn't make his eyes any less puffy or any less red. With that done the Slug Sannin settled into the chair, sending a shadow clone to do work while she mulled over the situation.

Naruto tried to kill himself. She had read the letter, twice in fact, and knew that it was her fault for not paying enough attention to him. Albeit, she paid the most positive attention to him other than a handful of people that he knew (Shizune, Jiraiya, and Hinata [though he didn't know it]). At the thought of one of few rays of sunshine she had dying she felt tears fall. Naruto was like her little brother, or more like a (grand)son. She loved him too much to even think about life without him and his boisterous laugh and rambunctious antics. Eventually she, too, fell asleep.

-The Next Morning-

Naruto was roused by blinding sunshine and he turned his head away from the window, wondering why he was in the hospital again when he realized what had occurred the previous night. He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes to keep from crying. He didn't want to be alive... at least not much. Now he felt a little more of a reason to live, but he didn't like life. He bit his bottom lip and then sat up, staring out of the window over Konoha.

I hate this place, he thought. So why do I fight so hard for it?

Both Sannin were still asleep and he figured he could sneak out when he noticed something about them. Their eyes were puff and Tsunade had tear stains on her face and Jiraiya's headband was in his hand. He realized that they looked like crap, looked vulnerable, and he knew it was because of him. He felt something well in his chest, something he felt more than enough times and sometimes for no real reason at all.

Guilt.

It was his fault for causing them to worry, it was his fault for causing them to cry which tore him apart in more ways than one. He caused this, something he would hold in his heart and mind forever. These two cared for him and he repaid them with making them depressed. There was a sour taste in his mouth as he shuffled into the bathroom and relieved himself before walking out and seeing a familiar red face that he didn't ever expect to see.

"H-Hinata?"

Said girl's blush depended and she smiled shyly. "H-h-hello N-Naruto. I-I heard that you were i-in the hospital..."

"Yeah," Naruto said cautiously.

"W-what for?" she wondered.

He stayed tight lipped for a second before he heaved a sigh. "It's complicated."

"I-I've got time. I p-put out t-t-time t-to sp-spend the d-day w-with you," she stuttered.

He blinked. "Y... you care about me?"

"O-of course... why wound't I?" she asked, pure confusion filling her eyes. She couldn't see anyone disliking him. He was a ray of sunshine in a dark world.

"People tend to hate me for no reason," he muttered, sitting on his hospital bed.

Slowly she went over to the bed and sat beside him. "G-go on. I w-won't t-tell anyone."

He smiled, knowing she'd keep her promise so he told her about what he tried to do last night and she got surprisingly angry, so much so she lost her stutter.

"How could you? There are people that care about you. I care about you. I've loved you since the first day I saw you when you helped me with bullies when no one else would. You're amazing and bright and it would be dark and cold if you were gone."

A smile tugged at his lips as he reached forward and took her hands in his. "That's the first time you didn't stutter around me..."

"Y-you noticed?" she asked shyly.

"Yeah I noticed, I just never thought it was because you liked me," he admitted with a shrug. "I thought it was because you couldn't wait to get away from me."

"I promise I will always want to be near you," she swore, tightening her grip on his hands.

He smiled and then leaned forward, placing a kiss on her cheek and making her face flush. "And I promise to never hurt you intentionally without purpose."

They smiled at each other, lacing their fingers together and laying side by side in the bed, her head on his chest as his arms wrapped around her shoulders. She, after so much time, placed a kiss on his lips, a quick one, but it was so sweet the sour taste was no longer there. He never felt so great.