Are You Red and Gold Sapphire?

Ano. Hello, everyone! *hides* Okay, I'm sorry I haven't updated Bitter! But check back with me later on news on its discontinuation-whoops *is hidden* d-don't hurt me! *stands up, grins* Muwahahah! I have Aya!(from Weiss Kreuz) He ate Youji, and he's still hungry! No flames or I'll sic him on you!

EE~ My first Naruto ficcie! Yaaaay! BTW, I have officially seen up to 54 episodes and 50+ chapters of the manga plus snippets of 186 and others. This doesn't take place after the chuunin exam tho, it takes place before, after Haku-arc, but not sure other than that. Randomly placed fic^^. Oh…! Gomen gomen. ^^;; I promise this'll be the only chapter I rant like this is unless necessary.

SUMMARY: After a mission late at night, Naruto comes home to find it has been trashed, all his possesions destroyed and a note of threat on the wall… Whe he ignores it and the threats become more physical and outrageous… he has no choice but to leave or risk not only himself, but his friends as well!

Pairing: Sasuke x Naruto- no other way! No Naruto x Sasuke, Only Sasuke x Naruto! Oh, and there's possibility of some mention of ZabuHaku pairing~! That was so sad and so beautiful.

Rating: PG-13 for now ~_^

Warnings: Naruto gets beaten a good bit.  Maybe worse later... Hmm... Vandalism... Bad Japanese(tatebayo!).  Child abuse(Duh!  If you beat a child, yours or not, it's child abuse *nods*) Oh, and I'm NOT warning you about the yaoi! I'm NOT! I will not warn you as if it is something to watch out for like a spider bite or a booby-trap! Deal with it, love it, worship it.

Enjoy!

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

Naruto sighed and leaned heavily against the red guard rail of the bridge that Sasuke, Sakura, and himself were on, waiting for their sensei—as was normal—to show up two,  three hours late. Maybe more if a cat was in a tree or an old lady needed help crossing the street.

It didn't really bother him though, not as it did Sakura. He went along with her yelling mostly because he wanted her to notice him. It never really worked that way. Fox smile in place, eyes firmly shut and mouth stretched wide, the young shinobi just let himself take in the slight breeze and the warm, late afternoon light. Kakashi-sensei had told them to meet him at the bridge around five PM, they were going to do some night training, hone their night-sight using chakra. It was exciting! Of course, you couldn't tell, with Naruto just leaning there, his hands behind his head an his usual fox smile* on his face, not bouncing around as normal. Neither Sakura nor Sasuke took significant notice of this though. They were actually glad for the level of quiet they were graced with that day. So they didn't question it, lest it go away and the blistering noise come back.

Three sets of eyes looked up to acknowledge their late, late, laaaaaaaaaaaate sensei.

YOU'RE LATE!!" Came the traditional yell by Sakura and Naruto.

"There was this old man who needed help cleaning up his shop after some kids grabbed his coupons!"

"DON'T LIE!"

Sasuke sighed, their sensei was running out of excuses quickly. Kakashi smiled under his mask, and waved off their loud shouting.

"We're going to do some night training! Off to the forest!"

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

The three genins had be told to scatter, hide in trees amongst their branches, behind luscious bushes, behind large rocks, anywhere they thought they could hide and not immediately sense another's chakra. Kakashi-sensei had explained that they were to practice finding hidden objects in the dark, and then to find another teammate, while concealing your own chakra and hand it to them in a kind of trade till all the objects had been found, and traded to the last person who was supposed to have them, and taking them to Kakashi.

Basically, it was finding what objects were supposed to go to who, finding that person, and giving them to them to take to Kakashi.

Since there was still a little light out, Kakashi delayed them with detailed explanations of what object each was supposed to get. There was a total of five objects per person. He also stressed that it didn't matter what item you picked up. If you found one that wasn't meant for you, you would just have to get it to the correct person.

Sakura's items were: a white comb, a manila folder, a green button, a single red sock, and a hard back book.

Sasuke's items were: a piano key (white), a piano key (black), an action figure, a scarf, and a knife.

Naruto's items tweaked his inner strings, and he was sure the others felt similar little pangs—particularly Sasuke, judging by the soft blanching of his skin at the mention of piano keys, and the knife—though he didn't know why.

Naruto's items were: a fox-shaped card-board cut out, a small bushel of strings tied together(orange he was sure), cat ears(fake!), a glove, and cup of uncooked Ramen.

After the list was given, the sun dipped its chin behind the mountain; covered and split were its last light by the many trees around them, their branches reaching up as if into the sun to gather any last energy they could.

"Ano sa, ano sa, why are we supposed to mask our chakra?" Naruto asked, his eyes closed and a soft not-smile not-frown on his face.

"The point is because, on missions, you may get separated and unable to find a teammate's chakra. The point is to find them while holding objects that you may have to give them without using your own chakra. If you were on a mission, and you had to give Sasuke the object of request, you wouldn't want your enemies sensing you, so you would mask your chakra—as would Sasuke. It's basic tracking and retrieving skills." Naruto nodded in understanding, and Sasuke looked away from where he'd brought his gaze up to show he was listening.

"Yoshi, off you go!"

The three genins[1] nodded quickly before quickly vanishing from sight.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

So, that's where they were now. In trees, bushes, behind rocks—anywhere hidden, their chakra smothered under their will and their eye sight all but there. Blind as a rock, and in an immeasurably large forest. The odds of finding objects hidden everywhere—even underground!—were very slim, and it promised to be an all night activity.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

Even in the dark, Sasuke found he was having very few difficulties. The trees all gave off a familiar signature as did the rocks, dirt, grass, bushes, other flowers, plants and even animals. Not even thinking that he might need his sharingan, or any chakra, the boy listlessly found and picked up objects with unfamiliar signatures—or ones he recognized in his fingers as the sought after objects. He had no chance to feel their signatures before.

Silently, Sasuke hooked his legs over the low rising tree branch he'd been sitting on, and let himself fall backwards, his legs keeping him from sliding off and his long fingers delicately skimming the tips of the blades of grass. He tangled them experimentally, allowing his grip to slip just enough for him to slide closer to the ground.

Curling his fingers, he brought his body up in one fluid motion, sitting effortlessly and without worry on the medium sized branch. Though he could not see it, he could feel the soft, fine thick strings tied together by another, thicker piece of yarn. That was the third item he had found of Naruto's.  It was irking him a little, not enough to really effect him, but everything he had found related in some way to Naruto's personality—and that they were all the objects designated to him.

When he found that orange goof-ball, he was gonna chuck—not pass—chuck the objects at him… As hard as he could!

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

From his place behind a large stone, Naruto sneezed. "Mou, I hope no one heard that~!" he mentally whined.

Looking at the things in his hands, he wondered how he ended up finding all of Sasuke's items.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

END CHAPTER ONE!

[1] this is also rather AT… I didn't place it anywhere particular. So I'm saying they're still genins. After that it takes a weird twist.

 OH… and FF.NET's being screwy~ and every priview I do has NO paragraph indents it's not my faaaaaaaauuullt~ I even saved this in HTML~~NOT MY FAULT! I'll sick my Lob-chan beta on you if you complain about that!3

Review Onegai!