Hello My dear readers! (If I still got any...)

This chapter is dedicated to YOU readers!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did it would still star Naruto!

Three years since the last update? I definitely put too much of my time working on Long Vacation. .;; Please forgive that one track mind author.

Worst thing about this update, I finally finished that chapter and I'm internet-less :'(

Warning: First part of the flashback contain child abuse (both physical and sexual). If you don't like but still want to read please skip to the second part beginning of that part is marked by dots ......

Thanks to all the reviewers: Stacey; Psyco yaoi fan girl; Kawaii-Aikurushii-Kitsune; SavageRose; Firework; Nusku; StarsOfYaoi; dark saturn; Akri07; MysteryLady-Tx; akeria26; QueenJoker-Xatti; keitsu; Amari Koorime; yaoifan01 X2; smartgal2007; Unseeliedarkness; Sarannus; itanaru fangirl_09; Little Karma; Kitty Meow; Miko; Fenriss Yondaime Elric; Shiva-iceflame; freakin'idiot; the ice wolf alchemist; Sharingan Hikari; DarkRavie; Shadows stalk during the deep of night; Demon-from-Hades; Rin-chan; honey-senpai; magnix (Hope you'll read this); Tseu Tsumi; animelava (sorry for the lateness); blackwidowspider; Samantha; Catgirl4351 (Thank you very much, I hope you'll be able to enjoy this chapter as much as you enjoyed the previous ones); xXsuki-chanXx; ladylookslikeadude; AnsemMesna (thank you very much for contacting me); Narutolovesme2; Book Mad TJ; reDzafFara; Hesunohana; Musu; BrokenBloodDrops; DemonicKitsune-chan; Just Miki; SarasaFan; Sesshomarubaby18.

Chapter 3

He inhaled deeply the scent that he had come to be so familiar with when he was just a child curling around the body lying next to him his head lodged just under his ANBU-san's chin.

He felt his eyes slowly drifted shut and nuzzled ANBU-san's chest. Tonight, he would surely get an other one of his nightmare but ANBU-san would be there to protect him. The reassuring thought comforted him as he drifted slowly to sleep.

Dream/Flash-Back

He was running as fast as his little legs could carry him. He quickly turned his head to see the drunkards still on his heels. He tried to run faster but he could not, he was exhausted and all he wanted was to stop, lay down and sleep. But he could not, if he did these men would grip him, and gods only knew what they would do to him.

What did he do to them anyway? He was just five years old, he was obviously not old enough for people to already hold grudge against him! He barely spoke to anyone, anyway - not that anyone would like to speak with him, apart from Sandaime-jijî (1)...

He tripped. He tried to get up hurriedly but ended up tripping again. As he finally managed to stand up a little, he felt a great pain throbbing through his left ankle. He looked down at his already swollen ankle grimacing. It was twisted! He could not run on it anymore. The last time he had tried, it had made him an even easier prey and the men had taken a sadistic pleasure in stepping on his ankle making him writhed in agony.

He quickly looked around searching for a shelter, panic slowly raising in his heart as he remembered what had happened the last time he got caught.

There, on his left, he saw a dark alleyway where was piled mountains of trash bags. He limped toward it hoping against all hope that the men would not find him hidden in the trash.

Naruto dived into the mountain of trash bags, moving aside some of the bags creating a protective nest around him.

He shuddered closing his eyes firmly, the disgusting odor of vegetable in decomposition filled his nostrils. He let a shuddered breath out, as he felt a viscous liquid sliding down his right cheek down his swelling cuts. He did not know what it was, but he was not sure he wanted to know. He shuffled a cry when he saw the brilliant red eyes of a rat moving around in the trash.

A noise coming from the alley reminded him of his current situation, his blue eyes darted to the thin ray of light filtering through the mountain of trash. He could only see a small part of the dirty road.

He could only see their shoes' sole but it was enough for him to know what was happening.

One man passed the alley, then a second and an other one.

Naruto closed his eyes trying to remember how many of them there was this time: The one with the black hair and the cut going through his face from the top left of his forehead to the middle of his right cheek; the one with dark brown hair, pale gray eyes and thin lips who was limping slightly from his left leg; and finally the other dark brown haired man with missing teeth who had a tendency to stuttered when he spoke. Naruto knew them well they were the one he called the Thursday group as they usually came together to beat him on Thursday.

"Did you see where it went?"

Naruto knew instantly it was the black haired one as he had a small accent lingering in his words. Naruto would not be able to tell from where or what it was exactly, but he knew from the speech pattern and the intonation that the accent was different from that of the other.

Naruto stopped breathing trying to make as little noise as possible, his eyes focusing on the small part of the ground he could see through the mountain of trash bags. He heard footsteps coming near him. He knew it was the pale gray eyed man as he was the leader, a vicious man who tried to make Naruto suffered as much as he could always wearing reinforced boots and kicking Naruto in the stomach. Naruto bit down his lips, tears forming in his eyes, as fear grew up in his chest eating his heart away. Sweat began to roll down his face, his eyes darting everywhere trying to find somewhere else to hide.

'They can't see me... they can't see me...' He repeated again and again in his mind forming a mantra.

But no matter how many times he repeated this to himself, he could not stop his body from shaking as he saw the men shoes a few inches away from him, the metal glittering from the pale light coming from the street as if the shoes had just been polished.

He watched intensely as the brown boots turned around to go back and heaved a sigh.

Maybe he sighed too loudly but suddenly the shoes turned back, soon he saw a brown pants cover knee bending in direction of his hiding place, hearing the articulation crack loudly.

Naruto could feel his heart beating faster and faster.

Suddenly a pair of pale gray eyes appeared, glittering with sadism and hatred and something more that he could not name. He saw the man shot his scared hand through the garbage coming closer and closer. He tried to escape pushing against the trash bags with his legs, ignoring the pain from his left ankle.

But there was no way out.

His breathing quickened and became irregular as he felt a hand closing on his hair and then tearing them. He let out a cry of despair, tears leaking out of his eyes down his cheeks.

"Pleasepleasepleaseplease...." He begged trying to free himself tears flowing down his scared cheeks.

All he could heard was the laugh of the drunkards as they hit him: kicking and punching again and again and again and again for what seemed to be an eternity.

Then it stopped altogether.

He heard the sound of a zipper being pulled down then he felt someone gripping his right arm tightly. He let a small yelp escape his lips as he felt his already broken bones being mistreated again. He felt nails scratching the small of his back, and his pants and underwear being teared down. He shivered as the night cool air came into contact with his newly bared skin.

"nononononono, not again please." Naruto pleaded again and again.

"That's it! beg you little shit." One of the man said pushing Naruto's bloody face into the dirt.

The pressure was so great that Naruto thought his skull would implode in tiny little pieces. He could hear the blood rushing through his head, his ears ringing at the low loud sound. He bit down his lower lip drawing blood trying to stop the incoming screams as those men were pleasuring themselves on his behalf.

This was not the first time. Oh no, not at all. Naruto had lost the count of how many times he had ended up on all four like a dog, his face buried in the dirt, rivers of tears falling down his closed eyes, begging for drunkards to stop abusing him in the middle of a dark alley way, or the park, even once or twice or maybe more in front of his own apartment building.

"Scream you bitch!" One of the man told him kicking him in the face.

Naruto learned a long time ago that screaming and crying only excited them more and that the best thing to do was to keep his mouth shut. Because they always got tired of beating him faster that way.

He closed his eyes tighter as he felt a foot diving in his stomach.

"Scream! We told you to scream! So you'll fucking scream! You fucking whore!" One of the other man said punctuating each words with kicks.

But Naruto would not scream. He had promised himself! He knew he could not stop the tears from falling but he could at least stop the screams from tearing their way through his throat.

An other punch crashed down on Naruto's left temple and his world became black.

……………… End of Abuse part ……………

He woke up like every morning feeling pain. He tried to stand up, but he simply could not. Smalls tears escaped his eyes as pain stroke him coming from his backside. Normally when he would wake up, he would be all healed up and just had to clean up a little and no one would be the wiser.

But not today.

He guessed that this night had been rougher than the others.

He looked around trying to pinpoint where he was. He sighed. He was at least two blocks away from his home.

He pushed himself up using the trash bags as leverage. He stumbled a bit, his weakened legs could not carry him far. He needed some more rest. He looked up at the sky. A range of dark blue, shade of orange and pink began to color the normally colorless cloud.

Naruto eyes widened in horror.

He was late! He could not be late!

Naruto tried once again to get up forcing his legs to support his weight but once again he felt his legs collapsed under his weight. He let out a cry of pain as he landed on the hard ground, small tears escaping his now closed eyes.

He clenched his teeth: He would get back to his apartment even if he had to crawl!

The old man could not know, he would not know!

He tried once again to get up leaning heavily on the hard concrete wall. And this time, he managed to stay on his two feet. Naruto ignored the pain coursing all his body. He would not fall.

He waited a bit like that: an arm against the wall trying to see if his legs could carry him. After a few minutes, he let out a breath he did not know he was holding turning his eyes to the end of the alley way. He slowly lift his left foot closing his eyes tight as his right leg's muscles screamed in protest at the additional weight they had to support.

He gulped down the tears of frustration as he felt his leg giving away under his weight, he leaned against the wall in an attempt to get his balanced back. His arm's skins ripped roughly as Naruto fell down again letting out a small yelp of pain.

Naruto took a look at his now injured right forearm white particles sticking in it. He swept them off, wincing, his left eye twitching due to the pain.

"You should disinfect this..." A low voice said.

Naruto swirled his head up to see a man standing in front of him in ANBU gears. He scampered off again the wall trying to get away from the man whose face was hidden behind a mask.

For most of the villager, seeing a Konoha ANBU would be the ultimate proof of security.

But not for him, oh so far from it!

He had received some of his worst beating from them. Some even had their 'fun' -as they put it- on him.

"Hey, a kid of your age should not be out at this time..." The man said stretching his hand to Naruto.

Naruto tensed up his eyes fixed on the hand dangerously near him. He tried to get farther away but he felt his back rubbing uncomfortably against the concrete.

He was trapped!

He closed his eyes tightly.

He would not make it to his flat in time...

He bit down his lower lips, the copper taste of blood invading his mouth once again. He waited for the blow to come.

"I'm not going to hurt you, you know?"

He opened his eyes slightly, watching the man in front of him wearily.

He knew this tactic. They had used it more than once on him. They just wanted him to drop down his defense and then they would attack him mercilessly until he blackout-ed! He had fallen for it nearly each time. He had to admit that he was way too naive. But not this time, he would not fall for it, not anymore!

He looked up defiantly at the man in front of him, his blue eyes sparkling with determination. He bared his teeth ready to bit the man. He knew perfectly well that this man was way stronger than him, but he would not get down without a fight. He had always fight back, anyway. And it was not because he could not stand nor move that he would not fight today too.

He heard the man sighed.

He shook himself out of his thought, his blue eyes fixed on the retreating hand. He was so focused on it that he could only see it as it slowly raised to the man's face disappearing behind the gravity defying gray hair. The slight movement of the dog mask discovering the face of the ANBU caught Naruto's eyes.

What was that man thinking taking off his mask?

Was it a new tactic to get his guard down?

Or maybe that one was so sure of himself, of the fear he would set up in Naruto's heart that he did not mind showing his face to his future victim?

Naruto shuddered thinking of what the ANBU had in store for him.

Would this person finally kill him?

Strangely, the thought of being killed today, on this dark alley way, in the middle of trash bags, did not bother him so much.

Maybe he would have wanted to die else where: in a green clearing, with the sound of the wind lulling him slowly into a deep deep sleep as his eyes would slowly closed on their own, the sweet smell of grass invading his nostrils, the soft caress of the sun ray upon his face would be the last thing he would feel before falling into darkness.

Naruto wondered briefly if he could choose the place he would die.

He bit down a bitter laugh.

What was he thinking? Dying already?

No, he would not give up, he had to live!

But for what? To received beating daily?

For Who? So drunkards could use him to work out their frustration?

Naruto closed his eyes firmly searching for his reason to live. Up until now he had always wanted to be a ninja.

But what was being a ninja about?

Protecting people?

He had believed that once when that kind looking brown hair man with a scar running across his nose paid him a ramen bowl and patted him on the top of his messy blond hair looking at him with a smile his Konoha hitai-ate shinning brightly under the sun.

But now, he did not believe it anymore!

A ninja was a cruel person, beating people up until they begged for mercy. It was what he saw with his very own eyes, he experimented it every day.

Did he really want to be like those conscienceless person?

And if not, why would he live on? What would he fight for?

He had nothing else.

Naruto looked up at the man in front of him.

The man was quite handsome, well define squared jaw, sharp pointy nose, high cheekbones, only one of his eyes was visible as the other was still hidden under his lifted mask. His skin was very pale but flawless apart from a deep looking scar running down apparently from his non-visible left eye to the middle of his cheek. Naruto wondered briefly if the man was missing his eye, was it the reason he was hiding it?

"Are you going to kill me here Hitotsume-san (2)?" Naruto asked in a soft whisper.

Naruto's eyes were now fixed on the man's stormy gray eye. The man seemed quite sad, Naruto noted.

"Sorry... but I don't want to die here." Naruto said as he managed to finally stand up leaning heavily on his right side against the concrete wall.

Naruto winced immediately regretting his words as he saw the man's jaw tighten. He was going to hit him. Naruto raised his left arm, closing tightly his eyes slightly bowing his head trying to protect his face from the incoming blow. He bit the inside of his left cheek, the familiar metallic taste of blood invading his mouth once again.

He waited for what seem like an eternity, but the blow never came. He raised his head slightly, opening carefully his left eye. He saw a hand coming near again. Naruto's eyes widened in fear as the large hand came nearer and nearer. But instead of a blow, he felt the hand resting on top of his head messing his hair.

It felt so strange to Naruto like the man was trying to comfort him.

Naruto looked up at the man in front of him, letting his arm fall on his side, his blue eyes betraying his confusion: the Man was smiling at him, he was not beating him senseless.

"I won't hurt you." Hitotsume-san said again.

And Naruto once again fell into the darkness, his legs giving away under his weight.

……………………………

Naruto opened his eyes to see the familiar off-white flaked paint and the yellow shaded stain the water had created as it passed through his ceiling during rainy night. He watched a small drop forming on the middle of the yellow shaded stain slowly gathering then falling rapidly. He felt the drop falling on his face tracing the outline of his face like a tear.

He blinked once, twice, thrice.

This was real!

Naruto concentrated a bit and he could hear the soft sound of the rain knocking in a quick rhythm on the window at the left of his bed. He flexed his left fist closed feeling his nails scrapping slightly against his palm.

Hitotsume-san had not lied. He had even gone through the trouble to take him home.

Naruto's eyes widened. What about Hokage-jijî? Did he already come by for his daily check? Would Hitotsume-san tell him about what had happened?

Naruto threw his covers aside violently, he quickly stood up. But his left leg gave out under his weight and he found himself falling harshly on his not so soft mattress, the muted sound of the strings of the mattress echoing in the flat.

"You are finally awake?" A low voice -he recognized it immediately as Hitotsume-san's voice- asked.

"What are you still doing here?" Naruto babbled.

His eyes trailed on the mask-less ANBU who was sitting on Naruto's old wooden chair. His arms crossed over the back of the chair his gloves covered hands hanging loosely a orange covered book in one hand, his chin resting on his folded forearms, his gray eye fixed on him.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he understood that the gray haired man would not answer him.

"What time is it?" Naruto asked in a sigh rubbing the back of his head.

Hitotsume-san's right corner of his lips lifted up ever so slightly.

"It will soon be noon." The ANBU answered softly.

"N-Noon" He repeated palling drastically.

"Noon." Hitotsume-san repeated calmly, his eyes strained on the small blond.

Someone knocked on the window just behind Naruto making him jump out of fright. Naruto slowly turned around to see a masked ANBU standing on the fire-exit stairs.

"Ah Replacement!" Hitotsume-san smiled, opening the window.

"Replacement?!" Naruto asked watching the two man speaking to each other in low tone.

The new ANBU was intimidating, standing all straight. Naruto shyly looked up at the man: he looked so young even with his face hidden behind his mask. He was quite tall and lean and had long dark silky looking hair.

Naruto just wanted to touch them, maybe he could catch one of those beautiful blue shadows which were reflecting on the ANBU's hair.

Naruto silently crept closer to the two ANBU taking great care of not to be seen. He slowly climbed on the chair which was standing just behind the ANBU. He raised his hands slowly up to the beautiful dark blue shade intended to grip it for himself.

……………………………

Dream/Flash Back End

……………………………

"NARUTO!"

Naruto woke up at the sound of someone pounding frantically on his door while calling his name.

He groaned nuzzling his nose in his pillow. It smelt of forest, blood and that dash of musk: ANBU-san's smell.

Naruto smiled, purring softly.

Nope, he simply did not want to open his eyes just yet.

He knew that ANBU-san would not be there when he would open his eyes. He would always be gone before Naruto woke up.

Naruto took an other deep breath hugging the pillow to his chest.

Maybe he could stay there, nose buried in his pillow, waiting for the night and ANBU-san to come.

Naruto smiled: he felt like a child again, when he would be sitting on his bed hugging his pillow, his walrus hat perched precariously on his head, looking expectantly at the window for ANBU-san to come.

Once he had stayed there for three nights, not moving an inch waiting for ANBU-san.

Not even the Hokage had been able to get him off his bed with promises of Ramen.

He had waited, ignoring the numbness in his legs, dozing off but never really sleeping until ANBU-san returned and gently set him down to sleep telling him all about the extraordinary lands he had been to.

After that one time, ANBU-san had always come and told him about his long term missions making Naruto promise to eat and sleep correctly while he would not be there. And when he returned, ANBU-san would tell him all about the travels.

ANBU-san loved to travel ad he talked passionately to Naruto about each countries and their secrets.

'One can't make justice to the beauty of traveling through meager words Naruto. You've to live it!' ANBU-san always told him before beginning one of his tales.

It was one of the reason he became a Ninja to travel to those faraway lands in which no one knew a thing about him -there he would surely be treated better. He had not been disappointed in the least when for his first real mission as a Ninja he traveled down to the at-the-time famish lands of wave, he had been treated more kindly than he thought even a prince would have been. And the wonders he had discovered: the customs he thought had been the same everywhere but had been proved to be different, the tasteful dishes with bizarre side dishes...

ANBU-san had been right there was no way he could tell of those beauty in simple words.

After that first taste of the 'real thing', Naruto though he could not get enough, taking up every opportunity presented to him to travel through the lands.

It seemed only Sai had picked him up on this habit of his. He had commented on it once and then shown to Naruto one of his very own landscapes drawing booklets - Such beautiful landscapes of the place they had traveled to and some Naruto had never seen. It was the only things which Naruto had salvaged from his friend before he was totally wipe out of existence like a ghost -only to be remembered by those willing to.

"NARUTO!" came the Banshee's scream punctuated by louder knocks on his door. "Open that Door!"

Naruto groaned loudly.

Could Sakura not be a little less... Sakura?

He dragged himself slowly out of his bed still gripping his pillow in his arms and unbolted the door not bothering to effectively open it and walked slowly to his kitchen.

Hearing Sakura entered the flat, he wondered briefly why he was still friend with the Pink haired medic. She was loud, violent, stubborn and so unladylike like...

She may not have been the best friend possible to him -he never asked for it from her- but she had been there for him. Even after Sasuke had gone when every one was blaming him for tainting their precious Uchiha, she did not blame him.

No, not Sakura. On the contrary, she told him that the next time they would do it together and that they would succeed because they would be together.

Naruto had been quite shocked by how mature Sakura had become in the short three years he had been gone with Jiraya. But he had been very happy to find a friend waiting for him at the gate rather than an angry fan-girl after his skin.

"Naruto!" Sakura entered the room. "Tsunade is having a meeting..."

"And was it a reason for you to disturb me on my day off?" Naruto complained, pouring his friend a cup of coffee.

"She wants all Ninja available to be there..." Sakura said as she took the cup of coffee out of Naruto's hand. "Did you put sugar?"

"Two. I know." Naruto complained as he walked out of the kitchen back into his room.

"Your new flat is really cool Naruto, you know that?" Sakura began while sipping her coffee. "You know if you need help to decorate it... I'll be happy to help..."

Naruto tried to smothered a groan.

"I would have Flowers mosaic in the kitchen with pale yellow wall. Maybe we can add some streak of orange." Sakura babbled looking around the room.

"Sakura..." Naruto whined entering back into the kitchen. "I don't plan to redecorate just now."

"Please, let me help you with decoration." Sakura pleaded.

Naruto knew why Sakura was so fervent about decorating his apartment: Sakura had yet to move out of her parent's, mainly because her mother thought it was really no good for a single young woman to live alone. Her mother had been clear about it, if Sakura ever moved out of her house it would be after wedding. Thus Sakura still lived under the rule of her mother and her dream of having Girls night in her cozy flat which she would have decorated herself had gone to smoke. Now, Naruto's brand new flat was the ideal target for Sakura to try her skill as a decorator which -she had no doubt about it- was flawless and be able to realize her dream. Naruto had no doubt that at the first occasion he was out on a mission, Sakura would invade her apartment to have her Girls-only nights.

"Don't we have a meeting to go to?" Naruto changed subject.

"Oh Shit! The meeting! We are going be late." Sakura took Naruto's hand and led him out of the room.

Naruto let out a sigh. At least he avoided the talk about decoration... and design... and Fenshui.

Who cared about the way the bed should be placed in the room as to not disturb the energy fluxes coming from the door and the window?!

All Naruto cared was for his bed not to be positioned head to North -it was the only bit of superstition he allowed himself to believe in (3).

"I wonder what Tsunade wants to tell us." Sakura thought out loud dragging Naruto through the village. "I hope it's good news."

Naruto sighed tuning off Sakura's babble as they entered the Hokage's office.

Naruto caught the sight of Sasuke leaning coolly on the wall not two feet away from him.

Why was that man still a Konoha Ninja was beyond him.

He was responsible for the murder of a Konoha Ninja, of course Sai had not been a regular ninja being trained in a secret elite organization -which apparently plotted the downfall of the Hokage-, but his goal had been to protect and serve Konoha like any other person present here.

Naruto walked on the other side of the room avoiding any contact with Sasuke as Sakura went up to speak with the man. He could not understand how she could still be friendly with him, but he guessed that after pinning after him for so long she was still not willing to let him go.

"Fellow Ninja." Tsunade called her troops to attention. "I have the pleasure..."

Naruto tuned down Tsunade's voice as he looked around the room.

He could feel some of the ANBU hiding expertly in the shadows, he would have been one of them if he had not been dragged out in the broad day light by Sakura.

There were once a time in which Naruto loved to be in the spot light, to be seen and recognized. He had wanted to bask in the light like all the children he had seen playing among themselves, and feel the admiring glances, the loving care which parents had demonstrated to their children.

But now, Naruto would rather dwell in the shadows.

It was nice and comfortable there.

No one judged him there, no one could hurt him there, no one could betray him there.

He took a step back.

The shadows were so near maybe he could blend into them without Sakura knowing.

She had scolded him more than once for his unexpected turn from 'hyper-social' to anti-social. She had first put it off as Naruto's way of mourning Sai. But when the 'symptoms' -as she called them- did not fade, she took it upon herself to force him out in the sun, to socialize with people who had once spit in his face. And it had been harder and harder for Naruto to be sociable when all he wanted was to lay low and 'waste' his life away as a respected-among-his-peers ANBU.

Naruto took a deep breath ready to blend into the shadow when a pair of arms circled his waist.

He stayed stoic not showing his astonishment at being caught off guard.

"What have they done to you?" Came the whisper of a voice in his ear.

Naruto knew that voice. It had been the comforting whisper that carried him to sleep, almost as silent as the wind that one could miss it. But Naruto had long since learned to tend his ears for it. For years, he had been waiting for this comfortable whisper to come back to him.

He closed his eyes not bothering to answer the question.

He wondered briefly why ANBU-san was there. He had search for him when he had finally made it to the ANBU not long after Sai's death. He had needed the presence more than ever and was disappointed to never find him. But he guessed he was still on that mission he had told Naruto about years ago. And Naruto had promised himself to wait for him, and he had waited patiently, never doubting the return of his ANBU-san but ever doubting if ANBU-san would found him worth to trouble with.

"Truth will be told." The whisper came again.

And Naruto knew that whatever Tsunade was going to say, it would be yet an other turning point in Naruto life, one that concerned his ANBU-san.

Naruto wondered briefly if he was ready for it.

He let his head fall back against ANBU-san's chest and inhaled deeply the mixture of earth, musk and blood.

If whatever the grand news lead to ANBU-san staying, he was more than ready to hear it.

And for the first time in a long time, Naruto let himself go to a bout of insolence like he had not done since Sai's death.

"Cut the Crap, Tsunade-sama." Naruto cut in as Tsunade was still going on trying to avoid the real subject of the meeting. "Tell us what this is all about so we can scampered off back to our previous activities. Some here dreadfully need training if they want to go anywhere."

More than one glare was send Naruto's way, but Naruto did not care. Those who glared had him just admitted their own short coming.

Tsunade sent a surprised look at Naruto and smiled surely thinking that from now on the old Naruto would be back. She narrowed her eyes as she saw the shadows looming over Naruto, an ANBU was there no doubt in that, and Naruto let them that near without even tensing.

"As I was saying, a terrible sacrifice was made to insure the security of the village." Tsunade explained.

She took out a scroll and began to read.

"On the night of the red moon, in the seventh month of the seventh year of the second row of the third, we, the High counsel of Konoha, order UCHIHA Itachi, ANBU captain code name Blood Raven, to, by any mean at his disposition, secure a place as a spy for Konoha in the organization named Akatsuki as to gather information and if the organization proved to be a threat to Konoha, terminate it."

"What are you trying to say?" Sasuke asked darkly.

"What I just said." Tsunade replied not willing to explain more which for her was clear as the daylight.

"What she is saying, is that your brother was practically ordered to slaughter your family and he was forgiven even before the deed was committed. No question asked." Naruto interfered.

Sasuke glared angrily at Naruto.

"He killed the entire UCHIHA clan! How can he be forgiven for taking out such an important part of Konoha's forces." Sakura cried out trying to show support to Sasuke as all in the room watched Sasuke's world crumbled into pieces.

"Actually, this is quite clever. He needed to commit a crime as to enter the organization, something that would be so horrendous that no one would doubt his desertion of Konoha's ranks." Shikamaru answered.

"And killing his family was that?" questioned Kiba.

"It was killing two bird with the same stone." Yamato explained. "He bought his way into the Akatsuki no one could possibly doubt his resolve and he got ride of an overwhelming family who was slowly becoming a problem for Konoha."

"A Problem for Konoha?" Sasuke sputtered angrily taking a few menacing steps toward the Jounin.

"This is not the place for quarreling." Kurenai interrupted glaring at the two ninja.

Naruto watched silently as once again Sasuke made a show of himself. There was not even the shadow of the boy he once considered a brother in the teenager now arguing bitterly with a superior.

Where had gone the Genin who would train day in and day out without reserve?

How had he become that weak Jounin relaying more on his genkai than on any real skill?

He shook his head. He had other things to do than to wonder what could have been.

"I finally know your name." Naruto let out a whisper only meant for his ANBU-san.

He felt his ANBU-san tense a bit.

"UCHIHA Itachi." Naruto let the name roll off his tongue. "Now I understand better... Why would you would left me..."

"Is that bothering you?" The sweet whisper came to his ear.

"Why would it be?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not letting you go again, never."

The words were said with such possessiveness they made Naruto shivered.

"I'm stepping out in the light and I'll drag you out with me." The whisper added.

And Naruto smiled for the first time in a very long time.

Now he did not care if it was in the broad daylight or in the darkest pit, all he knew was that with ANBU-san he would be safe.

"Then drag me out if you dare." Naruto answered.

……………………………

End

……………………………

(1) jijî : old ; old man.

(2) Hitotsume: One-eye

(3) In Japan, the dead are laid head facing north thus it's considered tempting luck to sleep head to the North.