Author: Devil

Title: Azure Rays

Anime: Naruto

Characters: Naruto Uzumaki. Sakura Haruno

Take Note: This story belongs to me. Strictly no ripping or copying any parts of the content. Reviews are more than welcomed, constructive criticism is accepted and respected.

Note: This is slightly AU, you have been warned. And before you jump to conclusions, this is not a NaruSaku in any shape or form.

Chapter count: Undecided.

Disclaimer: Not my anime or characters, however the plot is entirely my creation.

Word count: 1,841 words.

Chapter 1:

A rough-edged pebble made harsh contact with the side of his head but he bit his lips to prevent himself from emitting any sounds and closed his eyes to prevent the scalding tears to fall out. He continued to walk, wobble to be precise as the kids of the neighborhood sneered behind him and threw spiteful words at him. But he ignored them, he made it look like as if he did but deep down inside he cried in agony.

It hurt. A lot. It wasn't physical pain, he had gone through some many hardships that his body forgot what physical pain was. It was the emotional pain, the way his heart clenched in sorrow. They always look at him like as if he was monster, they even called him that. But he wasn't one. He was a misfortunate human being who was a vessel of a demon something that was entirely involuntary. It was not his fault that they decided to seal the demon inside him.

Yes, it was true, one of the deadliest demons was sealed within him, the story of how it was sealed within him was memorized by all the citizens of Konoha and whenever their children asked them to tell them a bedtime story, you would surprised to find out how many times a parent would have repeated this story of the demon to soothe its child to sleep. The law said that speaking about the demon was forbidden and the consequences would only be death.

But the Konoha couldn't risk it population since everyone talked about it. And soon the fact about the demon being sealed into this child was known by all, the young and the old, the poor and the rich.

So who was he suppose to blame? The demon? The person who sealed the demon inside him? The merciless villagers? Or...himself? Who was he suppose to blame for all the pains that he had been though since he was born?

He sighed, this was the same thought that he always had since he was young, every time something like that happen, his mind would start begging for answers, trying to free itself out of the agony that there was. He shook his head, as if clearing unwanted thoughts. He patted his body for his keys, inwardly hoping that he did not leave them there. But his attempts were futile. He had to find somewhere else to crash in for the night before he got his keys back from where ever he left them.

"Naruto?" a crispy voice called out. The aforementioned boy looked up to find his ever-smiling friend, Sakura Haruno. This was the person in this whole village and in his whole life, which he was able to call a friend. He could still remember his early academy days when every time, the teacher required the students to do work in groups, Sakura would always get stuck with him and he would still remember her scowling face whenever she was paired with him. But this only remained for a matter of days, until Sakura started to interact with him and learnt more about him. The more time she spend with the blonde, the more she learnt about him and over time she had finally became his friend

However the news of being friends with a demon, had crushed her social status and her friends and her popularity amongst the village begin to leave her but she did not allow such a set back to waver her and his friendship and if not, the friendship bond become stronger. This was only until her parents found out about her friendship with the blonde and became a major obstacle between him and her. They never allowed her to see the blonde, let alone speak to him. But she being her stubborn self would always find ways to look out for the boy, without being caught. And there she was standing, smiling at the forlorn boy.

"Sa-sakura-chan?!" he asked startled, worried to see his friend at such an ungodly hour.

"Naruto? Why are you out so late at night? I thought you left the academy two hours ago. I heard you where doing something; therefore you had to stay behind. I was just going to Ino-chan's house when I saw your house keys in the muddy ground. You must have dropped them." she said and walked to towards Naruto, keys jiggling in her hands, all the while balancing a heavy pouch in her hands.

"Did they do it again?" she asked quietly, a finger tracing over the newly formed scratch on his cheek. Naruto head simply bent down to give her an answer, his long blonde fringe covering his azure eyes. He wanted to cry but he couldn't show off his weakness. Sakura sighed and gave him a sisterly side hug and kissed his temple.

"You know, I would do anything for you if it wasn't for my parents. I try but fail. My parents sent me to deliver this rice balls to Ino-chan's house. Here. I will give you some, hopefully, they would not notice anything." Sakura said and started to untie the pouch.

"No, Sakura-chan, if they find out you will get in trouble. I don't want any of that happening to you, I feel like a burden whenever you do that." Naruto said and wrapped his soiled hands around Sakura's to prevent her from untying the pouch further.

"Naruto! But look at you! You are just skin and bones. You look like a seven year old not a proper thirteen year old. Continue this way, people might even believe that you are four," she said and brushed his hands off hers and began to untie once again and all Naruto could was look hopelessly at her, he could not help but feel like a burden. All the costs had Sakura gone through from him, from lying to her parents to sneaking out of the house to meet him and reprimanding when he did something wrong, looking out for him whenever he was picked and making sure that he survived. And all he could do in return was being more troublesome day by day.

By this time, Sakura had scooped out two rice balls and handed it to him, still with a smile on her face.

"There, eat it up. I would bring more tomorrow and make sure that you have enough sleep tonight, tomorrow they are teaching us a new jutsu and I don't want you failing again, alright?" She asked as he nodded. 'If only she knew...' he thought as Sakura started to walk away.

"Bye Naruto, have a nice sleep," She smiled once more before leaving for Ino's house. If only she knew that it is not him that fails, it's the senseis that fail him.

He found himself very privileged to join the academy as it was required of every citizen of Konoha to have basic education, rich or young. Many people protested and said that they would not allow their children to join the academy if the monster was going to join too. The Hokage had faced a lot of problems and difficulty, but eventually managed to convince that villagers that the boy would mean no harm to their beloved ones, with the teachers and himself making sure of it.

Of course this had boost the beating and ill-treatment that he received, however he used this opportunity to study in an academy, the correct way, by working always very hard and improving constantly. Even though, he appeared to misbehave during class by not paying attention and doing things the incorrectly, this gave excuses to teachers for kicking him out of the class and to reprimand him. But truly, he mastered every jutsu that was taught and whatever the theoretical parts of lessons that the teacher taught were instantly memorized by him. But he was just afraid to show his skills and talents as he was afraid that he would be beaten up by the children if he managed to surpass them and even if he did considerably well in his tests, the teachers would fail, not wanting to believe that the this monster could excel at something.

Only if Sakura knew about this, then she wouldn't ask to train harder or give him various advises so that he could pass. He was grateful for Sakura's couching; the bias teachers would always give out extra lessons for improvements and apply different methods when a student could not do well. But as for him, neither the teacher gave him extra lessons or try out different methods with him so that he could master a jutsu, they ignored him, they didn't care if he passed or fail. They didn't care if he becomes a ninja because he would still be a demon.

But through Sakura's help, he managed to learn things that the teacher didn't tell him and whenever he had problems learning something new, Sakura would clarify with him and make him better at it. She was good tutor and herself, she was able to pass with straight As at everything.

Sakura was his only. God had blessed him with her in form a friend, a best friend, a older sister and almost a mother-like figure.

He had no family. Once again, they blamed him. His parents died because of him, his brother got snatched away because of him. All the evil that happened 13 years ago was because of him. If it hadn't been the demon, his parents would not have died fighting it and since there was no one to take care of the two brothers. Someone from another country had snatched the older one and left demon alone. His family had been torn because of him.

Therefore, his only ambition right now was to find the sole member of his family; his brother.

He could still remember. 5 years after his parents were killed, he continued to live with his brother. However the village refused to regard him as his brother, they could never believe the youngest son of the fourth would be a demon however his brother kept him within his shelter, fed and clothed him and was very confident that Naruto was truly his brother, demon or not. The villagers were not happy about this as they thought the demon would be harmful to his brother just like it was to its parents and did not want to lose a superior ninja like his brother. His brother was a genius and one of the top ninjas in Konoha after Itachi Uchiha of course. Itachi and his brother were like rival-friends as they would always compete, studies or anything and both emerged as talented ninjas until one night, some ninjas from another country had snatched his brother away and same night the Uchiha Clan was massacred.

They blamed him once more for the mishaps and this is when his life began tougher and unbearable and he merely 5 that time.

His brother, his only family. Deidara.

A/N: Oh, dear, I have no clue where this popped up from and I have little clue on how to continue this, so please bear with me as it might take a while for me to continue. Thanks for reading.

Love, Devil.