DADDY LEFT US

When he was deemed a failed experiment, he was discarded. His existence was obliterated. His memory erased. A young boy aged sixteen with no family to run to, no friends to lean on…

Itachi propped himself up on one elbow. His eyes slid to the young man resting besides him. He was beautiful. The way his golden hair framed his face and the way his features looked so soft through the moonlight, mesmerised him. His hand reached out automatically to sweep a stray hair on the young man's face. When he realised what he was doing, he pulled back as if he had been burnt. He slid off the bed inaudibly so not to wake the young man. After dressing himself up, he reached for his car and house keys on the nightstand and he froze, when his eyes made contact with a pack of protections which were meant to be used for their activities last night. A groan from the young man on the hotel's en-suite king sized bed, shattered the ice on him and the train of consequences hit him remorseless with a list of possibilities.

He grabbed his keys swiftly and made for the door not even sparing a glance at his bed partner. As soon as he got to his house, he headed for his study room hoping to alleviate his train of thoughts about the young man he'd spent his night with. He didn't understand why he couldn't get rid of the young man's face, the pain gripping his heart and the guilt feeling that was building in his stomach. It was as if he had lost something precious. Something was telling him not to have left the young man in the en-suite alone. He sat himself on the two sitter sofa in the study room, head in the hands as if it were heavy with the thoughts of the young man. This had never occurred to him in his life; he'd never felt so perplexed in his entire life. It was not his first time to sleep with someone he'd just met, in actual fact; he had no recollection of the number of the men he'd slept with nor their faces or their names. He hadn't felt the need to know them as long as they gave him pleasure and he didn't go to the trouble of fulfilling their needs. Not even a kiss. He made sure that they knew their purpose to him before they shared a bed with him. Not only that, he'd never taken any of his objects of pleasures to his house in his life. He never had a problem with walking away from them, though some would milk for some of his money.

However this time it was extremely different. He couldn't help himself but kiss the full luscious lips of the young blond with crystal blue eyes that seemed to entice him in. he'd never been so aroused in his life that he'd even disregarded to use protection. The list of possibilities presented itself in his head again; the possibility that the young man would get pregnant made him chuckle. Itachi was sure now that he needed to see a doctor. The possibility that he would get sexually transmitted diseases made him feel ashamed for he was responsible for the young man's loss of innocence; he was the one who needed to be checked, it wasn't that he'd been careless with his previous bed partners, he'd made definite that he had protection on before touching any of them, it was that he hadn't gone for a check up in a while and he didn't really trust the rubbers that were so called protection. They could break at any moment during sex. A feeling of great remorse overwhelmed him when his last thought thoroughly sank in. he'd taken away the young man's innocence. The young man gave himself to him. That meant the blond had trusted him and he had no idea of Itachi's intentions…

Itachi glanced at his Rolex wrist watch to find that it was four o'clock am sharp. He'd left the hotel at three o'clock am. The drive to his mansion was only fifteen minutes in his black Lamborghini Estoque Concept. He laid his head on the armrest of the sofa and his legs on the other armrest of the sofa. The day's events caught up with him that he didn't make an effort to go to his bedroom, he was glad that he was off work that weekend; it was only early Saturday so he still had Sunday to spare.

He'd hoped not to recall anything about the young man who was gracing him with a headache when he'd woken up. However sometimes hoping is not enough, hence the memories of the young man he'd shared the bed with the previous night flashing in his mind as if they were snap shots along with the name of the young man that he'd learnt from the young man's name tag at the party. Uzumaki Naruto was the name of the young man; somehow he had an inkling that it was not going to just fade away from his mind. He checked his bedside clock to find that it was only ten o'clock am; he had a long day to go and of course, taking into account Sunday. He flouted the fact that he was supposed to have the weekend off, and got ready for work.

When Naruto had woken up, he'd hoped that he would wake up to the man he'd shared the bed with holding him or watching him with black cunning eyes or be somewhere in the en-suite. But he knew that would be asking for a mountain to bow down to him. He'd known that the handsome man wouldn't stay with him after he was done with him. Nevertheless, he'd given his body to the man; somehow, he'd trusted him to be his first. For that, he had no regrets whatsoever, for the handsome man, he didn't even know his name had made his first time enchanting like he'd always dreamt of it being. He sat up on the bed and glanced around the room just to make sure, with no success. The only things that assured him that last night had taken place were the lingering cent of the dark haired man on his skin and the flashing images of the dark haired man in his mind. He brought up his right hand onto his chest, and grasped hard as if to ease the heaviness he felt in his heart. Why was it so painful? He'd just met the man; he didn't know anything about him, he didn't even know what the man did for a living. He knew there was no such thing as love at first sight in the real world. That was only in fairy tale books.

He'd gotten out of the bed and he'd put on his clothes hastily that he didn't take notice of the packet of protections on the nightstand. He rushed to the door. He had to get away from the place; he couldn't bear the pain it gave him. But when he got to his apartment, the hollowness in his heart was yet to vanish; he had an insight that it had no such intention and that what happened at the hotel had changed his life forever. Whether for the best or the worst, he knew that only time would tell.

Having had that weekend off, Naruto had decided to take a shower and sleep through out the day. He had hoped that would ease the pain and he would wake up with no memories of the handsome man. Running his hands on his body in the shower made his condition worse; he could still feel the handsome man's fingers skimming along his skin and thrusting into him. The mesmerizing taste of the dark haired man still lingered on his tongue. Consequently, the shower hadn't helped at all; only that it had made the hollow feeling in his heart worsen.

Hoping that perhaps sleep would ease the pain, Naruto had practically dragged himself towards his bed after the shower. Naturally going to bed is as easy as taking a stroll in the park. It is the shutting down of the brain that is problematic. Of course if the brain is tired and has nothing more to process, falling asleep is that easy. However if it still has more information to administer like Naruto's had, tossing and turning on the bed or just laying in the bed and gazing into space or counting the patterns on the ceiling tends to be the outcome.

Naruto's eyes were glued to the ceiling, not that he was counting the patterns on his ceiling, of course not. His ceiling was plain white with no patterns whatsoever. The images of a dark haired, pale skinned man's naked, sweaty body moving on top of him were flashing before his eyes as if they were projected onto the ceiling and Naruto was as if he were hypnotised by them. Wishing subconsciously that someone would just snap their fingers and he would be free with no memory of the raven. Unexpectedly, the images of the raven were substituted by the images of a blonde woman with a considerable bust and gold brown eyes. She seemed to be in her late twenties; about twenty-eight, twenty-nine-ish. She was calling out his name to a boy whom he'd assumed was his younger self, about sixteen years old with a warm smile. And just as it came, it vanished, leaving Naruto with a sharp pain on his forehead. Naruto grunted and rubbed his forehead to relieve himself of the pain. The blonde woman's images and his younger self's had been pursuing him since the day he had woken up in an apartment he'd never been before without any recollections of the previous night or day or the previous weeks, months or years. He didn't even know his own name. The memories of that day and the years that followed were just at the corner of his mind ready to be revisited or resurface if anything that triggers them occurs. He hadn't had any idea of how he'd gotten into the apartment and what became of his family.

Four weeks had passed. However, Naruto was having trouble erasing the image of the dark haired man since the night of the incident at the unforgettable hotel, in his mind. Sometimes at night, he would cry himself to sleep. However when he slept he was restless. He craved for the dark haired man's touch; he yearned for the ravens embrace. He just wanted to be held by someone, namely, by the handsome dark haired man. The desire to meet the raven again was mounting by the day. But how? He didn't even know the man's name. Nevertheless Naruto had made it through the weeks painfully. Weeks turned to months with no any signs of the desire for the dark haired man fading away. Time seemed to move so slowly and agonizingly, you could call a snail a cheetah. As agonizing as the days were, Naruto had only one day of the painful two months since the incident, that he deemed the worst; it was the day he'd wished that someone would just freeze his heart forever. He wished to never feel again. Concisely, Naruto wanted to die.

Naruto knelt down to the height of two little boys aged five. It was painful to leave them like that, but there was no other way. He had no relatives to run to. Their father was out of the question; the moment he rejected them before they were born, he had lost the right to the children that were to be born. Naruto knew that the kids deserved better. But he couldn't provide for them right at that moment. That is why he had to do that. It was the only struggled to set his mind at rest. That it wasn't his fault but with no one to squeeze his shoulder and whisper words of comfort that everything was going to be fine, he led himself believe that it was his fault that they were suffering. For five years, he had done everything in his power to provide their everyday needs. It hadn't been hard at first to take care of them, but as they grew, things got harder; he had no money to buy food for them and they were at the age to go to school which also needed money. He would starve himself sometimes just to save the little food he had for the next day for them.

"Papa has to go, okay?" he said.

"Papa has to go?" the younger child asked.

That sad voice, it was heart piercing to hear it. The little voice, that had always been cheerful and had always, encouraged him to keep going on with his life, and to live for them. The twins were mirror images of their other parent. It was as if Naruto hadn't played a part in their conceive-ion. The only thing that proved that they were his sons, were, the sea blue large eyes that you would think that they would glow in the dark. They contrasted so well with their mid-waist raven hair and dark eyelashes. He worked so hard to keep that cheerful voice. He looked away from them, afraid to see the gleam of despair in their eyes. 'I can't let them suffer because of my failure to provide for their necessities.' he fought the lump that had formed on his throat. When he found his voice, he managed to repeat his words, 'papa has to go' more to himself than to them. 'It's only for a week…' What was he doing? The answer to that question was very easy. He had to go and find a job; in town.

The older of the boys gazed into space as if he were trapped in a strong hypnotism. Naruto ached to know what was going on in the little one's mind. What was the little one thinking about him? His heart sunk in dismay. But he had to go and find a job to take care of them. He embraced them and whispered to them, "papa will be back soon. Okay?" he felt them nod their heads. His eyes stung and he blinked a few times, fighting the salty water that threatened to descend from his sapphire eyes. He would not let them see him cry; he had to be strong for them. For there was nothing he wouldn't do to see them smile.

"Promise?" he barely heard Natsu, his younger son ask.

"I promise." he hoped his voice didn't betray him like his heart was at that moment. He had signed the necessary papers for the children's stay at the care centre for a week the day before. He was confident that no one would adopt them within a week; the care centre hardly had people coming to adopt children. Besides, it would take a month or more for the adoption process to go through. He had been warned that if anyone were to come and chose one of them or both of them, the care centre would grant their wishes. Even though the process would take long, the children wouldn't be chosen by other people until everything had been taken care of.

He summoned up his courage and walked away from them. He dared not look back for he heard their sobs…

Fuyu reached out for his little brother's hand and held it tightly to comfort him.

"Fuyu?"

"Hm?"

"Papa will be back. Right?"

"Yes" Fuyu answered Natsu shortly. Then he added "he promised. Didn't he? Papa doesn't break his promises?"

Natsu had looked doubtful. But his face lit up when Fuyu said "its okay. I'm here. I won't leave you. I promise."

It was as if the twins knew their papa's pain and his need to go. Weren't they supposed to cry for their papa? Any other child would have screamed for the heavens. But Fuyu and Natsu were like ten years old boys ready to run for the door from their mother's affectionate kisses. Even though Naruto had tried so hard to never show his pain around them, they had always noticed that their papa was in pain. One day when Naruto had decided to buy a magazine to read for the first time and the person that was on the front cover was none other than the one and only man he had been longing for, he'd sat on his bed with the magazine on his lap crying. The twins had heard his sobbing in their room and Natsu had ran for the door to go and comfort their papa, but before he pushed the slightly open door to their papa's room, Fuyu, older by two minutes, had acted like a big brother he was; he'd grabbed Natsu's hand to stop him and shook his head to tell his little brother that they needn't stop their papa. It was as if they knew that their papa had to let it all out, despite their lack of knowledge of the cause of their papa's grief.

It had been three days since Naruto had begun his search for a job with no success. He would go into town at dawn and return at midnight. He hadn't had a chance to visit his sons, so that day; he came up with a plan to visit them before he went out again.

Uchiha Itachi was in desperate need of a live in babysitter. He'd summoned his assistant as soon as he had come home with two identical five years old boys in his arms, and instructed him that posters of a live in babysitter vacancy were to be put around the town immediately. Itachi wasn't quite certain what had possessed him; he'd never thought of having children of his own before. Even when he'd started sponsoring the care centre, he'd never entertained the thought of adopting one of the children at the care centre. It wasn't that he didn't like children; of course not. As a matter of fact, he loved kids, and that was one of the reasons he'd decided to sponsor the care centre.

Itachi had gone for his monthly visits to the care centre, when he'd met the twins. When he'd walked into their room, they were seated on one of the two beds in the room. The boy, who he'd guessed was the older twin, had his brother in his embrace as if to protect him from any harm around him. Anyone could tell from the gesture who was the older twin. There was something about the boys that intrigued him. And that night he'd come to a decision to adopt them, he didn't give it a second thought that he would regret the idea in the future; he just didn't care.

Naruto gazed at the man in the gateway to the mansion that was about a hundred yards away from the bus stop. The man had long blond hair tied in a high ponytail and the other loosely covered his left eye. His eyes were a dull blue. His skin was in-between tanned and pale. Naruto had decided to go for the job first for it was closer than the care centre which was about five hundred yards away from the bus stop; it was his only chance…

"If you came for the job, can you give me your details and you can wait inside or you can come back in an hour? My boss will be back by then for the interview, sir." Said Deidara. Itachi's most trusted assistant. Naruto chose to come back. So he left for his sons.

At the reception, he'd received a devastating message about his sons; there were gone. He was at a loss of words; he had to find them even though it was too late to get them back that easily. He wasn't told who'd adopted them. The only thing he was told was that they were in good hands and he needn't have to worry. 'Get a job first.' The receptionist had said.

As much as he'd hated to admit, the receptionist was right, so he'd gone for the interview. when he'd arrived at the mansion for his interview, he'd stood in front of the large iron gate to the mansion for a couple of minutes contemplating whether to go in and get it over with or turn around and look for a job somewhere simple; not a mansion? But the chance of him finding another all inclusive job in town was like whishing on a shooting star. Naruto was terribly nervous for the interview. He just wanted to do this for his son, but only to welcome more heartache. The one person he had promised himself to never associate with was in front of him. The only option he had then was to make sure that no one ever finds out about his fatherhood to the twins.