A/N: Hello, one and all, and welcome to the rewrite of Blood Pain! Though to be specific, it's more of a spiritual successor. A lot is gone from the original story, but just as much was added. Things were changed, most was fixed, and hopefully I've brought to you a better read than before.

Before I go on, I have to give a BIG thanks to Peins Disciple for helping me put this beast of a story together. Not only that, but for sticking around and still helping even after major setbacks. (Viruses, glitches, documents disappearing... Seriously, it's like this story didn't WANT to be written at times!)

Regardless, here's the story! R&R!

A heart to rebel and a heart to follow

A raucous noise was in the air that day, the sound of dozens of young voices echoing out across the schoolyard. A single great shadow was formed by the large group of children standing the warm morning sun that shone brighter than anyone could remember. These kids were all the same, in that they were cheering, booing and generally enjoying themselves in a way that they didn't get to often. In most schools this kind of behavior would be discouraged, but in this school, it was hard to avoid.

It was hot, so very very hot. A few of the boys in the class had gone so far as to remove their shirts to cool themselves off, while the girls varies between disgust at the indecency and envy at being unable to do such a thing. Most of them however were too engrossed in the excitement in front of them to really care about such things. Before their very eyes two of their number were partaking in an activity that made them a great deal warmer than anyone else in the area.

The two were a pair of boys, who were fighting in a dangerously rough manner. Well, to say they were fighting wasn't quite right. One of them was trying to fight, while the other was doing a much better job. With every punch the second boy threw the children either cheered or winced. For every failed attempt the first boy made, all he received was jeers and laughs. But they both continued on, under the supervision of their teacher on the sidelines.

Aside from the two fighting boys, there was one person separate from everyone else, someone who managed to get by unnoticed somehow. This was strange, since this very person was performing the amazing feat of hovering in the air. No one seemed to notice this unusual girl, who seemed to cast no shadow at all. But she too paid them no heed, and simply stared on at the fight with wide, interested eyes.

One of the boys, the one who was fighting with much greater efficiency, knocked the other one's weak attack away and forced him to stumble back. In this moment of release this boy raised his arm to his brow and wiped away some sweat from his pale skin, making the fringe of his black hair shift and slap his skin with its dampness. But even though he was sweating hard, his night coloured shirt sticking to his skin and making him feel even hotter, he still had plenty of energy left. His dark eyes watched the person in front of him mercilessly, showing an anger that he rarely let anyone see.

The other boy righted himself just a moment after, turning around and sticking his hand on his knee to catch his breath. This boy was perhaps the complete opposite of his opponent in every way. His blond hair was matted with sweat, his darker face streaked with dirt taken from falls. He brushed sand off of his clothes, dark patches showing on his armpits, turning the orange into brown. The first boy was a cool looking, sharp eyed and dark clothed one. The other one had a weird face with thin lines on his cheeks, wearing a thick orange jacket and trousers that seriously weighed him down. There was another clear difference between these two, and that was how the crowd favoured them.

"Go on Sasuke-kun!"

"Take him down Uchiha!"

"Just stay down Naruto!"

Indeed, the bias of the spectators was clearly directed towards the black haired boy by the name of Uchiha Sasuke. This boy ignored the cries and squeals of encouragement that came for him, while the other one, Uzumaki Naruto, tried hard to do the same. These two were at least successful however. The same couldn't be said for the strange girl floating in the air.

"Don't listen to them Naruto-kyun, you can beat him!" the girl exclaimed, zipping through the air and into Naruto's line of sight. The blond boy glanced her way, but he was the only one to do such a thing. "Stop it, all of you!" she commanded then, flickering around Naruto and facing the crowd quite angrily. Her face lit up with an angry red, which opposed the deep blue hair that hung around her face. "Why do you always have to be so mean?"

The girl was startled then by an odd sound, a kind of thokk followed by a grunt and a thud. She turned around quickly, her hazel eyes widening in shock as she saw Naruto lying on the ground, a hand holding his aching cheek. Uchiha Sasuke stood over him, his eyes even angrier than before. He lashed out and grabbed Naruto by the collar, pulling the boy back to his feet. Just as he was about to throw another punch however, their teacher appeared by their sides.

"Ok I think that's enough of that." said Umino Iruka, the teacher of this class of students. He pulled the two boys apart, giving Sasuke a sharp look when the darker boy showed himself to be reluctant. But fortunately all it took was a look at the long scar running across the dark skinned adult's face to know that this was a man who had been in far more dangerous fights than what took place in a schoolyard. "I think it's clear how this would end."

The crowd seemed disappointed at the end of the excitement, but none of them protested against their scary teacher's decision. Sasuke and Naruto both stepped back from each other, Sasuke staring at Naruto while Naruto looked at the ground. The Uchiha's eyes narrowed threateningly but in the end he just scowled and walked off.

At Iruka's direction the students turned and headed back to class, to collect their stuff and call it a day. Naruto however didn't have any stuff to collect, and with a glance from Iruka he was permitted to leave. Naruto did just that, while the girl with the long blue hair drifted down behind him, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her chin on his shoulders. Her light blue pajamas twinkled in the sunlight, and yet still no one gave her any notice at all.

"I still say you could have taken him."

Naruto didn't look at the girl who sat beside him, leaning against his arm and snoozing slightly in the afternoon warmth. Beneath them the wooden floor rumbled, the wheels of a wagon bumping over loose stones lying on the road. Above them a thick white canvas blocked most of the sunlight, protecting crates and sacks of fruit from being spoiled by any turns of the weather. Just outside the sound of horses hooves cast a constant, rhythmic drone in their ears. All in all it wasn't the most common of places to take a rest. "It wouldn't have mattered, why should I try to impress people I'm never going to see again?" Naruto solemnly replied.

"Still, why didn't you fight back for real?" The girl pouted, crossing her arms and trying to look intimidating. "If you had, you wouldn't have gotten hurt!" Naruto merely waved a hand boredly, wincing a bit when the wagon went over a rather big bump.

"I told you before, Miko, I'm fine. I'm tough, and it's not like he was going to kill me. And we did have a teacher watching the fight. Besides," he added, flashing a grin at his travel companion and friend. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Who the hell can hit me and keep me down?"

"Nobody!" the girl cheered loudly, her bad mood gone entirely.

"Damn straight." Naruto chuckled. While Miko settled back down next to him, a smile back on her face, Naruto's mind went back to the fight. It had been only yesterday so the events were still crystal clear to him. He had held back in the fight, yes. But not out of arrogance or anything. Rather, it was out of concern for Miko.

"Hey, hey, Naruto-kyun," Miko spoke up again, catching the boy's attention once more. "Where are we going again?"

Naruto closed his eyes in a bit of annoyance. "I don't know, Miko, I told you that." he answered. "And something else I don't know is why I had to throw all my clothes into other wagons just to get out of Konoha. Thanks to you, I'm barely wearing anything at all! And none of it has any orange either!" At this he gestured to his clothes, which consisted of dark blue shorts and a black undershirt along with basic sandals. His complaining only got a giggle out of the girl.

"I told you silly, that's so it'll make you more difficult to follow!" she told him gleefully, standing up and then floating in front of him, a cheeky smile on her face. "Remember those weird-looking ninja with the dogs? You know, the ones that chased you after that prank..."

"Where we let a whole bunch of cats into their compound?" Naruto finished, the memory of the prank floating back into his head. "Yeah, I remember. what about them?"

Miko gave another giggle. "Dogs track by scent, silly. And your clothes have your scent, right? So if we place a bunch of things onto wagons and such that are leaving the village, they'll have a harder time finding you!" At that, she crossed her arms and nodded, looking quite proud of herself.

"And the reason I can't wear anything orange?"

Miko's response to that question was to pull a face and say in an imitaion of a grown man's voice "Have you seen this boy? He's got blond hair and wears a lot of orange ."

Naruto just turned his head to the side and started grumbling about how it wasn't fair that he couldn't wear his favorite color before looking back at the girl. "So what do you think we should do when we got to... wherever we're going?"

Miko stopped nodding and gave a confused look at Naruto. "I thought you had a plan?" she asked.

Naruto shook his head. "Only thing that I was worried about was getting out of there. I got nothing."

Miko stared at the boy, suddenly looking sad. "Hey, Naruto-kyun," she spoke up shyly, like she was worried about something. "Are you sure about leaving Konoha? I mean, you can't be Hokage if you're not there, and you can't get the people there to acknowledge you either. I mean, if it weren't for me-"

"I'd probably be miserable as hell." Naruto cut her off. "I mean, yeah, it sucks big time that I can't be Hokage now, and it also means that I won't be able to get Ichiraku ramen and see Teuchi-jiji and Ayame chan, and I can bet that Iruka-sensei is going to be pissed and upset..." With each thing that Naruto listed off, Miko's face drooped more and more. "But..."

Miko looked up, her eyes starting to glisten. "But?"

"You're my friend, Miko!" Naruto told her, giving her a big smile. "And you know that I'd do anything for my friends, especially you since you're my first and best... ok, and only friend."

Miko smiled back, all traces of sadness suddenly gone. "Yay! Naruto-kyun, you're the best!" she cheered, lunging forward to wrap the boy in a hug.

She was halted, however, at the sound of the wagon driver calling out for the horses to stop followed by him shouting angrily. "What the hell do you think you're doing, standing in the middle of the road like that? If you're a bandit, I got nothing for you to take! Go on, get out of here! Leave us decent folk alone!"

'Great.' Naruto thought. 'Not even more than a day away from Konoha, and problems are already coming up. Welp, time for the hero to make himself known!' He was stopped however by the sound of the other person's voice which was far too young for a bandit's, and one he recognized.

"Hey mister, that kid that you got riding with you in your wagon... tell him to get out. I want to talk to him."

"Kid?" The wagon driver repeated, confused. "I don't have no kid in my-"

Sorry about that, Oji-san!" Naruto interrupted cheerfully, hopping out the back of the wagon with Miko quickly following. "I fell asleep inside earlier, and well... yeah, sorry."

The driver narrowed his eyes at the boy and glared at him for a few seconds. "You didn't eat nothing, did you?" he asked gruffly.

"Nope!" Naruto answered, still looking cheerful. 'Please let him believe me.' The driver stared at him a few seconds more before looking back out to the road ahead of him and made his horses start walking again, the person from before standing to the side to let him pass.

Naruto kept smiling until the wagon was out of sight before he turned to the other person, his face quickly taking on an annoyed look. "Ok, what the hell do you want Sasuke? I'm not really in the mood for anything."

"Fight me."

Naruto stared at the raven-haired boy for a few seconds, thrown off by the strange request. After a little time he was finally able to give an answer. "Were you dropped as a baby, or do you just like to say stupid crap?" Behind him, Miko started to giggle at the insult.

"Shut up," Sasuke growled, his face going into a deeper scowl than normal. "I want you to fight me. For real this time."

"For real?" Naruto asked, taking on a confused look. "What the hell do you mean? Look, if you want a fight, go back and ask Kiba. I'm sure he'd be more than willing."

"I want to fight you, idiot!" Sasuke snapped, taking a step forward. "You weren't taking me seriously during that fight! What, you think you're better than me or something? You think I can't handle whatever you've got? Fight me, for real!" The boy fell silent then, and the only sound that passed through the air was of Sasuke breathing heavily after his little outburst. Naruto and Miko were silent for a little bit, just looking at the Last Uchiha before them before Naruto finally gave an answer.

"No."

Sasuke's eyes widened for a moment in surprise before they quickly narrowed in anger. "Why? Why, dammit? Do you think I'm we-?"

"That's not it, you idiot," Naruto told him, shaking his head at the other boy. "I just don't want to fight, and I don't have a reason to anyways. Look, in case you haven't noticed, I'm in a hurry. Trying to get out of here, so if you don't mind, I have to be going." With that, he started walking by Sasuke, Miko by his side blowing raspberries at the other boy.

"Wait."

Naruto stopped short, groaning a bit and rolling his eyes while Miko was highly tempted to hit the prodigy. "Oh, for the love of- what now?" he asked turning to the boy, his temper getting the best of him. "I said I'm not going to fight you!"

"Tell me." Sasuke stated simply, also turning to look at the blond. "Why didn't you fight me seriously? I can tell you're good. You're not the best of our class, but I can feel that you're strong. So why did you hold back? And why are you leaving the village?"

Naruto stood there for a second, turning to look at Miko while she looked back at him, a silent conversation passing between them, though to Sasuke it looked like the blond was looking at the trees to their side. Finally Naruto sighed, and looked back at Sasuke.

"Alright, alright, geesh. If it'll get you off my back about fighting me, then I'll tell you why I didn't go all out. Happy?" At Sasuke's nod, Naruto put his hands behind his head. "Why would you care?"

Sasuke was silent for a minute, as if waiting for Naruto to continue. When he didn't, the raven-haired boy got angry again. "What the hell kind of reason is that? I care because you were mocking me! I was putting my all into that fight, and you just barely put up a fight! My fangirls could've taken you out easily, you were that bad!"

To Sasuke's annoyance, the blond just shrugged like he didn't care. Which in truth, he didn't. "Look, you asked, I answered. I mean, come on. I'm the 'dead-last', remember? And you're the top student. So again, why should you care? Focus on getting stronger or brood or whatever the hell else you do. Besides, I'm leaving Konoha, so that's even more of a reason for you not to care, right?"

Sasuke growled, clenching his hands into fists until the knuckles turned white. "Stop mocking me!"

"I'm not mocking you, dammit! I just don't care about a school-ground fight, even if it was a class! Look, the thing is, you're the only one getting upset about this stupid shit. It doesn't matter to me, the loser, so why should it matter to you, the winner? It shouldn't. So can you tell me why it should?"

Sasuke was silent, fuming over the fact that he couldn't really argue against Naruto without sounding like a brat. Noticing this, Naruto sighed, and decided to at least try and calm the boy down a bit. "Look, if it'll make you feel better, I'll show you what I can do. Is that ok?"

Sasuke looked up, his face thoughtful for a minute. So he had been right before: Naruto did have an ability that he was hiding. Deciding that it wouldn't hurt, he nodded. Maybe he could get a glimpse at how strong Naruto really was.

Naruto walked over to a tree, stopping beside it before turning to look back at the other boy, and held his hand up. "Look carefully, ok? 'Cause I don't want to have to show you twice."

As Sasuke stared at Naruto's hand, confused, nothing happened for a moment. But his look of confusion gave way to shock as he saw blood begin to seep through Naruto's hand in some strange pattern. As if that wasn't weird enough, the blood was dripping down his hand, but was staying there, despite Naruto holding his hand completely vertical. After making sure that Sasuke had a good look, Naruto pressed his hand against the tree and then removed it, leaving the blood, still in it's odd pattern, on the bark. The only indication that blood had come from Naruto's hand that remained on him was the blood smeared there.

"This is a Rune," Naruto explained, walking back to his still silent companion (besides Miko, who had a mischievous look in her eye. "You know what it means to have a weird power right? People look at you different. Doesn't really mean anything to me, but the Hokage looks down on me. He doesn't really like this power. Can't really become a Konoha shinobi like this, so that's why I didn't fight back for real."

"Wait a minute," Sasuke asked, confused. "That doesn't make any sense. The Hokage is looking down on you for an ability? That's stupid, we're a ninja village! What kind of leader looks down on an ability that could help out his village?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to look a bit angry. Beside him, Miko also looked miffed as she thought back to the reason Naruto wanted to leave.

"Come in, Naruto-kun. Take a seat."

Naruto walked over to the chair placed in front of the old man's desk, never once looking at him. Behind the blond, Miko scowled at the Hokage before leaning against Naruto's back, her arms draped over his shoulders. Both of them had an idea as to what this was about, but still decided to play nice.

For now.

"So," Naruto started, still looking except at the Hokage. "What's this about, old man?"

Sarutobi sighed, placing his pipe to the side and fixing a stare onto the boy. For awhile, the two had been on good terms, and he had even at one point considered Naruto a sort of grandson. But lately, their relationship had gone sour, and all because of...

"I wanted to ask you about the fight, Naruto-kun." The Hokage said. "I'm curious. Why didn't you use any of your techniques? If you had, you might have won. Yet you went with taijutsu against an opponent who is better at it than you, and because of that not only did you get beaten, you didn't even hit your opponent. Not once!"

Naruto gave a mental sigh while Miko gave an audible one. It figured that the old man would be watching. Yeah, it was nice to have someone watching out for you- from time to time. Not constantly watching like some kind of stalker. Seriously, hadn't the man ever heard of privacy or minding his own business. Oh yeah, he still had to answer the Hokage's question.

"Meh, Sasuke was using all taijutsu, and I wanted to beat him with whatever he used. That's all." Naruto shrugged, not really caring about the whole thing. Sarutobi didn't buy it, and looked at Naruto with a critical eye.

"Are you sure that's the only reason? Are you sure it's not because-"

"Dammit old man, don't start that with me again!" Naruto interrupted, finally looking at the Hokage angrily. "She hasn't done anything to me, and my techniques don't have any backlash! Just lay off about her, alright?"

"Yeah, Old-man Liver Spots! Listen to Naruto-kyun for once!" Miko chorused, sticking her tongue out at the Hokage, even if he wasn't looking at her.

"I will not 'lay off' about her, Naruto-kun. How can you trust her so much? You don't know where she's from, why she's here- and why you, of all people!" Hiruzen told the boy. All of a sudden the room's temperature dropped several degrees, and Hiruzen knew he said something that he shouldn't have.

"And what's that supposed to mean, Hokage-sama?" the blond hissed darkly, staring hard at the village leader with enough heat in his gaze that Miko thought the old man would catch on fire from it.

"Oooh! Liver Spots's in trouble, Liver Spot's in trouble!" Sang Miko gleefully, floating over the Hokage's head and spinning in circles. "That's what happens when you say mean things!"

"I didn't mean it like that, Naruto-kun, you know that." Sarutobi told the blond, still ignoring the blunette that had stopped spinning above him, sitting down in the air to try and watch the Hokage explain what he meant. "I meant, why would she choose a child, one who's barely trained and still not ready for serious combat, over a fully trained Jounin, or even a competently trained Chunin?"

"Because that would be boring." Naruto and Miko said at the same time.

Sarutobi sighed, rubbing his temples and looking at the boy. "Look Naruto-kun. I can understand that you think she's doing this just to be friends with you. But you can't trust just her word without anything to back it up. She's a youkai, Naruto, you told me yourself. A youkai. You know what they're also called right? A demon."

Naruto rolled his eyes, though it was partly to get a better look at Miko who looked upset at the Hokage calling her a demon. "Yeah, yeah, I hear what you're saying- and then I'm forgetting it." the blond said. "Look, old man, I'm not going to give Miko up. She's my friend, so try and trust her a bit more! She came to me, she wants to stay with me, and so she's staying! Simple as that!"

"No, Naruto." The Hokage said sternly, standing up and looking Naruto dead in the eye and unknowingly making Miko fly back over to Naruto. "It is not as simple as that. A youkai poses a threat to the village, especially one that we have little to no knowledge about towards her motivation or origins. One way or another, I'm going to have to do something about this problem. Which is why I want you to allow us to remove her from you. We can do it with or without your permission, but I'd rather you allow it. It'd make it easier for us, and it would prove to me that you're not being manipulated by her in any way, shape, or form. Understand, this is for the good of the village, as well as your own."

"The Runes are all made out of my blood, so the Hokage sees them as sort of a bad omen, you know? He thinks that it's an evil power, so he wants to seal it away. But I won't let him. I won't let him take away the thing that makes me feel alive!" The boy declared fiercely, Miko smiling shyly behind him. Suddenly Naruto turned to Sasuke, a panicked look on his face. "Crap, that reminds me, how did you find me? You didn't tell anyone about this, did you? Oh man, I hope you weren't followed!"

Thrown off by the blond's sudden change in demeanor, Sasuke quickly answered. "I saw you climb into the wagon. I was curious, so I followed you for awhile before I went ahead to get the driver to stop. Nobody knows I'm here, and I didn't tell anyone about me seeing you leave. Chill out already, dobe."

At Sasuke's words, Naruto let out a sigh of relief, Miko doing the same beside him. "Man, that's good. Anyways, Sasuke, I need to get going. You should get back soon, otherwise somebody might notice you're missing and send someone to track you. And I don't think you remembered to do something to make sure that you're trail was covered."

"Oh?" Sasuke smirked, a challenging look coming to his eyes. "And you did?"

"Yup!"

"..."

"Well, anyways," Naruto continued, ignoring the disbelieving look Sasuke was giving him and clapping the Uchiha on the back. "I'm heading out. Maybe I'll see you again someday!"

Sasuke smirked, looking the blond in the eye. "Hn. Alright, but if we do meet again, you have to fight me. All out this time."

"Deal!" Naruto agreed, shaking hands with the prodigy before they both turned to go their separate ways. "Oh, and Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"Gotcha!" Before Sasuke could do anything, Naruto flashed a smile over his shoulder.

Before he could ponder on the blond's words, Sasuke found himself flying backwards towards and impacting into the tree that Naruto had touched earlier. As the stars danced around his head, he could dimly hear Naruto shout back to him. "Just thought that since you followed me all the way out here without getting caught or followed that I should give you a pat on the back. Later!" And with that the blond was gone, his laughter sounding in Sasuke's ears until he was nothing more than a speck on the horizon.

'What the hell- what happened?' Sasuke thought to himself, trying to pull away from the tree. To his shock, however, he found that he was stuck fast. Or rather, only a certain part of his back was. But wait, isn't that where he...? Oh, you sneaky, under-handed bastard! Sasuke snarled to as he recalled Naruto's words.

'Thought that I should give you a pat on the back.'

"DAMMIT NARUTO!"

"Well, here we are in... ah, hell, skip it. Too tired to care." Naruto grumbled after walking into a small town. It wasn't like Konoha, where most of the buildings were really tall and nice looking. The tallest one here was about two stories high, and only because it was an inn. The town as a whole wasn't run-down, really. It was just... not as high quality like he was used to seeing.

The people that walked the streets in front of him were pretty much the same as the civilians in Konoha. A few were dirty, and there were even a couple of old women on a corner a few feet away chatting in whispers to each other, gossiping no doubt. And further down the road a young girl was playing with her brother in front of a house, with what looked to be their mother watching over them with a warm smile on her face. All in all, it was a nice, quiet and cozy little place.

"You, tired?" Miko giggled from on his back, her arms around his neck. "Since when did you ever get tired? Have you been getting lazy, neglecting your training?" she teased lightly.

"Not my fault that I was carrying a freeloader on my back. Who's the lazy one?" Naruto shot back. Despite his complaints there was no heat to the words, and Miko was fine with that. They both knew that she didn't have any weight (though she could still touch him, and vice-versa), but it didn't stop Naruto from griping every now and then.

"So what are we gonna do now, Naruto-kyun?"

Naruto, for his part, adopted a thinking pose, ignoring the two old ladies that were staring at him now. "Well, how about we find a place to crash? I got very little money, so the inn is out, and I don't think we should just ask a random person if we can bunk at their place."

With a nod Miko flew up into the sky, looking for a place where they would be able to spend the night. This town wasn't that big, so it shouldn't take- "There! There's a small house over there that looks empty! You wanna stay there Naruto-kyun?"

Naruto gave small nod, deciding not to give the two grandmas anymore of a reason to gossip. He knew that it had looked like he was talking to himself in the middle of the road, and he had to be honest in that if he had seen anyone else do that he would have thought them crazy and stayed away from them. So he kept his mouth shut and followed Miko as she directed him from the air to the place that she had found.

After about ten minutes he found himself in a small little house that truly looked abandoned. Dead grass, broken windows- the thing was the epitome of run-down. Least the door was still intact, that was something.

The inside was in just as good a condition inside as it was out, save dustier. A couch with worn out cushions was in the room off to his left, and a room that he guessed was a dining room was off to his right, if the broken table in the center of the room was any indication. And in front of him was a closed door, possibly leading to a bedroom. Deciding to look around a bit more Naruto and Miko headed to the closed door, Miko out of curiosity and Naruto because he was hoping to find a bed.

Behind the closed door lay disappointment for both of them. There was nothing interesting for Miko, and the only 'bed' in the room was an old mattress. "Well, shit." Naruto muttered. "Not exactly what I was hoping for. Ah well, beggars can't be choosers, right?" Not hearing an answer from his friend, Naruto turned around to ask her again.

What he wasn't expecting, however, was to see someone else in the room with him. Dirty white clothes, celadon hair, and dark tanned skin. That was weird enough, but what really struck Naruto were her eyes. Not just because they were orange (To which he thought was awesome) but because those eyes looked really annoyed. Though to be honest, the girl as a whole looked annoyed. And that was proven when the girl finally spoke.

"Hey kid, what do you think you're doing? This is my house."