Disclaimer:

No, I don't own Naruto. No, I do not own any songs/quotes unless specified otherwise. Yes, I own this plot. Yes, I will kill you brutally and painfully if you steal it. No, you do not want to steal it. Yes, I am sure you don't. No, I do not talk this way all the time. Yes, I'll shut up now. No, this will not be a totally cliché fic.

AND YES, YES YOU WILL ENJOY THIS.

Also, the characters are all more sensitive and such than in the series. Why? Well, for one, it's an AU story set in the modern world, in a made-up area that has the same maps and countries as canon but is American in laws, customs, stuffs and the like. (Yes, I know it should be in Japan, but I live here so it's easier to write (and I know nothing of Japan…).) Most normal people are a bunch of babies compared to our amazing Shinobi of Naruto. Example: Normal person- screams when leg is broken. Shinobi- keeps on fighting the battle while standing on the leg. However, Naruto is stronger than most people in this, if only because he is used to everything. He's still human, though, so excuse me if I feel like making him more sensitive or something than cannon.

Oh, I'm not a fast updater, and now I'm writing two stories. However, my updates are long (aside from intros, which are still longer than some people's normal chapters) and good quality, so please bear with me. The song is called "Everybody Lies", but I forgot who it's by.

Only the intro is in 1st person POV, because I felt like doing that. Yes, the intro is loooong, like 3k, but I needed to explain things… Btw, I dunno how long the chapters will be. O-O

We say what we have to

When we fall in love

We say what we need to get out

When it's not enough

Whether it's to yourself

Or lookin' at someone else

Everybody Lies, lies, lies

It's the only truth some times

Doesn't matter if it's out there

Somewhere

Waitin' for the world to find

Buried deep inside

Everybody Lies

Just bein' honest

We're playin' for both sides

It's easy to deceive but it's hard

When the trust that's broken is mine

For better

Or for worst

For the happy

For the hurt

Everybody Lies, lies, lies

It's the only truth sometimes

Whether it's out there

Somewhere

Waitin' for the world to find

Buried deep inside

Everybody Lies

Oh Everybody Lies

Everybody Lies

Introduction

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, I was happy. Momma and Daddy were in love. Momma didn't cry, Daddy didn't drink, and I didn't want to die. We all laughed, we all smiled, and we all sang and danced and played. Back then, my eyes were as bright as the sky and my hair vibrant as the sun. The house was always warm, even in the coldest of winters. I never longed for anything, for even if we had little, we always had enough. We were a family once… However, 'Nothing gold can stay', as Frost once wrote.

Once upon a time, I was innocent. I knew not of the dangers of the world, nor did I know the feeling of pain. Life was beautiful in those days. I was a sweet, caring child. I was quiet and kind, though I had my moments of mischievousness and comedy. I chased butterflies and played games, never tense or watchful of danger. Never did I fear for my safety, for I had no reason for such feelings. I was childish and naïve. My body was free of impurity, my heart of sadness and my mind of darkness. I had been young in every sense of the word, but then I grew up.

Once upon a time, I had friends. We played. We talked. We laughed. I became attached to them, and they to me. I grew close to a boy with dark brown hair and even darker eyes, though his name and precise features remained forgotten, faded along with all my pleasant memories. He was kind to me, and I to him. Never did we do anything separate, if it was in our power to choose. He was closer to me than all my other friends, and I cherished every moment spent with that boy. We never grew apart, really. I was just whisked away…

Once upon a time, Momma sang. She was always so happy and warm to me, her soft smile permanent upon her features. Momma was a kind woman, caring towards all yet with a temper that even Daddy feared. Those who hurt her loved ones were subject to her wrath, for no one was allowed to touch them (but her). Yet, to me, she was never angry. Momma's voice was always soft when she spoke to me, her gentle words caressing me. I played affectionately with her long, crimson strands, and she with my golden. Her blue eyes were just a bit darker than mine, and I supposed it was because they were filled with love so deep they changed the tone. Momma used to read to me at night, and then she would lay with me until I fell asleep. Unless she was very sick or tired, I would always awaken to her beautiful voice filling my sleepy ears and her pretty face within my line of view. Momma told me she would never leave me alone. She was my everything, and I never loved anything more than I loved her. Then Momma started to cry.

Once upon a time, Daddy was kind. He never hit, swore, or even rose his voice too high. Daddy was once a good father. He protected Momma and me from anything and everything, and nothing ever got in his way of keeping us safe. He picked me up and carried me on his shoulders when I grew tired. If I was sad, Daddy tickled me until I stopped crying. Once in a while, he brought me to his work to see his friends and their children. Daddy was a good man, once. He was the chief, the boss of the men who stopped the bad guys. Sometimes, he got hurt. He stayed strong through his pain each time, no matter how bad he was hurt, though. Daddy always played with me, bringing me new toys or inventing games that only Momma and the two of us knew. He took me on special trips with him on some weekends, where we would spend the night in the woods. We had campfires, roasted marshmallows, and a cozy blanket of stars to sleep under. I loved the way the sun shone on his golden locks, or the way his bright blue eyes sparkled when I made him happy or proud. He told me that he would never stop loving me. Daddy always smiled, too, until he found a bottle.

Once upon a time, I trusted people. I believed every word Momma and Daddy said to me. Momma said she would never leave me alone. She said she would always sing to me, for years and years to come. She said she would always be there to hug me when I was sad or patch my knees when I fell to the ground. She said I'd never have to grow up without a Momma there with me, and I believed her. Daddy said he would always love me. He promised me that he would never hurt me or Momma. He said that I would always ride on his shoulders, that he would always carry me to the clouds. Daddy told me that he would always be there, with me and for me, and I believed him.

Once upon a time, Momma and Daddy lied.

Everything was perfect, so immaculate that I tend to wonder how it didn't fall apart sooner. You see, my life began to crumble the day Daddy discovered drinking. He started off small – a sip here, a glass there – for a little while. Daddy didn't change yet. But then he started having a little more, and a little more. Daddy drank a lot, and I learned later that, in medical terms, he had become a severe alcoholic.

The day it all changed was the day I realized something was wrong. I was only… five at the time. Daddy had come home acting funny, and he smelled bad. He was being clumsy, laughing too much, and he shouted too loudly. I knew my dad, and that was not normal. It all came crashing down, though, when I spilt my juice on the carpet. Every other day, I would have had a small scolding, yet nothing more. Momma and Daddy knew that I was sensitive, and a single "I'm disappointed in you, don't do it again," was more than enough to solve the problem. But, for a reason I never learned until much later, that day was different. Daddy hit me for spilling my small cup. Then he hit me again, and again, and again. I screamed and cried the whole time, for I was so confused and devastated, and it hurt so much. Momma came running down and stopped Daddy from hurting me anymore, but the damage was done. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Momma didn't really stop Daddy; she had only postponed the inevitable. The next day, Daddy hit me again. Momma tried to stop him, but he hit her too. Then he… he pulled a knife on me, and carved jagged whisker marks into my face, giving me the appearance of a fox. He beat us both and left. Momma held me that day while I screamed and sobbed, and I held her while she let a few tears slip as well. I asked her so many times from then on why Daddy changed, why he hit us, and she told me she didn't know. Daddy left most nights, but he always came back the next. He always acted funny, and if he didn't then he was just mean and cranky. Most days I got hurt more than Momma did, but sometimes she was worse off. She always tried to protect me, though. I eventually stopped calling my father Daddy, and instead called him Minato-san. He wasn't my Daddy anymore, and Momma never told me to stop.

Momma changed too, though my name for her never did. Momma never grew mean like Minato-san, but she still broke her promises. She left me alone more and more, and when she was home, she wasn't all there. She tried her best to be with me, though, and I fear that I was the only reason she stayed with my father.

Then suddenly, we were moving. We left Konoha behind only days after I discovered we were, leaving me heartbroken. Most of my friends were only sad, but the boy with the dark hair and eyes cried with me. He didn't want me to leave forever, and I didn't want to go. He wasn't as sad as he could have been, though, for he never found out about Minato-san's abuse. I was around six at the time of the move. It turned out that Minato-san had lost his job, as he never showed up anymore. Just after, the rest of the police force caught wind of his abusive tendencies, and so we fled to Sunagakure to wait for the investigations to pass.

Minato-san never regained a job, though Momma opened a beautiful flower shop. Kushina's Blossoms, it was called. I loved the small establishment, her gorgeous blooms the only thing that reminded me of my true home. She had brought with her many seeds from Konoha, her forethought being the only reason we prospered as we did. The flowers had been grown in an indoor greenhouse at the back of the shop. Momma had also grown medicinal herbs that were difficult to find within the harsh desert climate, and so she was paid large sums by the hospital for her products. The business, overall, was very well off, Suna's inhabitants absolutely mystified with her green plants. After all, vegetation in the desert was quite the, albeit beautiful, abnormality.

However, we were not a well off 'family' by any means. Perhaps we could have been, had Minato-san not been around. Sadly, he was, and he was constantly stealing Momma's money to purchase more booze and, later, drugs. In turn, Momma and I were among the poor of the village, often finding our pickings among the scraps left upon the streets. Sometimes, Momma would be cornered by Minato-san and more big men, and she would hide me and lead them away. When she returned, she would look bad and, sometimes, cry, and I always held her through the night. Once in a while, the men would find me, too, and they would hurt me even worse than when Minato-san did. Yet, they never seemed to hurt me as bad as they hurt Momma, much to my distress. Apparently, even thugs had morals.

I developed a strong will to protect Momma, and even began jumping in front of her when Minato-san would try to kick her. My jaw broke one day from a metal-toed kick to the face, but my father had ran away once he heard my bloodcurdling, slightly strangled scream. I figured he either still had a tiny bit of affection within his murderous heart, or he had been afraid Momma would murder him… Most likely the latter. I developed some street smarts during my stay in Suna that, even if only a little, helped me to protect my breaking Momma.

It had been around four years of living in Suna's slums before I met my first true friend since the brown-eyed boy. I figured I was about ten, though I'm not sure. I was jogging down a street, looking for Momma, when I came upon the park. For so long, I had been chased out of the playground, mothers calling me 'demon child', 'kid from the slums', or 'street brat' and herding their children away from me. Normally, this courtyard was packed with families and children, especially on peaceful days such as these. Yet, for some reason, it was completely empty. That was when I noticed him.

I suppose it would have been hard not to notice the boy. He sat upon the single swing underneath one of the few trees of Suna, probably about 100 meters away. He looked to be about ten, a bit short for his age, and pretty slim- too thin, like me. I noticed the bruises on his pale skin from where I stood, but that was not the most shocking feature. His hair was crimson, a bit lighter than Momma's, and both his iris' and pupils were the same shade of sea foam green. Underneath each eye seemed to be a dark circle, most likely from lack of sleep and abusive bruising, which he just resorted to covering up cleanly with some sort of eye-liner or charcoal. Not only that, but he had the Japanese Kanji for 'love' carved into his forehead… Also, his eyebrows were seemingly nonexistent, but I later learned that they were just very thin and very, very light. I'd have taken a moment to stare had I not noticed his face. He was obviously deeply depressed and troubled, and as I made my way closer, I noticed the unshed tears held within his unique eyes. 'He's like me…' I thought.

So, I made my way over to him. He introduced himself as Gaara Sabaku, and I followed suit with an 'I'm Naruto Uzumaki'. We began chatting and getting to know each other, and I realized that we were alike in many, many aspects. His father was, too, a chief of Police, but he was still in office. You see, Gaara was beaten for reason's different than mine. While his two siblings were treated like royalty, his father believed him to have murdered his mother, as if Gaara had a choice in his birth. Both of his siblings feared their 'murderous demon brother' and the village followed suit. Gaara was a depressed, slightly anorexic insomniac, exactly like I was. His father had carved Gaara's kanji into his forehead, just as my father had created my whisker marks. So, Gaara and I began meeting at the swings, and we bonded, quickly becoming best friends. Heck, Minato-san even started beating Gaara like he did me! Wait… That's not a good thing… Anyway, it was obvious that the red-head was accepted into the family, by all members involved. Momma even began cooking extra during meals and setting him a place to sleep, as he came over so often. It felt nice having a brother…

Years past in relative normality, my brother and I slipping into our teens years without so much as batting an eyelash. I created a mask, maybe even alternate personality, which spoke too loud and acted like a complete moron to use in public. I also grew adapted to wearing a large, baggy orange-and-blue hoodie to hide my too-small figure. It made me look bigger, which stopped some smaller thugs, and hid my slightly-feminine looking body, which warded off men after… other things. Gaara copied me in the hoodie sense, though his was red and black. Due to my constant influence, the would-have-been stoic Gaara developed quite the… rebellious side, though he never went as far as hurting anyone unless it was for self-defense. I was a few months older than my adopted brother, having been born October 10th, 1996, whereas Gaara's birth date was January 19th, 1997. However, having been so short on cash, we celebrated our 16th birthdays halfway between our actual dates, making a family-only double party (which meant only Momma, Gaara and I…). We celebrated during December, the 21st to be exact. We'd have celebrated sooner, but... Some unexpected 'events' had occurred, and I hadn't returned until about five days prior. Gaara and I had gotten IPhones and ear buds, the gifts doubling as both birthday and Christmas presents. Freaking IPhones. Yes, because music. Gosh, did we have a freaking ball with this…

About a month after our double party, Minato-san decided to move Momma and me across the world again. Apparently, the devil incarnate had managed to become a billion dollar national drug dealer without our knowing about it, and the Suna Police had uncovered everything. I knew he was a huge dealer, but I didn't know he was in the billion dollars... 'You'd think he'd use at least some of that money for food, but nooo…' I'd thought when I heard. At first, I had been pretty nonchalant about the whole ordeal, until I realized a vital little detail about my brother. As it turns out, Gaara wasn't actually my brother, and it was apparently illegal to smuggle him out of the country in my backpack. They called it kidnapping, while I called it 'saving my brother from h**l"… Alright, so I admitted to previously having a 'bad mouth' for a little while, but Momma had quickly 'fixed' that habit of mine… Momma got scary when she got mad… So I explained the situation with my father and asked if he wanted to come with us to wherever we were moving to. Well, naturally, he and his rebellious, occasionally emo-ish self, responded easily, "So, I'd be leaving my abusive father and evil siblings to move in with my awesome brother and his awesome Momma, yet with his abusive, former police chief slash billion dollar drug dealer father, to travel across the world on a wild goose chase trying to outrun cops that I technically have nothing to do with in this instance?" His voice made it sound as if he despised the idea, and I averted my hurt eyes. Then, he smirked. "Naruto, that is the most rebellious, evil, insane, absolutely brilliant plan in the history of such plans. I'm in." Ah, classic Gaara.

So, while Minato-san made last minute preparations, Momma, Gaara, and I met with his 'dad' and discussed his guardianship. To Gaara's happiness, as well as dismal, his father immediately jumped at the chance to get the red-head off his hands. Within three hours, Kushina Uzumaki was the legal guardian of Gaara Sabaku, and Minato-san didn't know a thing. Oh, he was mad later, but he was too drunk to do anything. We fled the day after, January 1st, arriving in a village I thought I'd only revisit in my dreams. I was home, Konoha… Minato-san's investigation years had been terminated a few years prior, so it was safe.

Gaara was fascinated by all the vegetation, forestry and trees. I still remembered many of the main roads, for I visited them every night in my dreams, and quickly gave him a tour. We each ate three bowls at Ichiraku and spent our last few dollars on a bouquet of crimson lilies for Momma at the Yamanaka flower shop. Ah, it seems that Gaara had begun referring to Momma as, well, Momma. I had never noticed until we bought the flowers. No one had recognized me at all, but I figured that was okay since I forgot them too. However, I did see a slight glint of recognition in old man Teichu's face…

Well, a few days after we got settled in to our new house, Momma called us into the living room. With the biggest, grandest smile her face could physically muster, she gave us her 'amazing, totally fantastic' news. We were going to be attending Konoha's prestigious Minkan High once Christmas vacation was over. (AN: I'm original! HAH, TAKE THAT, YOU UNORIGIONAL KONOHA-HIGHERS.) Well, to two 16 year old teen boys who had been homeschooled their entire lives and were used to sleeping at 2:00AM and waking up at noon, this was not the definition of amazing news. In fact, it was quite the opposite, really, and Momma was immediately hit with a barrage of protests. However, she drew upon a bout of rage, hair somehow lifting into nine red, waving locks – Now that I think about it, they resemble the nine tails of the Kitsune – as her eyes flashed red. That was all it took for us to enter of a state of 'shut the heck up' disease, before we began chattering about how 'amazing, totally fantastic' our school was going to be.

After speaking with Gaara a bit, I realized that school may not be all that bad. I could even reconnect with old friends, and figure out who the brown-eyed boy was! Then, something hit me. Where there were teenagers and new kids, there were bullies and harassment. I withdrew into a state of overly dramatic, hyperventilating panic at the thought of bullies in front of Momma, while Gaara just screwed up his unofficial act of 'calming me down'. Momma didn't buy this at all, and soon, we were all laughing. Really, we've been through some of the worst things people can go through without being kidnapped – wait, I was kidnapped a few times… Anyway, we lived with Minato Namikaze, for God's sake! Bullies? PFFT. I screamed to the world, "THROW THEM AT ME!" Well, that was a bad idea.

Between Momma and Minato-san, the Police, encouraging quotes, myself, and, now, bullies, I've learned one thing for sure.

Everybody lies.

"Once upon a time, I was happy." It's funny how things can change…

Yup, new storeh. I had the idea last night after reading one of Windschild's stories (no that's not her whole name but I don't remember the numbers). So, since I got off early from school today due to appointments, I started this in the car some time between 11:00AM and 1:00PM. And then I finished it at around 10:30. Yup. 3421 word INTRO. IN-FREAKING-TRO. Yup. I'm proud. Half a day, and I extended my intro to 3421 words. I feel surprisingly productive. Yup.

Don't expect this very often, because while I brainstorm ideas for this (feel free to give suggestions, because I take all into consideration) I'll be working on the next chapter in Rifts. Yup. I still feel productive though.

Please Review? I feel like a mainstream person for requesting reviews, but I want them. ;-;

Warnings:

Violence, angsty scenes, possible self-harm, Bad!Minato, Abusive!Minato, Living!Minato&Kushina, Naruto and Gaara are bros (adopted) because I want them to be, Modern Day AU, depression, very sad teary-eyed scenes, some really funny scenes (is listed as a warning because you might die from laughing too much…),

Rating:

Rated T for violence. Some violent scenes in flashbacks may border on M, such as when he got his cheek scars, but they won't be enough to change the rating as they will technically only qualify as high-T rating. I'll leave a warning if there is going to be any slightly intense violence, kay? No gore though...

POV:

Usually Naruto's POV. 3rd person POV always, though this intro was an exception because I felt like it.

Setting:

Set in the modern day, with normal technology such as IPhones and stuff. Fire, Water, Wind, Lightening, and Earth Country all exist and are different countries. Ninja villages are their capitals. Hokages are Police Chiefs, while the Daimyos are the, well, Daimyos. Anyway, yah. The year is 2014, btw~