Can you hear me?

Chapter one

Naruto Uzumaki was standing at the bridge, waiting for his teammates. Today was his 13th birthday, but Naruto was willing to bet that neither Sasuke Uchiha nor Sakura Haruno would remember, nor would they care that they had forgotten. Naruto was used to how little his teammates actually cared for him. He kept hoping and working hard to change their opinions but so far he hadn't seen any change, and he wasn't holding his breath waiting for it to happen to. There was days he wished that he didn't care as much as he did, maybe then it would be a little easier to deal with their rejection.

Sighing, Naruto wished that he could forget his loneliness, he'd been alone for as long as he could remember; along and abused. He wondered if he would ever find acceptance in the Konoha village. Looking up, Naruto stared at the Hokage Mountain, his greatest dream was to be one of those on that mountain. The village would have to respect him then. Naruto could almost feel the happiness of never hiding another bruise, or painting on a fake grin so that his teammates couldn't see how much they hurt him with their carelessness. Maybe then, Naruto would understand what it meant to have a true friend. Until then Naruto would continue to work as hard as he could to become a strong ninja. He would somehow harness the pain of carelessly made comments and turn that into energy he could use. He couldn't allow his depression to defeat him.

Naruto heaved another sigh, growing more irritated and bored by the second. It seemed like his teammates were taking forever to get there. Usually you could always count on Sasuke to be on time and Sakura always arrived a few minutes later after the Uchiha.

"Maybe Sasuke suddenly realized he could live without revenge and went to the hospital to get checked." Naruto muttered to himself. Though he knew the chances of that ever happening were slim. Sasuke thrived on the idea of getting stronger so that he could get revenge for his fallen clan. Sasuke was always claiming to be better than Naruto and Naruto, not being an idiot could admit to himself that Sasuke was somewhat better than him. He just wouldn't let his rival know that. Naruto had a stronger work ethic so he firmly believed he would be the better ninja, he didn't have Sasuke's baggage weighing him down. He didn't mind letting the teme know either. Naruto thought Sasuke should be taken down a peg or two. No one liked someone who constantly bragged about their abilities. Not that anyone liked Naruto to begin with.

As Naruto continued pacing back and forth impatiently, he wondered if he had gotten their meeting place wrong. They had always met at the bridge for training. Naruto wouldn't have put it past Sakura to tell him they were meeting at the bridge, when in reality they were meeting somewhere else. Naruto knew that Sakura wanted as much alone time with Sasuke as she could get. Naruto almost felt sorry for Sasuke for having to constantly put up with Sakura's plan's, but then Naruto wondered what it would be like to have someone pursue him like that and anything he felt for Sasuke vanished.

Tired of pacing, Naruto flopped down in the grass and stared up at the blue sky. What a wonderful birthday this was turning out to be, Naruto thought glumly. I have no one to celebrate it with. At least the villagers were leaving him alone, Naruto supposed that was something to be grateful for. Even as he thought that, he had the feeling the villagers would soon find him. They wouldn't have to look very hard to know where the loud mouthed ninja was.

"Why can't I be normal?" Naruto wondered out loud. "Why must everyone hate me? Is it a bad thing for me to even have one friend?" Naruto had wondered why no one had ever liked him, and had abused him so often. He had soon come to understand that he housed the nine tailed demon fox. Naruto couldn't understand why the people thought he was the demon when he only kept it from destroying the village again.

Naruto wondered what his life would have been like had the fox demon never been sealed inside of him. Would he have a father and a mother to come home to? Would his father ground him for getting bad grades? Would his mother comfort him when he was getting bullied at school? Would they both encourage him to become the best ninja he could be? Naruto knew he would never know the answers to these questions and he felt lonelier knowing that he wouldn't. Naruto desperately longed for a friend that could understand the pain he lived with every single day. Naruto, also knew that was asking too much of the people of Konoha. They cared about everyone except the lonely boy, who so very badly needed someone to care about him. Naruto wished he could make people understand that just because he housed the demon, it didn't make him the demon.

As Naruto lay there staring up at the sky, wondering what his life in the future would be like, when he heard an irritated let loose a string of curse words. Sitting up, Naruto stared curiously at the forest wondering why it sounded like Sasuke was fighting against someone.

"Die, already" Naruto heard someone call out, and somehow Naruto knew that whoever Sasuke was fighting weren't genin level. Sensing that his teammate was in serious trouble, Naruto pushed himself to his feet, Sasuke was a strong fighter but if Naruto was correct in his thinking, then Sasuke still couldn't beat whomever he was fighting by himself. A few minutes later Naruto appeared beside a breathless Sasuke.

"Need some help?" Naruto asked as he dodged a kunai thrown from one of the enemy ninja. Sasuke glared at Naruto, as if it was Naruto's fault he had been attacked in the first place.

"I don't need your help!" Sasuke huffed out a breath of air.

"Looks like you do to me" Naruto muttered, refusing to let Sasuke see how much his careless comment had hurt him. Naruto glanced at Sasuke before turning his attention back to the group that was starting to surround them. Taking a look at the headbands, Naruto noted they were from the Sound Village. He could tell from their fighting skills they were at least Jounin level, which made Naruto wonder why eight jounin level nin's sent after one genin? Something wasn't adding up, even as strong as Sasuke was, even he couldn't take on eight top level nin.

"It's the nine tailed brat" a dark haired man sneered as he approached Naruto. Sasuke had been struggling to take in air, but when heard the words the nin muttered, he turned and stared at Naruto.

"Poor little Naruto, I guess your teammate doesn't know that you're really the demon fox that destroyed this village 13 years ago today." the nin sneered again and Naruto glared, feeling Sasuke's stare on his back.

"They weren't supposed to know about it" Naruto glared as he reached down for a kunai, but before he could throw it, Naruto felt a sharp kick to his chest, sending Naruto flying backwards.

Wincing, as he stared up at the sky, he wondered how the nin had moved that fast? Naruto started to stand, but another rib crushing kick landed to Naruto's side, leaving him gasping for air.

Before Naruto realized it, he was surrounded by eight ninja, and various kicks and punches were thrown his way, at such a pace that he couldn't even form a shadow clone to defend himself. As Naruto glanced through a sea of legs, he saw Sasuke running away.

Did Sasuke lead those nin here? Naruto wondered was their real purpose to get their hands on the last sharingan or the nine tailed demon? Naruto should have known that Sasuke wouldn't stick around to help him out, after all Naruto didn't think that Sasuke really understood what the term teammates truly meant.

As Naruto felt another snapping rib, he couldn't help but cry out in pain. If they continued the beating like this, Naruto knew he wouldn't survive. The fox couldn't heal all the injuries he was getting.

Naruto struggled to go push himself to his feet, but he felt two feet slam into the side of his head, and Naruto felt an excruciating pain burst in both of his ears, and at once the world went silent, making Naruto wonder what exactly had happened.

Tears streamed down Naruto's face, as he saw one of the nin pull out a kunai and Naruto could only watch as the nin slashed through Naruto's right eye, causing the 13 year old to scream in pain as blood began pouring down his face.

"Let's see nine tails heal that!" the nin hissed, knowing Naruto couldn't hear him. "That Kunai was poisoned and the more the demon tries to heal him the more poison he will receive and the weaker and weaker he will get, eventually it will kill the fox, along with the brat. Then we can do whatever we want to the leaf village."

Naruto could only squirm in pain, his good and bad eye squeezed shut. Deaf in both ears, Naruto didn't see or hear the leaf nin that came to Naruto's defense, Sasuke leading them. The proud teen had known they had been too much for him or Naruto to handle on their own, so he had made a quick escape to find Kakashi as soon as Naruto had gotten involved. Now seeing his teammates condition, he wondered if that had been the best decision to make. After Sasuke had explained the situation to Kakashi, and Asuma, they had gathered a few more Jounin and had headed to the forest. Sasuke had been shocked to see how brutally Naruto had been beaten.

After the Sound nin had been captured, Sasuke had stood behind Kakashi as he'd kneeled next to the fallen teen.

"Naruto" Kakashi called out, unaware that Naruto wasn't able to hear him. "Naruto can you open you're eyes for me?"

"Kakashi-Sensei," Sasuke said quietly, "I don't think he can hear you, he's got blood coming out of his ears." Kakashi hissed in anger, seeing the blood, knowing it wasn't a good sign for the young ninja.

Sasuke winced at the bloody gash going through Naruto's eye, he wondered if Naruto would ever be a ninja again after this. With the bloody gash through Naruto's eye and the blood coming out of Naruto's ears, he knew life was about to change for Naruto.

"Those ninja said he was the nine tailed demon fox" Sasuke said his eyes glued to Naruto's face. He might not have liked the kid but that didn't mean he wanted Naruto to be hurt.

"Nine tails is sealed in him, that doesn't make him the demon" Kakashi muttered, as he stood with Naruto in his arms. "You can't speak of nine tails being sealed in Naruto" he added "if the villagers were to hear, they would likely attack Naruto and with him being in the shape he's in, they would likely kill him."

"I thought the fox could heal him?" Sasuke asked, remembering a rumor he had heard.

"He can and does, but I don't know why he's not doing anything right now."

"The nin mentioned the kunai was poisoned" Sasuke recalled thoughtfully "he mentioned it as he slashed Naruto's eye, although at that point I don't believe Naruto could actually hear him."

"Even if it was poisoned, the amount that entered through the eye shouldn't effect the nine tails." Kakashi said, as they ran through the forest and towards the village. Every time Kakashi hit a bump, he hit Naruto's ribs and the boy cried out in pain. Kakashi knew his young student had a few broken ribs and it hurt his heart every time Naruto cried out. Kakashi wouldn't put it past a Konoha villager to do this, but to have someone from the Sound Village left Kakashi with a few questions. No one outside the village was supposed to know about nine tails. So how did the Sound know? And why attack Naruto? What was their purpose in doing so? Why send eight Jounin after one genin, nothing made sense.

Sasuke followed Kakashi to the hospital, training all but forgotten in the light of the current events. He figured training would be canceled anyways because Naruto couldn't exactly fight in his current condition. Sasuke was wondering if Naruto would ever be able to fight again because Sasuke believed Naruto wouldn't be able to see out of his right eye again. That slash had been pretty deep, the damage obvious. Sasuke didn't know a lot about medical things but even he could tell there had been a lot of damage to the eyeball. Sasuke didn't think there was a medic alive that could heal Naruto now, except for the fox if they could get the poison out, then maybe be the fox could start healing him.

At the hospital, Sasuke and Kakashi were left in the waiting room. Sasuke was staring out the window lost in thought.

Naruto woke up in more pain, then he had ever been in before. He couldn't see out of his right eye and the pain that was coming from that area was agonizing, and that pain didn't include the broken ribs or where he'd been kicked in the head. Naruto didn't understand why he was at the hospital anyways. The fox should have healed him already. Something else that worried Naruto was the fact that the room should have been buzzing with sound, but Naruto couldn't hear a word that was being said. Naruto knew he should be worried, but at the moment he couldn't bring himself to care, he was in too much pain.

Several minutes later, it seemed like the medic nins had done what they could for Naruto and Naruto was placed in a room. To him it didn't feel like they had done much because his ribs were on fire and his head was hurting so badly, he wanted to cry.

As Naruto lay there barely conscious he wondered what his injuries meant for him as a ninja. Even if he could still see out of his eye, he couldn't hear anything. What kind of ninja would that make him? Not a very good one to be sure. If Naruto couldn't be a ninja, what was he supposed to do for the rest of his life? Because of nine tails no one would hire him and without money he would be kicked out of his apartment. Sighing, Naruto turned to stare out the window, worrying could do him no good right now, but what else could he do? He was completely alone with no one to care that he was now permanently disabled with no hope of being able to continue as a ninja. Naruto's life as he knew it was over.

Kakashi was sitting in the waiting room; wondering if he should go inform the Third Hokage of the current events. Those nin could pose a threat to the leaf village, but first Kakashi had to find out the condition of his student.

A few minutes later he heard hurried footsteps coming his way, and the masked nin looked up. Iruka and Sakura were coming his way.

"What happened?" Sakura asked at the same time that Iruka asked.

"How is he?"

"I'm not sure yet" Kakashi answered Iruka's question, knowing the teacher truly cared for Naruto. "Sasuke was attacked and Naruto went to help, which I believe was the plan because Sasuke wasn't really harmed. Which is suspicious because they were Jounin level."

"Why would they attack Naruto?" Sakura asked. "He talks big but he couldn't defend himself against someone like them."

"I don't know" Kakashi replied "but it's something that needs to be figured out."

"This shouldn't have happened" Iruka murmured as he sat down beside Kakashi. A few minutes later a doctor exited the emergency room doors with a grim look on his face. Kakashi somehow knew the news wasn't going to be good, and his heart ached even more for his student, whose only dream was to be a ninja.

"How is he?" Iruka asked as soon as the doctor was close.

"Naruto's condition is stable." the doctor replied "he has a concussion and five broken ribs. Those aren't injuries we need to worry about. Naruto's eardrums were busted, probably from a kick, unfortunately that has left him completely deaf. Another series injury is the slash to the eye. That movement would have blinded him anyways but with the poison it was so much worse. The poison has completely eaten the pupil and unfortunately the damage is irreversible."

"Can he still be a ninja?" Iruka asked, knowing the answer but not wanting to admit it. The doctor shook his head no.

"Unfortunately, no" The doctor said "Unless you can find someone to heal his injuries he won't be able to continue." Kakashi sighed he hated that his had happened today of all days.

"This makes his birthday real special" Iruka said bitterly. "He's only ever wanted to be a ninja. What's he going to do now? No one will hire him to work, he'll get kicked out of his apartment."

"No, he won't" Kakashi and Sasuke said at the same time. "He will always have a place to live." Kakashi added "If I have to adopt him myself."

"He's going to need someone" Iruka said "Someone to help him get adjusted to being disabled."

"I am more than qualified to help, besides if he's with me. People won't bother him." Kakashi stated, knowing that was one of Iruka's worries as well.

"You're right" Iruka agreed, wishing he could take Naruto, but he knew Naruto was better off with Kakashi. Kakashi could after all protect Naruto better. And in the coming days, Naruto was going to need a lot of protection.