Story Ideas!

Summary: What if Naruto realized Haku wasn’t capable of killing and what if Gato decided to get extra ‘help’ just to make sure Zabuza died? The entire world can be changed from simple choices, and simple choices can lead to being broken down. But can Naruto be built back up?

Pairings: Naruto/Kakashi/Itachi/Neji/Kimimaro/Haku/Kurama, Rock Lee/Tenten, Sasuke/Hinata/Kiba, Zabuza/Anko

Warning: Depictions of rape and torture of a minor 

Chapter one: Break me, Kill me

Everything was red.

All he could see and feel was the strange and burning red chakra enveloping him, making him attack out of anger.

The bastard, he killed Sasuke! Naruto wouldn’t stand by for it! He may have not been able to save Sasuke, but he sure as hell wasn’t allowing this fake hunter-nin to get away!

Naruto surged forward, preparing to punch the bastard in the face, when suddenly, the mask fell, revealing Haku.

Naruto stopped cold, eyes widening as he recognized that face.

“What are you doing, Naruto-kun? Aren’t you going to kill me?” Haku asked. 

He wasn’t using a condescending tone or one of mock, he sounded genuinely confused and surprised. All Naruto could do was look at that face. Haku looked so innocent, kind, caring. It was strange considering he’s a ninja and just killed his teammate….. Didn’t he? 

Wait a minute; was Haku capable of actually killing anyone? 

It was then Naruto remembered that Haku was the one that had saved Zabuza, by putting him in a death-like state! Naruto’s eyes widened once more as he took in the teen in front of him.

“You, you didn’t kill Sasuke, did you?” he asked softly. Haku’s eyes widened in alarm,

“W-what are you talking about? I killed him, look for yourself. See? He’s dead!” The desperation in his voice as well as the stutter gave him away. It told Naruto that Sasuke wasn’t dead, just, well, sleeping. 

“You really shouldn’t stutter if you want someone to believe a lie, Dattebayo.” Naruto commented off-handedly which caused Haku to pale.

“I-I don’t know what you’re-“

“Haku,” Naruto cut in, smiling softly,” you don’t have to lie to me,” Haku’s eyes widened before he looked down in shame,

“I’ve failed Zabuza-sama,” he looked up,” Naruto-kun…. Please kill me.” Naruto started in surprise.

“What? Why?! No, I won’t kill you! Why the hell would you ask me that, Dattebayo?!” Naruto exclaimed.

Haku smiled grimly.

...

He had caught him.

Kakashi had finally caught the ever elusive Demon of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza. 

His ninken were latched to Zabuza’s arms and legs, and anywhere else they could reach.

Kakashi took a deep breath,” you will not escape again, Zabuza,” he muttered.

...

Naruto stood; wide-eyed at what Haku had just revealed. His own father had tried to…. Naruto shook his head, looking at Haku with determination blazing in his eyes,” but, but that doesn’t mean you have to die!” he yelled. Haku shook his head,

“No, you don’t understand Naruto-kun. I am a broken tool, I have no purpose to Zabuza-sama any longer, please kill me.” Naruto shook his head again,

“No! Haku, Zabuza isn’t the only person who can care about you!” Haku’s eyes hardened,

“I have no one but Zabuza-sama, Naruto! Who on earth could I have besides him?” he questioned angrily. Naruto smiled softly, a slight crease to his brow,

“You could have me, Haku.” Haku’s eyes widened.” I care about you Haku, and even though we’ve only met twice before; you’re my friend and I don’t want you to die. And even if you are a broken tool, I fix all of my tools when they break so… will you let me fix you? Can I be your new precious person?” Naruto asked softly, looking so unlike the normal Naruto everyone was used to seeing; so shy and unsure of himself.

All Haku could do was stare at the orange clad boy in front of him. Tears unwillingly came to his eyes; could he really have another chance? Before he could open his mouth to answer he felt the familiar pull he felt whenever Zabuza was in danger,

“I am sorry Naruto-kun, but it would appear I am indeed needed once more,” he started swiftly doing hand seals,” goodbye.” 

And then, was gone.

...

“This is the end, Zabuza!” Kakashi exclaimed, rushing forward, his hand alight with Chidori. Zabuza simply closed his eyes, awaiting his end. 

But it didn’t come.

Zabuza’s eyes snapped open at the surprised grunt from Kakashi, and widened at the sight of the blonde haired brat holding on to Kakashi's arm with what looked to be all his strength, a look of determination written all over his face.

Zabuza’s eyes narrowed as he took in the child, trying to figure out what he was up to.

A couple silence filled minutes passed as the Raiton charged jutsu died in the Copy-nin’s hands. After it completely disappeared the kid slowly loosened his grip on Kakashi’s arm, looking at his face, determinedly ready to hold him back again if he attempted to attack Zabuza.

The man's head snapped to the side when he heard the surprised gasp of his accomplice, who stood with no mask as a look of surprise covered his young face. His eyes quickly took in Haku’s state, and finding that; while roughed up, he wasn’t that bad off, he returned his gaze to the blonde next to him.

The kid had let go with one hand, the other hovering over Kakashi's once Chaka charged hand, as if making sure that he wasn't going to try to kill Zabuza again, which prompted Zabuza to let down his mist.

After which he sorta wished he hadn’t, for standing on the edge of the bridge was none other than Gato, with a shit-load of thugs, and three Iwa Nin’s, standing behind him.

Seeing the little man Zabuza’s eyes narrowed,” Gato,” he growled lowly. The midget snorted,

“Ah, Zabuza; what’s this? I thought you were the Demon of the Mist? More like Kitten of the mist.” He snorted again while Zabuza’s eyes narrowed even further. 

Gato's eyes trailed over the group of Nin, his gaze landed on Naruto as he put two and two together from Naruto's position at Kakashi's side, his hand still on Kakashi's arm in restraint.

The man let out an admittedly pathetic growl at the sight, beady eyes narrowing on the blonde in disgust.

"You…" he growled in disdain," you interfered! Little brat, why couldn't you have just stood back like a good little boy and let your sensei and the almighty demon exhaust each other! Why couldn't you have just stood back and let the great Sharingan Kakashi kill Zabuza, it would've saved me so much trouble, but no, you just had to interfere!"

He finishes his rant with a shout, irritation clearly written on his face.

Naruto for his part just looked surprised that this small fat man was blaming him for something like that. It took a moment for his mind to catch up with both the words and what he was seeing, his eyes narrowing back.

"So, you wanted my sensei to kill Zabuza because… why? Cause you're too weak and too cowardly to do it yourself? Piece of shit, can't even properly fire someone, gotta get someone else not even on your damn payroll to do it huh, Dattebayo?"

Naruto's eyes traveled over the large group of people, his eyes landing on the Iwa-nin. He gestured to them with his hand,

"You've already gone through the trouble of hiring some Iwa-nin, why not get them to kill Kaka-sensei? Or would that be too much money? Or did you realize that they would want to cash in his bounty and take all of his, and your, money with them?"

Seeing Gato grimace, Naruto got his answer.

Naruto’s eyes flashed in anger while he took a step forward, but was stopped short when two different hands landed on his shoulders. He looked up to see Kakashi and Zabuza holding but not looking at him; hard glares directed towards Gato and his cronies. 

“Calm down, Naruto,” Kakashi spoke evenly, obviously trying to keep his anger at bay,

“Yeah, the bastards’ll get what’s coming to ‘em.” Zabuza continued with a harsh growl, not trying to keep his anger at bay.

Naruto looked between the two men,” Kaka-sensei, Zabuza….” He smiled,” yeah, let’s get ‘em!” his smile turned into a grin, Kakashi eye-smiled back, while it looked like Zabuza grinned as well.  Haku stepped forward, his hand resting on Naruto’s bicep, smiling and nodding his head,

“You saved Zabuza-sama’s life when I was about to sacrifice my own. I owe you my life.” Zabuza nodded,

“As do I, now let’s get started.” He said sending a murderous glare Gato’s way; stepping forward, his arms hanging limply at his sides,

“This is for betraying me, Gato,” the man growled lowly, causing Gato to gulp in fear, before shaking his head,

”Humph, and what do you think you can do? You can’t even use your arms to lift your precious sword.” The short man sneered, trying to sound confident. Zabuza smirked before turning slightly towards Naruto,

“Hey, kid,” Naruto looked back at him questioningly,” give me a kunai, would you?” Zabuza asked. Naruto nodded once, reached into his pouch and held a kunai out to the bandage clad man. Zabuza bit through the bandages around his face, revealing sharp teeth, and took the small blade in his mouth, turning his face towards the small army waiting to attack,

“I’m coming,” he growled, surging forward. 

Kakashi, Haku and Naruto stayed behind. Zabuza was able to get to Gato without suffering any injuries, since the fat man was stupid enough to stand in front of his hired hands by quite a bit; leaving him unprotected, and so once he got to him Zabuza slit Gato’s throat with the kunai in his mouth.

This caused for the thugs to all freeze, before riling up again,

“Hey! You just killed our meal ticket!” One of them yelled, 

“You bastards!” another shouted,

A thug stepped forward from the rest, obviously electing himself the new leader,

“o’right boys! Let’s show these shinobi who they're messin’ with! Kill ‘em, the Bridge Builder then the towns next! Let’s go!” A loud chorus followed the man’s statement, all of them holding up their weapons while shouting, the Iwa Nin’s stood to the side of the ruffians; scowls on their faces. Naruto, Kakashi, Haku and Zabuza got ready for a fight; and Naruto performed his favorite jutsu with a smirk,

“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” he shouted and ten copies of himself came to life. He ran, heading straight into the fray with his sensei and Haku right behind him.

Battle ensued.

Naruto was trying to take out as many thugs as he could, the villagers and his clients protection on the forefront of his mind.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kakashi and Zabuza fighting two of the Iwa Nin, the third somewhere he couldn't see, while Haku was taking on more of the thugs. Naruto created some Kage Bunshin to help the boy but in the few short seconds it took him to create and send the Bunshin, Naruto didn’t notice the large man rushing up to him before it was too late.

Naruto was just starting to turn when he saw the large man thrust his sword towards him. Naruto had no way of defending himself, his eyes simply widening, his arms unconsciously moving to cross in front of him in defense; but it was already too late, as the sword was a few mere centimeters from his person.

Naruto let out a low grunt as the blade brutally slid into his abdomen, his whole body tensing and clenching down in reaction to the sudden pain.

He grit his teeth against the pain and forcefully made himself look up at the man all the while his body convulsed, his mind distantly supplying that the blade was dirty, from rust, others blood or even dirt, Naruto didn't know, but what he did know was that that was not a good thing.

He was brought out of his thoughts as another blade slid into his back. Then another into his shoulder and one more into his thigh. 

His legs gave out. 

Falling to the ground with the blades painfully sliding out of him in the process, the bastards surrounding him were still firmly holding their blades in their hands, landing on his knees jarringly.

Naruto both sucked in a breath and spat out blood at the impact, his breath coming in small huffs as he tried to think of his next move, his hands pushing into his wound on his stomach to stem the bleeding.

As his mind raced, Naruto took notice that several other thugs had joined the four, along with the third and final Iwa nin, a woman with short brown hair and an ugly sneer on her otherwise pretty face.

"What's this? A little boy caught up in a fight? I thought Konoha was too cowardly to fight anyone, turns out that they just send out little children to die for them with no training," she spat on Naruto, causing him to flinch back.

"Pathetic," she sneered down at him. Naruto raised his head and held her gaze with his, determinedly pushing himself to start standing in defiance.

But that was stopped short when one of the thugs grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground.

Naruto let out a choked off gasp at the sudden movement, his attempts at getting up growing desperate as someone placed their foot on his back.

A snort brought Naruto's gaze from the ground again, landing on the woman's face as she looked him up and down, as best as she could at least. A flick of her wrist had Naruto flipped over onto his back and held down by his arms and legs so that he couldn't struggle with a hand clamping over his mouth to keep him quiet and her eyes continued their perusal.

Apparently she was unsatisfied with the view and so she stomped over and forced Naruto's zipper down then pulled his shirt up.

She let out a hum of appreciation at what she saw and she grinned as her hand gently glided over his chest and stomach.

"A bit on the thin side," she murmured as her smile widened," but definitely well built and small enough…" she grabbed his face, the hand over his mouth gone for a split second, and turned it towards her, her smile unsettling Naruto to his very core.

"And, a pretty enough face for anyone to get it up."

Naruto's stomach dropped at that. He knew what was happening and he did not want it to become a reality. He wrenched his face out of her hands and increased his struggling tenfold.

But, the woman merely let her dainty hands grab at the back of his neck, sticking something to the skin there that pulsed through Naruto’s body and forced a great deal of energy from him, then paid him no mind as she stood up and looked at the men surrounding her with a grin.

"Looks like we've gained something from this mess after all! Alright you lot, grab him and take him to the boat, I'll distract the other Konoha ninja so that you can get a head start. Make sure you take him to Gato's home and I'll pick him up from there."

Four of the men nodded and started picking Naruto up, one thrusting a balled up cloth into his mouth to keep him quiet while the others made quick work of binding him, one of them taking bandages handed to him by the Iwa nin to crudely wrap up his wounds.

The rest of the thugs, who had been pretending that they were still fighting Naruto with a clone that the Iwa nin had made to throw off suspicion, started branching out in order to help their comrades against the other ninja.

Naruto continued to struggle against their hold, his mind trying to come up with a way to escape as he cursed himself for never getting the Escape from Bonds Jutsu down, as it would appear, that that would be his downfall.

His mind was going a mile a minute, trying to find a solution as he also attempted to gain his sensei's attention, but Kakashi was busy fighting the other Iwa nin as well as keeping the thugs surrounding him away from Tazuna, Sakura and Sasuke.

"Oh yes, and boys?" The woman called off her shoulder, stopping the four thugs in their tracks. A smile tilted the corner of her lips as she looked back at them with a smirk," if you're able to get him back to Gato's home without any issue, and you patch him up good enough… you can be his first… clients. Do you understand?"

The four men nodded enthusiastically, turning their gaze to Naruto, and the boy felt his skin crawl as they leered at his body.

The woman laughed," haha, good. Just, make sure he survives? I would hate to have to kill you for damaging the goods I so faithfully placed in your care."

The thugs shivered at her cold tone, letting out a quick, "Yes ma'am!" before rushing off back to Gato's boat. They knew where they were going, all they had to worry about was not getting caught.

Naruto continued to struggle, trying again and again to break his bonds, or at the least get out of their hold to cause a big enough distraction to gain Kakashi’s attention.

But nothing he did worked.

They were bigger and stronger than him and whatever the woman had placed on his neck seemed to also be blocking his Chakra, sapping him of his extra stamina. That didn’t stop him from struggling.

It was all in vain.

The four thugs were able to get him to Gato’s boat. They blindfolded him before they threw him under the deck and made quick work of untying it and setting off down the river, away from the fighting, the bridge and Naruto’s comrades, taking his hope of escape with them.

.

.

.

Naruto didn’t know how long it had taken them to bring him to Gato’s home. Time seemed to have stopped the moment he had been thrown onto the boat, and since he wasn’t able to see outside and could barely breathe because of the gag, Naruto was left in a state of limbo that he both wanted to end and not end at the same time.

He knew what was to come once they got him inside and put wherever Gato put his wares. They would probably take off the blindfold and take out the gag when they did and Naruto wanted that. But he didn’t want what was to come after, so remaining on the boat tied up forever where he was left alone was much preferred over what was to come.

But Naruto knew he wasn’t that lucky. After everything he had gone through, why would luck suddenly take his side now?

His heart clenched at the sound of pounding feet thumping down under the deck. 

His fate was sealed.

How would he get out of this?

He probably wouldn’t, and that’s what scared him.

“C’mon then, brat. It’s yer time ta shine!” the man jeered, laughing uproariously as he grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder, uncaring that Naruto banged his head on the doorway on the way out.

The boy was only able to squirm and muffle out a couple complaints, nothing that they paid any mind to, at least he didn’t think they did…

“Heh, can’t wait ta have you makin’ them noises aroun’ my cock, boy!” one of the men jeered, slapping Naruto’s ass in the process.

Naruto let out a muffled yelp and tried shuffling away, but of course was unable to do so. The men laughed at his misfortune, describing exactly what they were going to do to him once they put him in one of Gato’s “rooms”. Naruto knew that whatever was in those rooms he wanted nothing to do with it.

They walked for a good long while, the four men jovially chatting about this and that, one of them occasionally grabbed at his ass or fondled his penis through his pants, each detailing how impatient they were to have access to both.

The blond just tuned them out. His body was slowly going numb so it was harder to feel the hands grabbing at his body every other minute. He cleared his mind and imagined that he was back at home, training with Team 7 in the training grounds, playfully jabbing at Sasuke while the brooding king jabbed back, Sakura screaming something incoherent while Kakashi stood off to the side, smiling pleasantly at the three of them.

The man would walk over and break them up, softly saying “ma, ma!” and getting them all to calm down before showing them another teamwork exercise.

Then he’d take them all to the missions desk and they’d take a D-Ranked mission, cleaning out a river, clearing a garden of weeds, painting a fence...

It wouldn’t be exciting, it wouldn’t be adventurous and it certainly wouldn’t be challenging. 

But it would be safe.

He would be safe.

.

.

.

The men were just as brutish in breaking Naruto out of his daze as they were in their personalities.

The man carrying Naruto suddenly stopped and threw him onto the ground. Naruto let out a grunt at the movement, though he was surprised when he felt something soft under him, making the landing easier on his body than if they had thrown him onto the wooden floor.

Naruto could tell that the floor was wooden from the way their footfalls hit the ground, wood just sounded different from carpet and stone, even marble sounded different to regular stone…

“O’right, let’s see ‘ere.”

Naruto was brought out of his daze as one of the men pulled his blindfold off, temporarily blinding him from the bright light in the room. He was only mildly aware that he was being undressed as well, but only his jacket and shirt were taken off, actually it felt like they were being ripped apart, one of his pant legs was pulled up too.

He idly watched as the man roughly pulled at the bandages wrapped around his torso and shoulder and thigh, only mildly interested as the man seemed to be checking the damage done.

“Oi, the hell’re you doin’? I wanna get to it ya ass!” another of the men huffed indignantly, gesturing towards the large bulge in his pants that made Naruto’s stomach roil in protest, his senses suddenly becoming more alert at the blatant acts in his near future.

The man pulling at his bandages held down his suddenly squirming body, frustration filling Naruto as he turned away and effortlessly held him without even looking at him.

“Boss lady said not to damage him! Do ya wanna get yer head lopped off?” he retorted with a growl. The other man gulped and swiftly shook his head. Naruto was pleased when he noticed that the bulge went away in the process.

“If he’s too injured or somethin’ then we can’t have our fun! I’d rather not get off then get killed cuz I couldn’t think with my actual head, moron!”

And with that he turned back around and started unwrapping the bandages again.

Naruto continued to struggle, despite knowing it wouldn’t do him any good, as he was slowly exposed to the uncomfortably warm air. The room was thick with warmth and it made it even harder for him to breathe in it, that and his jaw really hurt…

“The hell? Oi, come o’er ‘ere!” the man suddenly called out, surprise clearly on his face and in his tone. The other three rushed over and looked on in awe at Naruto’s torso, Naruto looked down as well, his face paling as he realized the cards fate had dealt him.

His torso and shoulder were completely smooth. 

No cuts, no wounds could be seen. 

When had he stopped feeling pain? Naruto cursed himself for allowing himself to fall into his daze, maybe if he had been more aware, he could have held back his healing somehow? Wait, why hadn’t the paper on the back of his neck stopped him from healing? Did it only stop the use of Chakra outside of one’s body? But Naruto felt incredibly tired, as if his strength and energy was sucked right out of him. Was Naruto just a special case because of his circumstance? He had always healed fast, especially with more dangerous wounds. It made sense that the Kyuubi would heal any wounds that could kill his host, considering that his life seemed to be tied directly to Naruto’s own. So was the fox just unaware of what was happening outside of Naruto? Did it just send Chakra to Naruto when his body was in distress? Was it even in control of sending Chakra to Naruto at all?

Naruto didn’t know. He didn’t know and that lack of knowledge was just another chain in sealing what was to come.

‘Maybe if I knew more… If I’d paid more attention in class, if I’d read more and asked more questions this wouldn’t have happened…’ Naruto couldn’t help thinking to himself. Maybe if he’d focused more on learning everything he could, rather than just what he thought was awesome jusu, he wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. He’d have been able to use the Escape from Bonds jutsu and had gotten away, maybe he would have been able to use that one jutsu that created a flare that signaled to comrades that you were in danger. 

He had been a fool. 

He had thought that one jutsu was pointless, he didn’t need help and it wasn’t like most people would help him if he asked for it anyway!

But Kakashi...

Kakashi was different. He would have come to Naruto’s rescue if he had used that jutsu… He really was an idiot.

“Yeah, completely healed!” the hands roughly grabbing at him and the words brought Naruto from his mind, a place he kept returning to, and that he was reluctant to leave.

Naruto's eyes tracked their movements as the four men seemed to vibrate with excitement, grins on their faces as the realization came to them as well. One of them excitedly pulled a rusty knife from his pocket and handed it to the one holding Naruto down,

“See how fast!” he eagerly said, his eyes shining in delight. The one holding him grabbed the knife and swiftly jabbed it into Naruto’s shoulder, pulling it out quickly and watching what would happen. Naruto watched as the wound, after only a few seconds of bleeding, quickly started twisting itself closed, sealing neatly with only the blood left to indicate that there had ever been a wound in the first place.

He then ran the knife over Naruto’s chest, this cut thinner and not nearly as deep and watched as it healed itself much slower, taking over a minute this time rather than the few seconds of before.

The men laughed in glee.

“It seems ta me tha’ the more serious the injury, the faster he heals! We’ll just hafta be careful we don’t put too many minor wounds on ‘im!” the man proudly stated, handing the knife back to his comrade.

Naruto’s eyes were fixed on them, his body tense and waiting, looking for any opening that would somehow let him get out of this, get away and back to his team, his comrades, his sensei…

A man reached out and pulled at Naruto’s pants. Naruto watched as they were ripped up with a knife and then flung to the ground, off and away from the futon he had been placed on. He saw his kunai pouch and thigh pouch were still intact, so tantalizingly close, he would just need to shuffle around and he would be able to reach them!

His attention snapped to the hand on his boxers.

The man that had so effortlessly held him down grinned as he gazed into Naruto’s fear stricken eyes, and slowly, oh so slowly, pulled his underwear down. Past his thighs, knees, ankles and feet until they too were discarded on the ground.

He was roughly grabbed around the middle, a hand drifting up to first tweak his nipples until they were well past erect but red and sore from the rough treatment. Naruto flinched, his hands coming up to try and stop them somehow, but a large hand merely grabbed his own, unbound him and pulled his hands behind his back, tying them up once again. Naruto growled and threw out his legs, catching the first man on the nose, kneeing another on the chin and used the new leverage with his hands behind his back to push himself up and try and make a run for his weapons pouch.

He didn’t know where the door was, he had been blindfolded and disoriented, and once the blindfold was off he had focused his entire being on the four men. Besides, getting to the door wouldn’t be helpful if he wasn’t able to defend himself somehow, so grabbing his weapons was his first priority.

But luck still refused him.

Hands grabbed him, holding him up in the air to keep him from gaining any sort of leverage from the floor or anything else. Naruto flails wildly, grunting and cursing through the wad of cloth in his mouth. He wanted to scream and yell, but couldn’t. There was so much he wanted to do, but he couldn’t.

Naruto felt his body being twisted around in the air, more hands coming up to grab and hold him still. A jingling reached his ears and Naruto knew it was bad news. He was suddenly thrust forwards, making Naruto yelp in surprise before, from the waist, he was held, suspended in the air. He was unable to wriggle around before his hands were yanked up towards the ceiling, and something cold and hard was clasped around his wrists. He was suddenly let go and fell ungraciously to the floor, landing jarringly on his knees.

He grunted at the impact, eyes closing in pain. They fluttered open again when he felt something be placed around his neck, his biceps, waist and thighs. He looked down, watching bands of leather that all seemed to be connected to each other with more leather and chains were secured to his body. He moved and felt them constrict his movement, his body slowly losing all of its will as everything finally hit him.

He wouldn’t be getting out of this.

He wouldn’t be able to get away.

He would be made to stay here, and be forced to suffer at the hands of these brutes.

His body sagged and he felt the strain on his arms, but he didn’t care. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the shackles on his wrists were connected to a ring on the ceiling, a chain branching down to each individual cuff, though that didn’t let him move much since his hands were still bound with rope.

Naruto let his head fall forwards, knowing that there wasn’t anything else he could do, not with them still in the room. Maybe if he was alone he would be able to find something to free himself with, but for now, he would just have to endure, and wait.

Yes, endure and wait. He could do that.

He had a lot of practice with that.

The hands returned. They were rubbing his body, no doubt trying to get a reaction out of him, but they failed in their endeavor. Naruto had already numbed his body to it, so he simply breathed deeply and carefully.

The hands stopped rubbing his body and instead started groping his ass and penis. A hand ran over him and pulled on his penis harshly, forcing Naruto to flinch at the contact, while the other hand pulled on his hole, parting his cheeks, and forced a finger into him.

It was rough and dry. Naruto’s back arched in pain as he tried to pull away from the finger but was unable to.

He was sure they were speaking above him, but he wasn’t able to understand the words, it was all distant, as if they were in another room. He had no desire to know what they were saying anyway so it didn’t matter.

He felt relief once the finger left him, but that relief was short-lived when two more were then at his hole and spread him wide open.

Then something larger than the two fingers was shoved into his body.

Naruto screamed through the cloth in his mouth, gods, something had ripped and he felt as blood began dripping from him. He could barely breathe, it hurt so much, he began choking on his own breath.

The wad of cloth was pulled out of his mouth and Naruto greedily pulled in air. His eyes, which were full of tears, looked up and watched as one of the men was rapidly jerking himself off as the man behind him started to move, ripping Naruto open. He clenched his teeth against the pain, refusing to let them hear his screams of pain, but he needn’t have tried.

Another man grabbed him by the neck and forced his head to stay in place, before wrenching his mouth open. Naruto watched with wide eyes as the man kneeled before him, and with a grin, forced his dripping penis into his mouth and down his throat.

Naruto choked, his eyes welled up and the tears slid down the sides of his face. His head jerked and spasmed as the man began to roughly push and pull from him, the feeling of his penis sliding into and out of his throat was disgusting and Naruto wished that it would just stop!

He snapped back to himself. His formally dull eyes gained back their fire and he forced his jaw to move. As much as he was able he forced his jaw closed, tighter and tighter until the man couldn’t move anymore, and started screaming in pain.

Naruto was determined to make this man feel a sliver of his pain, so he locked his jaw, resisting as the other men tried to force his mouth open, but Naruto just continued to bite down, continued even as he felt blood fill his mouth and rush down his throat. He. Didn’t. Care!

His teeth were firmly within the man, he was sure that they were almost touching-

His mouth was suddenly wrenched open by three pairs of hands, and the penis removed from his mouth.

Naruto tried to breathe but couldn’t, the blood in his mouth catching in his throat and forcing him to start coughing and hacking, getting it out of his mouth.

“Fuck!”

Naruto distantly heard the man yelling.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Naruto idly watched as he held onto his nearly severed penis, holding it to his body as if that would somehow do anything. All Naruto did was breathe carefully, his abused throat protesting at the rough treatment and his stomach roiling at the disgusting blood that filled it. He happily threw up the contents of his stomach, and passively observed as only blood and bile left his hacking mouth.

It was like his conscious mind and body were completely separated. His body squirmed and twisted, convulsing as he threw up and shuddering away from the penis up his ass, but his mind was calm and clear, watching everything as if from a distance.

His ears registered as the man at his back continued to pound into him, the man laughing uproariously as the other three tried to find some way to fix what had happened.

But then they all stopped, staring down at the mans’ damaged penis for a moment, before swiftly one of the men rushed over, opened Naruto’s mouth and stuck his hand in it. He pulled it out before Naruto got the chance to clamp his mouth shut on them, and rushed back over to the man. He rubbed his saliva covered fingers over the puncture and waited with the other two.

The man at Naruto’s back stopped laughing and, Naruto saw as he glanced over his shoulder, was watching with raised brows, those brows shooting up even higher as the three men started to laugh joyously.

Naruto’s attention snapped back to the men in front of him, his face paling when he saw that he was no longer bleeding, in fact his penis looked like it had never been injured in the first place!

“Seems ta me that the kids saliva has healin’ properties!” a man laughed, his eyes full of glee,” no matter what he does ta us, we can force him to heal us!” They were all grinning, and Naruto wondered how his situation could have possibly gotten worse. It looks like he couldn’t fight back without being forced to take it back himself!

How terribly unfair.

Naruto’s eyes dulled once more, and his mind further separated itself from his body as they descended upon him.

.

.

.

Naruto wasn’t quite sure how long it lasted.

They used him, his ass, his mouth, his thighs, his body, for what felt like hours.

They had bruised him, punching and kicking him in punishment for fighting back. They had taken some whips off of the walls and whipped him.

They choked him with hands and cocks, pulled on his penis and threatened to rip it off, ripped his anus so many times that he had blood pooled under his body.

He lay, limp, on the ground, his body shivering and convulsing as he passively watched the four men cheerilly talk to each other over some food and drinks they had gotten from somewhere in the room, he wasn’t sure where.

Naruto’s stomach growled lowly at the sight and smell, his body demanding it be fed after such rough treatment. But unless they found it in themselves to feed him, he wouldn’t be eating for the foreseeable future.

His stomach rebelled at the thought, demanding food, but Naruto wasn’t able to grant it its wish.

One of the men looked over at him curiously. He grinned and came over to Naruto. He crouched in front of him,

“Want some?” he held out some bread, grinning as it was just out of Naruto’s reach.

Naruto’s stomach growled loudly, but he didn’t otherwise react. He watched with passive eyes as the man waved it in front of his face, unconcerned with the teasing since he knew it was entirely up to the man to feed him, or leave him to his hunger.

The man scowled. He grunted then shoved some of the bread into Naruto’s mouth.

“Tch, need to get some food into ya, the boss lady wouldn’t want ya ta die before she can sell ya!” he explained as Naruto slowly started chewing, his eyes never losing their dullness.

The man fed him some more before, with another “tch” moved back to his friends, idly complaining that he wasn’t reacting to anything anymore.

Naruto tuned him out and curled into a ball on the dirty floor with a sigh. His stomach was happy now, at least, he mused to himself before closing his eyes. He didn’t fall asleep, he was just resting, remaining aware of everything around him but allowing his body and mind some much needed rest.

More time passed him by. He still was unsure of how much but he was sure that it was sometime in the afternoon, his internal clock telling him so, and his internal thoughts whispering that it had been hours since he had been taken. Was anyone looking for him? Was Kakashi looking for him?

Did they even know he had been taken? Or did they not care? Or, his mind darkly supplied, they had lost and been killed by the other Iwa nin and failed the mission.

He mentally shook his head. No, that couldn’t have happened! But they had been pretty banged up after their fight against Zabuza and Haku, Sasuke was completely unable to fight and Sakura was useless in a fight which left them with lowered strength and no backup. Naruto shook the thoughts away. He couldn’t entertain such thoughts at the moment, even if the thought that they had ignored his absence or weren’t looking for him hurt, the idea that they had been killed hurt even more.

He would just need to believe that they were okay and stop his thoughts there, any further and his heart would race and his thoughts would get jumbled and he wasn’t in a position to do either.

And so he waited.

Breathing deeply and carefully, Naruto felt as his body slowly, ever so slowly, started to heal itself. The process was faster since he had gotten some food, but it was still slow going. He hadn’t eaten that morning, adding to that he had fought pretty long and hard before he was captured, and everything the men did to him just exasperated that, his body would heal, but it would take time and energy, both of which he knew he wouldn’t have much of.

His eyes fluttered open when the sound of soft footfalls reached his ears. It was coming up to the door…

The door slammed open. Naruto lifted his tired head and saw as the Iwa-nin that had started all of this walked through the door.

She was scowling, a nasty wound on her shoulder and side, a voice in his head perversely rejoiced at the sight, and she looked like it had taken a lot of effort to get away.

But after a moment she straightened herself, looking for all the world as if the wounds didn’t exist, and didn’t look nearly as bad as they were, as she turned her sneering face to look at the four men before her.

They had stood up straight, making sure that they weren’t out of line, obviously so that she wouldn’t find it in herself to hurt them in her anger.

“M-Ma’am!” they called out in unison, clearly frightened of the Kunoichi.

Her sneer deepened, turned nastier than before, and she threw a hand out, grabbing one of them around the throat.

“Hello boys,” she purred, her eyes flashing in her anger,” I do hope you have some form of good news for me…” she trailed off meaningfully, watching them like a predator did their prey.

The men gulped loudly in unison, but the one that had taken Naruto first started smiling, sweat beading and falling from his face. “Y-yes ma’am! Come o’er here, I think you’re gonna like this!” he gestured behind him, leading the woman over to where Naruto lay crumpled on the floor.

He gazed up at them dully, his eyes flashing for a moment when the woman smirked at his state, though it fell from her face when she took in all the blood puddled under him. She threw out a hand again, grabbing the man by the throat and squeezing hard. 

Her eyes were flashing angrily again.

“I thought,” she whispered,” that I told you to not damage him too much, you imbecile!”

The man grabbed at the hand on his throat, eyes bugging out as he struggled to breathe. Naruto passively watched, not even being able to find any perverse pleasure at the action. The woman was obviously as bad as the men, maybe even worse, so he didn’t feel bad for them, or her, he just felt a deep apathy swirl inside him, uncaring of them and what happened to them.

But his nonexistent perverse pleasure was short-lived as the other men rushed forward, quickly explaining themselves.

“M-ma’am! Please, we promise tha’ we listened! L-look! Let me prove it!” he dashed over to Naruto, grabbed him and pulled his body up. He took a dirty cloth and wiped Naruto’s body off, showing that while Naruto was injured, he wasn’t nearly as bad off as the amount of blood pooling under him and on his body spoke to.

The Iwa-nin looked surprised and let go of the man, letting him fall to the ground gasping for breath, and moved closer. She reached out and touched Naruto’s injuries, watching delighted as Naruto flinched away from the touch, but more than that, grinning as she watched in real time the wounds slowly healing themselves. It was obvious that it would take a few hours, maybe a few days, for the wounds to fully heal. But that was much faster than anyone else that would be forced through the same things Naruto had, which meant one thing.

“He’s the perfect whore.” she grinned with lidded eyes, pleased with the realization. But she stopped when the man holding Naruto up shook his head with a grin,

“Oh, he’s more than tha’! Here!” he opened Naruto’s mouth with a little difficulty, Naruto knew what was going to happen and what would happen if she were made aware of his apparent healing abilities, but soon enough Naruto’s mouth was forced open once again. The man stuck a finger down Naruto’s throat and gathered up some of his saliva, before bringing it over to the woman's arm and rubbing his spit covered finger over the wound.

“The hell’re you-”

“Sh, just watch!”

She looked annoyed at having been interrupted but waited, watching with ever rising eyebrows as she saw the saliva sink into her wound, sizzling and foaming up the wound. With a quick swipe the wound was revealed to be healing itself at a much faster pace.

The kunoichi grinned again, her lidded eyes turning to Naruto’s face and still open mouth, then without warning, grabbed him by the neck and forced his mouth over the wound on her shoulder.

Naruto struggled against her, his stomach roiling again at the taste of her blood,’ disgusting!’ his mind hissed, and at the sound of her loud, over exaggerated moan. He felt her move to bite his ear, causing him to try and pull away from her, or at the least sink his teeth into her, but was unable to do both, and so had to wait until she decided to let him go.

About a minute later and Naruto was allowed to pull away, gasping for breath, as the woman laughed in glee. Naruto didn’t get much time to breathe before his head was pulled to the woman’s side, and the process happened all over again.

But after being forced to heal her side Naruto was immediately pulled down even further, his face shoved into the woman’s crotch. Naruto squawked indignantly and struggled away, while the kunoichi moaned and started to grind against his face.

She paused for only a moment so that she could pull her pants and underwear off, then shoved his face into her womanhood, moaning even louder at the friction.

Naruto tried getting away, but like before, was just not able to. His body was still tired from earlier, it was weak and empty from no food and the seal on the back of his neck, the binds on his body didn’t help either. So, once again, Naruto was forced to suffer and be the vehicle of pleasure for another against his will.

It wasn’t too long before he felt her warm juices splashing over his face. His face scrunched up at the feeling and smell, both extremely unappealing to his skin and nose. He shook his head the moment she let go of his head, her breath deep and heavy, but a quick look at her face showed a genuine smile on her face, she seemed to be very satisfied with herself.

“There,” she breathed seductively,” I can’t believe how lucky I am! To be able to use one such as you… my village will be most pleased at my find!” She stood, pulling her underwear and pants back up in the process.

“Hmm~ I haven’t felt this good in a long time!” she stretched with a moan, before her features turned more serious and she looked at the men. They were standing at attention, in both meanings of the phrase, and she shook her head in disgust. She pointed towards the door,” get out,” she said with a sneer,” I won’t have you keeping him from healing! He may heal fast, but he obviously isn’t used to such treatment. If we rush him into it too fast then his body won’t be able to recover!” she smiled then, her eyes drifting back to Naruto.

“But don’t worry,” she purred deviously,” I’m sure that, in a few days time at most, he’ll be ready for another session.”

They looked extremely pleased at that, and before long they all left the room, leaving Naruto to sit in his own blood, and their bodily fluids.

Naruto fell then, onto the ground and onto the filth on the floor, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

.

.

.

An hour later and Naruto was woken up by the sound of the door opening and closing.

He slowly opened his eyes, looking to the side without moving his body and seeing the boot clad feet stomping their way over to him. He patiently waited as the man walked over to him, and still didn’t move when he stopped beside him.

He waited, gave a harsh cough when the man kicked him in the side as if to wake him, and breathed heavily from the blow as the man knelt down beside him. He looked over Naruto’s heaving, naked body and grinned lecherously, but left it at that as he shoved some bread into Naruto's open mouth.

Naruto choked on it a moment but was able to regain control of himself, and swiftly ate it, watching the man out of the corner of his eye, eyeing the cup he held. He sniffed the air, but didn’t smell anything other than the filth around him, and hoped that meant he was going to be given water and nothing else.

When he finished eating the man gave him the cup, and to Naruto’s relief it was, in fact, just water and greedily drank it all. He knew he shouldn’t trust anything these people gave to him. But he also knew that they had a vested interest in keeping him alive, so for the time being they wouldn’t be pulling any funny business and would be making sure that he was fed and watered enough to stay alive. So he gladly partook in the food and drink and settled back onto the ground when he was finished, closing his eyes to rest again while the man stood and left the room.

.

.

.

Naruto’s eyes snapped open again.

His internal clock was screaming at him that it had only been an hour and could he please get back to sleep?

Naruto shook his head and looked up at the door, watching as another man, not the same one from the previous hour, came into the room. He looked at Naruto and grinned maliciously. He walked further in and walked around him, looking up and down, but not moving closer to him. Naruto watched, sitting up in the process and got the feeling that this was going to be a common occurrence. He was annoyed but kept quiet as the man finished his perusal and with another smile left the room.

Once again shaking his head, Naruto lay back down, letting sleep claim him.

.

.

.

Another hour passed, and once again Naruto found himself waking up. He pushed himself up and watched as the door opened and the third man came in, again not the same one as the one previous or the one before that, and again he looked at Naruto. This one didn’t grin, he seemed shocked that Naruto was sitting up and looking at him, unfeeling and dull eyes tracking his every move.

The man gulped, shuffled into the room, looked around quickly then immediately left.

Apparently him sitting there staring made him uncomfortable, Naruto mused. He would make sure to do that to the rest of them and see if it unnerved them as much as it had this one.

He let out a sigh and lay back down, his body already counting down the seconds until he would be disturbed once again.

.

.

.

The final man was here.

Naruto sat up looking at the door again, and he discovered that yes, this one was unnerved at being watched so closely by his prisoner, and didn’t venture further than the threshold before making a hasty escape.

‘At least they’re leaving me alone,’ Naruto mused to himself as he lay back down and closed his eyes once again.

.

.

.

The first man was back.

Naruto unnerved him with his staring and he didn’t come in any further than the door and left as quickly as he came.

Naruto still didn’t understand why him staring at them unnerved them so much, his staring while they raped him didn’t seem to bother them, so why now?

He lay back down and waited, and an hour later he was disturbed by the second man, then an hour after that the third, then the fourth and finally the first again.

Again and again, over and over until Naruto was used to it and just sat with his eyes half lidded, staring in the general direction of the door. He allowed his body to rest until well into the night.

Every hour a man came, and every time they seemed to get more and more tired. It wasn’t long before they were blearily, yet wearily, looking at Naruto, yawning and stretching before leaving again.

It wasn’t until Naruto’s internal clock told him that it was 5 o’clock that something happened.

He was dozing while sitting up, his head lolling to the side as he breathed deeply when…

“Grab a weapon…”

Naruto started awake.

He looked around but found no one to be there. Shaking his head, Naruto began to doze again when it happened again.

“You’re weapons… they’re there, right?”

Naruto started again.

It was a voice. 

It sounded like his own while at the same time it didn’t at all. It was deep, masculine and gravily, as if it hadn’t been used in a long time. For some reason Naruto couldn’t fathom, the voice was comforting, and so even though he knew he shouldn’t, he listened to it.

Looking around him he slowly began turning his body, his internal clock telling him that he only had ten minutes until the next check-up to find what he was looking for.

Right there, behind him were his weapons pouches. He took a deep breath then stopped, listening for any noises that might indicate that someone was coming…

There wasn’t.

He took another breath then scooted forwards. His legs didn’t feel like cooperating, also the binds around his thighs made it hard for him to move them, what with the chain connecting them, making sure he wouldn’t be able to open them very wide, so getting onto his feet and walking was currently out of the question. He scooted a little bit more, moving closer and closer to the pouches, his heart began beating hard in his chest, adrenaline pumping through his veins and the blood rushing in his ears made it hard to hear anything outside of his own breathing.

Naruto moved again, and he was so close now, so close he could almost taste it-

He stopped.

Something metal was jiggling around, as if someone were trying to turn the doorknob. He turned around slowly and looked at the door, but the sound stopped. He paused, straining his ears for any other sound, he even sniffed the air, the four men’s disgusting scents engraved in his mind forever, but he couldn’t smell them either. He waited a moment more then let out the breath he was holding, right now back to-

There was that sound again.

Naruto stopped and the sound did as well. He squinted at the ground and pulled forward again, and again the sound came.

Along with the painful tugging on his arms.

Naruto’s head snapped back and he looked up at the ceiling in dismay. The chain attached to the ceiling, attached to him, was restraining him. Naruto wanted to curse loudly, but bit his tongue. He paused and closed his eyes, and his internal clock told him he had one minute before his next check-up, so it was with a heavy heart that Naruto shuffled back to his spot on the floor, took a deep breath then looked up at the door just as it opened.

The man looked at him with bleary eyes, gave a sigh, and then left again.

Naruto waited with bated breath as he listened to the retreating footsteps. Once they faded away into the distance Naruto let the air out from his lungs and turned back around to look at his predicament.

He thought long and hard, and after some time he had a plan.

Nodding his head he started carefully shuffling forwards, ignoring the pins and needles feeling in his legs and arms, now wasn’t the time for caring about discomfort, now was his chance to get away.

Once he was as close as he could possibly get, a position where his arms were being pulled at from an awkward angle, he turned so that he was partially on his side. The chain pulled painfully on his arms, but Naruto ignored it and he stretched his legs out from him, reaching as far out as possible until even his toes were reaching and made a grab for his kunai pouch.

He stretched and stretched, pulling at his arms until they were almost perpendicular from his shoulders, but he wouldn’t give up, and he continued to stretch his legs out and try and grab at his pouch.

If this didn’t work… Naruto shook his head at the thought. For now he just needed to focus on his task, he could worry about consequences later. He took in a breath, then let it out, sagging his entire body, and that sagging allowed for the last few inches he needed…

‘Got it!’ he thought triumphantly, grinning to himself as he pulled the pouch closer to himself, but that grin was dashed when the pouch caught on the edge of the futon. Naruto gave a nasty curse and tugged on the flap that kept it closed, pulling on it in a desperate attempt to set it free, so that he could set himself free-

“Eerg!” a mighty grunt later and the pouch sprung open, Naruto pulled a little too hard and the pouch went soaring through the air, landing on the other side of the room with a dull thud.

Naruto stopped all movement, listening carefully for any sounds of feet hitting the ground. After a couple minutes passed with no sounds forthcoming Naruto let out a sigh, but he quickly felt anger and frustration fill him.

Just his luck, he just had to throw his only chance of getting out to the other side of the room, didn’t he? Why did luck seem to hate him so much? Was he a bad person in a past life? Or was he being punished for being a demon in this life?

He let out a sigh at the thought. He shook his body and made to get up, might as well be a little comfortable in the time remaining.

But everything stopped when he looked down.

There, by his foot was a kunai.

Had it fallen out when he had flung the pouch? It had opened, and Naruto was surprised that none of the other kunai in the pouch had fallen out, but it would appear that he had been wrong, one had fallen out.

With a quiet breath Naruto reached once again. He was only a centimeter or two off, he could reach it, he could…

“Ha!” he exclaimed, then immediately quieted, listening for footfalls again. But like before they weren’t there, luckily it seemed they had decided to sleep away from where he was. They were most likely where the comfy beds were.

He ignored all of that though as he looked back down at his foot, and felt elation fill him when he saw that he securely held it within his toes. Carefully he started pulling himself away from the awkward position he had placed himself in, though it was a little hard with all of his weight flung to one side. He pulled on the chain holding his arms up, wincing as he did, and hauled himself back far enough that he was no longer suspended awkwardly and instead able to sit on the floor again. After taking a moment to recenter himself, he started to shuffle back to his place on the floor, directly under the ring in the ceiling.

Once returned he pulled up his foot. It would be a little hard, with the constraints around his body, but if he bent just so…

He twisted his head to the side, leaning forwards at the same time, and awkwardly twisted his leg around. He twisted his body into a tight coil, until he was able to reach the kunai on his foot with his mouth, snatching it up with his teeth he straightened back out. Carefully he twisted the kunai around until it was in the position he wanted it in. He turned his head around as far as he could until, with a push with his tongue, dropped the knife over his shoulder and into his waiting hand.

It tinked against the metal of the shackles, but the sound wasn’t loud so he only spared a moment to listen to make sure no one was nearby before he started focusing on the task at hand. Twirling the kunai around he held it at an angle that would let him cut at the binding on his wrists.

The binding around his wrists were thick rope like material, and it was so thick that the shackles were pushed further up his arm, resting on top of the binding instead of his hands, which allowed for Naruto to simply cut at the bindings without having to navigate around the metal of the shackles. it was still hard, from his awkward position, to do it, but he did.

He ran the sharp side of the kunai against the bindings for a couple minutes, teeth gritting in concentration as he did. But finally the bindings gave way and bit by bit fell. He pulled on his hands at the last moment, breaking the final string holding it together, and brought them in front of him.

Naruto was 100% thankful that the shackles themselves weren’t attached to each other, they each only held a single hole in them that was connected to the chain that went through the ring in the ceiling, so Naruto now had full range of motion for his hands, though he still couldn’t lift them too high.

He grumbled as he took in the leather bindings on his waist, biceps and legs. With what he was able to do, he would probably only be able to cut the ones on his legs, and for now that was all that he needed to cut, he would worry about the other bindings later, since they didn’t impede his ability to escape too much.

Time was also not on his side, so he would have to focus on the immediate needs for now.

It wasn’t that hard to cut the leather binding from his legs, the chains attaching them to the one around his waist swinging freely. From there Naruto started to try and use the tip of the kunai to somehow unlock the shackles but that was a deadend. So he switched gears and instead tried to use the kunai to break a link in the chain, that way he would be able to get free.

But he stopped short when he heard footsteps approaching.

His entire body stilled, his heart beating in a panic as he thrust his arms behind him, hiding the kunai from sight, positioning his legs so that they were the way they had been before.

The door opened just as he looked up, making sure to dull his eyes as the man looked up at him.

He looked tired, and mildly annoyed, as if checking up on Naruto was a hindrance, and was just about to turn around when he stopped.

Naruto felt his body start shaking as the man entered the room, closing the door behind him and walked up to Naruto, a look of confusion on his face.

“What happened to the binds?” he asked, his eyes glued to the swinging chains on Naruto's sides, connected to the leather binds that Naruto had just a moment ago cut from himself.

Making sure to keep his face passive, Naruto just shrugged, tilting his body to the side as if tired and wanting to get back to sleep.

But the man wasn’t shaken from his curiosity, at least that was what Naruto thought,

He jolted away when he felt the large, rough hands grab his penis and give a couple rough tugs. The man was leering down at him, his yellowed teeth shining dully in the light, his breath smelling like something had died in his mouth.

“Well,” he tried at a purr,” since we’re alone and all…” he trailed off meaningfully, his grin widening as he leaned closer into Naruto’s space. Naruto felt his other hand moving to touch his anus.

Something snapped within Naruto. Something harsh and dark and angry grabbed Naruto’s heart and his body tensed in preparation. Once the man was close enough, so close that his lips were almost touching Naruto’s cheek, he struck.

Quick as a viper Naruto whipped his hands out from behind his back and slammed the kunai into the man’s throat, tearing through it in a single blow. Naruto shoved a hand over the man’s mouth to stop any noise from falling from his lips and ignored the warm blood that sprayed his face and chest.

The man fell to the ground with a thump, his eyes wide in surprise as the life bled from him.

It didn’t take long for his convulsing body to stop moving altogether, and soon Naruto was left alone with the dead body of one of his rapists.

He breathed heavily for a moment. The need to throw up jumped into his throat but he held back. No, now wasn’t the time. He needed what little was there for energy, so he swallowed down the bile in the back of his throat and instead focused on just breathing.

After a couple minutes of breathing Naruto regained his wits and turned to the body. It was still close enough that he could reach, so he shuffled over on his knees and started to search the body.

There was nothing of value on his body, and Naruto was just about to curse when he spotted a little pocket hidden within his shirt. Naruto gulped and shoved a hand towards it, cringing as his hands came in contact with the gross body of the man. But he endured and was able to gain something invaluable.

Pulling his hand back Naruto looked upon his freedom.

A single key.

With bated breath Naruto surprisingly calmly used it to unlock the shackles from his wrists, the flesh there stinging at the cool air touching his raw and open wounds. He flinched but persevered, dropping the shackles and letting them swing back and forth.

With a calming breath he stood, finally, on shaking legs, stretching his body as best he could with a sigh. He walked around a bit to get the feeling back into his legs, slapping them a couple times to speed up the process. He was satisfied when they stopped shaking, nodded to himself, and turned around to his discarded belongings.

He picked up what was left of his clothes and frowned. They were shredded beyond repair, nothing was salvageable save his boxers, and the white swirl that sat on his shoulder, which hadn’t been given the same treatment, and had instead simply been tossed aside. Naruto was grateful though as he slipped them on, a feeling of control washing through him, as if he didn’t need to worry about his enemies anymore, he was protected and he was wiser now, they wouldn’t be getting him again.

He used the bit of cloth the swirl was attached to to tie it around his shoulder once again, a little part of him returning. He took it off when that little part brought a well of emotion he just didn't have the time for. Shaking his head he ripped it off and thought about leaving it. But he couldn't. So he instead put it inside his hip pouch.

He then made swift work of grabbing his kunai pouch and hip pouch, attaching them to his thigh and boxers respectively, and turned to head towards the door when he stopped.

Tilting his head to the side, Naruto looked at the door for a moment. Thoughts swirled through his head, ones that asked whether it was wise to just leave the room. He didn’t know how many people were out there, he didn’t know if more of Gato’s men had survived, or more of the Iwa-nin. He didn’t know how to get out or how to get back to Kakashi, to his team and the others. So was leaving the room really a good idea?

No, Naruto decided, it wasn’t a good idea. He didn’t know whether or not the other men were aware of their comrades' absence or if they would simply come by on the hour, but either way, Naruto knew that he needed to prepare.

Finally looking around the room he had been imprisoned in, Naruto was both happy and disgusted with what he found.

It seemed to be some weird, twisted version of a torture chamber, and a BDSM playroom. There were instruments obviously used for torture and nothing else, whips, axes, hammers small enough to cause damage to a single area and the like, but there were also things that one wouldn’t use for torture, like fluffy handcuffs and paddles and whips that would do little damage. Naruto shuddered to think what this room was used for by Gato. He pushed the thoughts away and instead focused on everything that he could use.

It was with a smile that a plan started forming.

He got to work.

…

Takeshi gave a mighty yawn as he walked towards the prisoners room. He grumbled tiredly, annoyed that he had to stop his drinking with Taro and Izuno to check up on the brat. It was a little early for drinking for most, but he rather just be awake for a long time rather than waking up every couple hours just to check up on the brat. No, he’d stay awake until reinforcements came and he could go and sleep for as long as he wanted.

He hated that he and the others had been forced to take turns to check up on the little slut, but he liked living more so he had bowed his head and done as Reiko-sama had told him. 

It was annoying that such a pretty woman was so much more powerful than him, it was impossible for him to force himself on her, unless he wanted his own cock to be shoved down his throat, so he kept his hands, and comments, to himself.

Takeshi shook his head, instead focusing on where he was going. He realized that he was close and wondered if he could get away with a quick session with the boy? As long as he gagged him he wouldn’t make any noise, and any new blood/semen could be blamed on the day before! He grinned to himself and hastened his steps, cheerfully stopping in front of the door.

With another grin he rushed into the room, swiftly closing the door behind him before turning around.

But what met his eyes made him recoil.

There, on the ground with blood pooling around his head, was the body of one of his comrades. Shinichi lay dead, on the ground with his eyes widened in shock, his throat seeming to have been split open.

He rushed to the man’s side, but was stopped as something tripped him, forcing him to the ground.

He shook his head and looked around and found a… tripwire? His eyes were pulled from the wire to the ceiling as a noise caught his attention, his eyes widening at what he saw.

He didn’t have time to scream as an axe fell down, and split his head cleanly from his body.

…

Naruto watched passively as the man, the one that had taken him first, was killed.

At the moment he couldn’t find it within himself to care, and felt as if his mind had separated itself from his actions for now wasn’t the time to think on what they meant.

He made his way to the man and shoved his body to the side. He searched his body to see whether or not he had anything useful on him, but after a moment he found that no, he didn’t, so with a shrug he turned away and set up the next trap.

He didn’t have to wait for long-maybe these men had been together before he had come to check up on him?-and he again passively watched as a man entered the room, a look of annoyance on his face that swiftly turned to shock. He again rushed forwards to check on his comrade but was stopped even closer to the door, tripping a wire that set off a barrage of knives to fall from the ceiling.

Naruto had to go in for the killing blow, but most of the work had been done for him, and he felt no sympathy in him at the pitiful sight of the man. He checked the man over to see if he had anything useful on him, and when he again couldn’t find anything he went ahead and set up yet another trap.

It took longer for the final man to come to the room. It didn’t take the rest of the hour for him to come, which told Naruto that he had been with the other two men, but it had taken longer than the previous one to come which worried him.

These men were pretty similar. They seemed to have similar levels of patience, temper and thought process. It didn’t make sense for one to take five minutes to spring into action but another took more than ten. Naruto breathed calmly and listened intently.

It almost sounded as if there were two sets of footsteps, while at the same time there was only one set. Naruto felt panic settle in his stomach, his mind racing a mile a minute at the implications. He knew that he had only set up one trap for the final man, so whoever entered first would be killed by it, and even though he hoped that that second person was just another of the thugs that maybe had returned from the battle, he knew who it was.

A split second later and he was behind the door. He needed every chance he could get against another, obviously seasoned shinobi. The kunoichi might underestimate him, but she wouldn’t make the mistake that Mizuki had. She didn’t know what he could do, so she had no false sense of preparedness that he had had, so as a proper shinobi she would be cautious.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Naruto took a deep breath and felt as his body calmed and his mind separated itself from the situation. He just needed to be calm. He would do his best and use everything that he could to his advantage.

Naruto took in a breath.

He heard the doorknob jiggle.

He let it out.

The door started opening.

His eyes snapped open and he placed an exploding tag on the door, jumped onto the wall, with a little difficulty from the bindings, and crawled to the ceiling. He held on with his hands and strength, his Chakra was still trapped within him as he had been unable to remove the tag on the back of his neck.

Naruto watched the door open quickly and the man and woman at the threshold.

For a split second nothing happened. 

Then the woman moved.

With wide eyes she shoved the man forwards while flinging herself back, the man falling into the razor sharp ninja wire Naruto had placed at the entrance, cutting his body up into finely cleaved bits.

But before his severed body could hit the floor, the tag at the door went off, taking the door, a chunk of the wall and ceiling with it.

“ARHG!” the woman screamed in pain, whether from being hit from the blast or shrapnel Naruto wasn’t sure, but the fact that he felt his body fill up with returned power told him that whatever had happened to her, had cancelled out the seal on Naruto’s neck, the boy felt as it unstuck from his neck and fluttered to the ground.

Taking in a breath at the surge of power, Naruto was relieved at the return of his Chakra. It was like a part of himself had been returned, and Naruto was able to find it much easier to hold on to the ceiling.

Naruto’s eyes snapped to the doorway when he heard a banging, eyes going wide at the sight before him.

The woman had been hit by the blast it seems, for part of her face, arm and leg looked burned, Naruto spotted a couple fingers missing from her left hand, and she looked pissed.

She glared hatefully at him before, with a swiftness Naruto thought she shouldn’t have considering her injuries, threw kunai at him. He dropped from the ceiling to the floor, wincing at the less than perfect landing, but wasn’t able to properly right himself before the woman slammed into him.

He let out a gasp at the contact, his body protesting the extra strain on his body, and fumbled back and crashed to the ground. He rolled over onto his side and sprang away, kunai and shuriken hitting the spot he had just occupied, landing a little ways away from the woman.

She snarled and let out another barrage of kunai and shuriken, forcing Naruto to move once again. He noticed that she started doing some hand seals while he was distracted, and before long spikes of earth shot up from the ground, one slamming into his knee and throwing him off balance.

Naruto caught himself and threw himself to the side again, as another group of spikes came from the ground missing him by centimeters. He grit his teeth, eyes narrowing on the woman who had a hateful sneer on her face, her hands moving to do more hand seals, forcing Naruto to move again. He knew he needed to get close to her, but just moving was taking a lot out of him, the bindings on his body making it even harder to do anything.

Shaking his head he grabbed a couple of kunai and shuriken and threw it at the woman. She jumped out of the way, the explosion from a tag Naruto had attached to one of the kunai just barely missing her. She screamed again and did more seals, this time turning the earth spikes to mud.

“Doton: Doryuudan!” she cried out and from the formed mud the head of a dragon appeared.

Naruto dashed to the side as it opened it’s maw, mud shooting from its mouth with a roar that hurt his ears. He tried to slap his hands over his ears but was stopped short by the bindings, jumping back and away from the spewed mud at the same time, his mind working furiously on how he can fight back.

He lifted his hands in a cross seal and tried to pull forth the Chakra needed to perform his favorite jutsu, but found that he couldn’t. He cursed as he dove to the side, realizing that his Chakra was acting like sand, shifting and moving and falling through his hold. It seemed that the seal had messed with his ability to use his Chakra for the time being, so Naruto focused his attention elsewhere.

His eyes bounced around the room, taking in the items in the room and wondering how he would be able to use them. He was pelted in the back by mud. He grimaced at the pain but did his best to shake it off, if he faltered now...

An idea then popped in his head, so with a look of determination he went for it.

He jumped from side to side, grabbing whips, knives and axes from the wall and throwing the sharper implements at the woman while tying up the whips for something else. The woman dodged this way and that, her breaking concentration forcing longer pauses between each attack, making it easier on Naruto to do what he needed.

It took some time but Naruto was able to finish.

A glob of mud flew past Naruto’s head, uncomfortably close, and he ducked down. His eyes gleamed as he turned towards the woman. A silent fire burned within his gaze as he rushed the woman.

“Tch!” The woman tried moving to the right but was stopped when Naruto threw an axe that way, so she tried moving to the left, but couldn’t as Naruto brought back his arm and pulled on a whip in his hand. It was attached to a net of more whips on the kunoichi's left, trapping her, forcing the woman to remain in the middle. 

She growled and shouted,” Doton:Gouremu no Jutsu!” then opened her mouth wide. A quickly forming rock monster shot out of her mouth and with raised arms rushed at Naruto.

His eyes widened at the golem and he tried to stop his assault in order to move to the side or, something, but wasn’t quick enough, his body punched back by the creature. It roared and rushed at him, growing even larger as it brought a giant fist onto Naruto, forcing him down into the flooring.

Naruto coughed up blood, his body spasming and flinching as the onslaught continued, pushing him deeper and deeper into the ground.

A couple minutes later and the golem disappeared. The woman coughed out and heavily made her way over to him, eyes set determinedly on Naruto’s heaving form in the ground.

Naruto opened his bloodshot eyes, watching her getting closer and closer. He watched as she pulled a final kunai from her pouch and held it out in front of her, her intention clear to the boy.

His body twitched and spasmed, gods, his ribs felt displaced. Something else, his hip, felt broken. Eyes twitching this way and that, he couldn't focus on anything, he dazedly looked around. 

His ragged breathing hurt his lungs.

He slowed it so he wouldn't hurt as much.

His slowed breathing slowed his beating heart. Naruto looked up at the ceiling, his eyes fluttering.

He was tired. 

His eyes felt heavy. 

He closed them hoping that it would help. Maybe he could just let it happen. He didn’t need to fight anymore, he had done everything he could, not even Sakura would be able to reprimand him for his efforts! He just wanted to go to sleep… was that so bad? Was it wrong of him to be tired? To want to let go and not have to worry anymore? Maybe he’d finally be able to meet his parents, maybe he could finally know who they are, and what they really thought of him.

All he had to do was let go.

Idly he noted that the footsteps were getting closer. 

He ignored them.

He wondered if it would hurt, dying. Would it be worse than what he had already been through? He doubted it. Sinking lower into the ground Naruto let out a sigh. Maybe he would finally have peace. Was becoming Hokage really all that important? It’s not like he ever really wanted to be one, he just wanted the respect that came with the position because, if you can’t have love, then you can at least have respect.

That’s what he thought anyway. But now that he thought about it, they wouldn’t really respect him either. The villagers hated him for something he had no control over, he would have to do something so great that it forced those that hated him to keep quiet about the hatred but it would always exist.

No, Naruto decided, it wasn’t worth it to become Hokage, because he would still be hated, and he wouldn’t even be able to have respect because it wouldn’t be real.

She was almost upon him.

Naruto shifted in place, his heartbeat slow, his body sagging and becoming limp, his mind accepting his fate. For the first time in his life, he would just accept it. What was the point in fighting it now? Fate was something he had fought so hard against, but it had held strong and used his lack of luck and forethought to bring him back to where it dictated that he belonged, and he had fought so hard against it. But now, it was time to just sit back, and let fate run its course. Maybe he’d yell at fate once he died, that could be fun to do. Maybe his parents would join him and rave about how unfair a hand Naruto had been dealt. His heart warmed at the thought.

Yes, he would just lie here for the final time, and stop fighting.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Kakashi’s face flashed through his head.

Naruto started at the image.

His mind flashed through the faces of others, of Hokage-jiji, Iruka, Shikamaru and Chouji and Ino, Kiba and Shino and the Hyuuga girl on their team, the masked faces of the ANBU that had helped him over the years, Teuchi and Ayame, Sasuke and Sakura and finally on Kakashi again.

The ghost of a hand landed on Naruto’s head, ruffling up his hair and Naruto heard a voice softly speak to him. “Ma, ma! You really are amazing Naruto! You were able to last longer than your teammates!” 

Naruto felt something wash through him as he heard the words of praise, it was almost like the man was there.

“Ma, Naruto? Don’t worry about it! I know you might have a harder time, but I know you can do it!” Kakashi eye-smiled down at him.

Naruto was filled with warmth.

“Come here, Naruto. Don’t listen to those words, okay? You’re more than they ever will be.” Kakashi looked at him, his eye sad but determined and he reached a gloved hand out to pat him on the head. He looked up at him and Kakashi eye-smiled, his hand gently scratching his head in comfort.

Naruto liked that smile.

Naruto didn’t want to lose it.

Opening his eyes slowly, Naruto forced his eyes to focus. Tilting his head down he saw that the kunoichi was almost on him, just a few feet away.

Exhaling sharply, then gritting his teeth at the pain it caused in his chest, Naruto thrust out his arms and grabbed hold of the sides of the hole he was in. Slowly, oh so painfully slowly he started to pull himself out of the hole, his body and heart and mind speeding up as he put more and more effort into getting up, in fighting back.

The woman stopped, scoffing loudly,” you still won’t quit? You’ve lost! Just lay down and die you little shit!” she screamed, voice hard and hoarse.

Naruto trained determined eyes on her, shaking his head even though it hurt, and with increasing strength pushed himself up and out of the hole.

He stood on shaking legs, but he didn’t care and just firmed his stance, fists clenching as he looked at her face, into her eyes.

She shook her head in annoyance, throwing her head to the side she demanded,” and what do you think you can do against me? You’ve already lost little boy! The moment you were captured you lost! The moment you went up against me you lost! Your luck has run out and Fate has dictated that you fall to me!”

“Y’know,” Naruto spoke, voice barely above a whisper from all of his suffered abuse,” I’m not the biggest fan of Fate.” His eyes blazed brightly, and the kunoichi let out another scream and charged.

Naruto leaned forwards, ducking under the strike and jumped forwards. His body screamed at him, telling him that he shouldn’t move, but he ignored it. Once he was a good few feet away he turned on his heel and rushed back towards the woman.

She glanced back and jumped away, thinking that she was out of his reach.

Naruto’s eyes narrowed. He held his hand down and low, as if he was holding a blade, and a light gathered in Naruto’s clenched fist, moving and pulsing until Naruto swung his arm out where it burst into a full length sword.

The kunoichi’s eyes widened at the sight, and was unable to move before the blade of light caught her in the hip and ripped through her whole body to her shoulder. 

She fell to the floor in two pieces, her face frozen forever in surprise.

Silence fell through the room.

All Naruto could do was breathe harshly.

The blade of light flickered and swirled away and Naruto was left alone with nothing but the dead around him.

Naruto knew, somewhere within him, that it wasn’t over yet. He had to get out, get back to Kakashi, to his team, before anything else could happen. If he allowed himself to feel now he wouldn’t be able to get back up for a long time, and he didn’t know if he would be able to survive that on his own.

So, with pain wracking his body, and blood trying to force its way from his throat to the floor, Naruto turned around, and made his way out of the room.

…

Chapter 2: In my Embrace

Kakashi was pacing.

Pacing back and forth in the room given to him by Tazuna, with Demon of the Mist Momochi Zabuza and his accomplice Yuki Haku. They sat off to the side, watching as he restlessly paced back and forth in front of the lone window in the room, neither making remarks on Kakashi’s behavior, because they already knew why he was acting this way.

The day before, after the battle on the bridge against the last of Gato’s forces, they had discovered that Naruto was missing.

Kakashi had walked all over the place, calling out Naruto’s name and trying to sniff him out, growing more frantic in his search the longer it took to find him. Haku and Zabuza had somehow been able to force Kakashi to stop just as he was about to summon his pack, something that would have dangerously drained him of Chakra, and had convinced him that he needed rest. Tazuna promised that he would take some men and search around for Naruto, but if he had been taken to Gato’s place then they wouldn’t be able to do anything, considering they didn’t actually know where it was.

After some more pushing from Haku, and after realizing that he was frightening his other students with his frantic behavior, Kakashi reluctantly agreed and made the long trek back to Tazuna’s house.

Inari had been loud and tried his hardest to keep the mood light, exclaiming several times that Naruto was fine! It wouldn’t be long before they found him and brought him back safe and sound, no wounds and no worries. Kakashi knew better, knew that Naruto was no doubt suffering horribly wherever he was, but had kept that to himself, something he recognized both Zabuza and Haku had done as well.

What remained of Team 7 and the two ronin had eaten and rested for the rest of the day, regaining back much needed energy and strength during the time. Though Kakashi’s mind had been filled with all sorts of terrible images of what was happening to Naruto while he lazed about the house for the rest of the day, he was able to grudgingly accept that his body was exhausted, and Chakra depleted dangerously low from first fighting Zabuza, then the hoard of thugs and ruffians, not to mention the Iwa nin.

He scowled at the memory.

They had been a right nuisance, getting in his way and trying with all their might to kill him and the rest of his team. They had tried so hard that Kakashi had been forced to focus on the defenseless Genin and old man, losing track of Naruto in the process and hadn’t even realized that fact until he was surrounded by the dead bodies of thugs and nin alike, and not a single trace of sunshine blond hair in sight.

He had panicked, his heart seizing at the implications and had lost himself for a time, his mind reverting to a far more instinctual state that he rarely allowed himself to fall into. He had actually growled at Haku when he had told him that he needed to rest, his racing mind yelling at him to “Find pup, find pup, find pup” over and over until it was the only thing he was able to think and hear and feel.

But seeing the look of fear on his other students' faces quieted the words, though they still continued their chant in the back of his mind, and he was able to actually start thinking again. He pulled back to himself and agreed that it would be best if they headed back, though not before he helped the villagers clean up the mess of bodies on Tazuna’s bridge.

Kakashi stopped his pacing to peer out of the window, his heart falling when he saw that it was still the same, nothing.

He shook his head and began his pacing again, his body tensing more and more as he tried to patiently wait for the return of Pakkun.

Kakashi had sent the dog summons out the moment he had woken up that morning at 5 o’clock, letting the dog sniff some of Naruto’s belongings before sending him off. Over an hour later and Pakkun had returned, but it was with bad news.

Pakkun had been on a strong scent and had followed it a good long while, but it had turned out to be misleading. Pakkun had returned with Naruto’s headband in his mouth.

Kakashi had felt his insides turn to ice, but was able to calm himself when the scent of blood wasn’t on Naruto’s headband, hopefully that meant he wasn’t dead yet so he sent the dog out again.

But Naruto’s scent wasn’t the only thing on the headband, it had also held the scent of the female Iwa nin. 

Kakashi scowled. 

He had discovered while cleaning up the bodies that what he had thought was the body of all the Iwa nin, were just two dead bodies and one earth clone. It had broken apart the moment he touched it, and her being absent had immediately told Kakashi that she was to blame for his pup-he shook his head-his students' disappearance.

A part of him hoped that she was still nearby, still alive and well and kicking, just so that he could be the one to rip her life from her body. He fought to keep the rumbling growl down, knowing that his behavior was making a very strange impression on the ronin.

Kakashi stopped in front of the window again, his chest constricting when he couldn’t see Pakkun anywhere and started his pacing back up again.

“Kakashi-san, you need to rest.”

The man shot the brown-eyed boy a look, his mind and body telling him that no, he needed to be out there looking for his pu-student-but he was compromising by staying put instead of going off and looking with Pakkun.

Haku looked at him with sympathy, nodding his head towards the headband sitting on Kakashi’s futon,” you need to save your strength for when Pakkun gets back,” he said softly,” if Naruto-kun is trapped somewhere that he needs to be broken free from, then you need your strength to do just that. I know you want to go as soon as possible, but Pakkun won’t find him any faster with your pacing, so you need to sit down and rest.”

He knew it was a sound argument, but Kakashi still didn’t want to sit down. He needed to move, he needed to-

“Please. For Naruto-kun?”

Kakashi’s entire body stopped at that. His mind and heart warred for a moment, his mind telling him that he should listen and conserve his strength, for Naruto’s sake, but his heart demanded that he do something until Pakkun comes back, sitting around would just make him feel guilty, like he was doing nothing and just uncaringly lazing around the house until he was “forced” to go out and get Naruto. 

Naruto deserved better than that.

“Oi, ya fucking porcupine! Sitting and resting isn’t doing nothing! It’s doing the best thing possible given the circumstances, so sit your ass down!” Zabuza growled lowly, and Kakashi had to fight the instinct to growl right on back, instead focusing on what the other man had said.

Reluctantly he sighed, nodded his head and sat down on his futon, grabbing Naruto’s headband and holding it tightly in his hand and waited.

His companions didn’t talk, either because they knew he wasn’t in the mood or because they didn’t feel the need either he didn’t know, but he was grateful for the silence, it let his mind stay as quiet as it was, what with the constant “Find pup” going off in the back of his mind, letting the rest of it focus on remaining calm was easier in the quiet.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but Tsunami had come during that time and given them breakfast. The three thanked her and ate in the quiet, Tsunami returning a couple minutes later to gather up their dishes.

Some more time passed, and Kakashi forced his mind to focus on strategizing what he would do in order to get Naruto back. If he had to fight then he was going to fight, no matter how tired he was. That breakfast was helpful though-

He heard barking.

Eye snapping open, Kakashi rushed to the window, his heart jumping to his throat when he saw that Pakkun had returned. He glanced at the clock on the wall while turning towards his futon, and he saw that it was 8 o’clock.

He rushed to put on the rest of his gear and made his way down stairs, Naruto’s headband still firmly in his hand.

He opened the door and kneeled down as Pakkun came to a stop in front of him. The dog looked up at him with his tired eyes, but his tail was wagging as he pointed with his head over his shoulder.

“I think I’ve found him boss, are you ready to go?” Kakashi nodded his head, standing in the process and looked behind him where Tazuna, Tsunami, Haku and Zabuza were.

“Did either of you want to come with me?” he asked, wanting to rush out but knowing that having backup would be helpful, and since Sasuke was incapacitated …

Haku nodded, his eyes flashing with determination as he made his way over to him,” I’ll come, Zabuza-sama still needs his rest, and I don’t feel comfortable with you going by yourself. Especially since we don’t know what we might be up against.”

Kakashi nodded to him then turned to look at Zabuza, who shrugged.

“Yeah, probably better if I stay here. Someone’s gotta keep an eye on your brats after all!” he grinned.

Kakashi just nodded his thanks to that before turning to look at Pakkun.

“Let’s go.” And with that the three of them left.

.

.

.

They ran a good distance before they were stopped while they were coming over a hill.

“What’s wrong?” Kakashi forced his voice to remain even, even though he wanted to tell Pakkun to keep going and to take him to Naruto. The pug shook his head and sniffed at the air, growling lowly before turning to Kakashi with unease.

“I smell blood.”

Kakashi’s body tensed, and he threw his gaze towards the hill, sniffing the air and trying to find the scent that Pakkun had picked up.

He was able to scent it out, but felt his body relax when he realized that the smell of blood wasn’t Naruto’s. But the joy was interrupted by the arrival of a small child stumbling over the hill.

Eye widening he rushed forwards and grabbed the child before she was able to fall over. She had dull black hair and brown eyes, a light in them flickering as if it had just been ignited. She was trembling in his arms, her breathing uneven and her eyes flicked this way and that in unease.

When she started whimpering Kakashi started to soothe her,” sh, sh it’s okay, you’re okay…” he whispered softly, letting one of his hands gently stroke her back. The girl looked up at him, her eyes searching for anything amiss within his eye.

She sighed a moment later and leaned into his touch, staying still for a time as Kakashi continued to pet her back. But she shook her head after a moment and looked back up at Kakashi, her eyes searching desperately as she asked,” are… are you Hatake Kakashi?”

The man was surprised that she knew who he was, and was immediately filled with suspicion. She looked like a civilian child so she had no business knowing his name. Was this a trap?

“Angel-sama said to find Hatake Kakashi.”

Kakashi’s attention snapped back to her, his eyebrow furrowing in confusion at the proclamation. He tilted his head to the side as he righted the girl, letting his hand remain on her back in order to steady her while she found her footing.

“Angel-sama? Who is this Angel-sama?” he asked. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but his whirring mind was telling him he knew exactly who this Angel person was.

But he wanted to be sure.

“Angel-sama is Angel-sama!” the girl explained with the logic of a child, saying it so matter-of-factly that it almost made Kakashi stupid for even asking, though not in the normal sense.

But the girl quickly elaborated before he felt the need to ask.

“Angel-sama is the one who saved us!” she smiled widely, her eyes becoming more and more filled with life the more she spoke. “Angel-sama said that I needed to find Hatake Kakashi, cause Hatake Kakashi would be able to help us! Are you Hatake Kakashi? Will you help us?”

Kakashi stared at the girl, his instincts telling him she was telling the truth. He eye-smiled and nodded,” Hn, don’t worry, I’ll help. But first tell me what this Angel-sama looks like. Also, what’s your name?”

The girl looked surprised and confused, but with a smile she answered him.

“My name is Usagi! And hm, Angel-sama… he’s not that tall, definitely a boy and he has blond hair, I think! His eyes are blue and he has these markings on his face,” she shook her head, looking confused,” I couldn’t really see them so I don’t know what they are…”

“And why couldn’t you see them?” Kakashi asked. Usagi wasn’t much shorter than Naruto, so it didn’t make sense for her not to be able to see his face-

“Blood was on his face, so I couldn’t tell.”

Kakashi’s heart nearly stopped. 

He forced his body to still, his mind to start back up and ignoring his emotions telling him to go on a rampage.”...What?” he forced from his throat.

Usagi didn’t seem to notice his tense form.

“Angel-sama was covered in blood when he helped me and mama,” she looked off to the side, her eyes darkening as nasty memories returned to her,” they, those bad men, they’d kept us in these really small cells and only let us eat once a day. Sometimes they’d take mama away and I’d hear screaming… but I don’t know what they did to her, whenever they brought her back she’d look all tired and worn out…” tears gathered in her eyes, her small form shaking from the memories.

“It was bad. Mama would cry when she thought I was sleeping, and apologize, like it was her fault that Gato and his mean men took us away from papa when papa wasn’t able to pay him…” Usagi closed her eyes and remained silent for a moment. She carefully breathed, in, out, then opened her eyes again. A fire burned within as she looked at Kakashi, a hopeful smile curling her lips,

“But then Angel-sama appeared!”

Kakashi for his part was on the edge of his nerves. He was battling back his instincts that were screaming at him to shake the girl and demand where Naruto, his student, his precious pup, was. He was just barely able to hold back, and he hoped that the child wasn’t able to pick up on his tenseness.

It seemed she hadn’t, for she continued on,

“There had been a lot of noise before, and the bad men were running around screaming about something. They kept saying ‘Reiko-sama, save us!’ but whoever that is, they didn’t come to save them,” Kakashi’s mind focused on the name, Reiko… that must be Tsumigachi Reiko, the female Iwa-nin that had taken Naruto in the first place. His mind rejoiced, Naruto must have been able to defeat her somehow… or maybe she had left for Iwa? Didn’t matter, she wasn’t there anymore, and Naruto was better off for it.

“But then the noises started up again, and there was even more screaming from the bad men, but then they just stopped making noise, and more time passed, the less screams there were, until finally it was silent. I don’t know how long it was before Angel-sama was there…” her eyes glazed over,” he was… beautiful. His body was covered in blood and white stuff, blood was on his face and in his hair, but his eyes were so blue and bright, and his hair was the prettiest hair I’d ever seen! I’d never seen someone with blond hair before, and I suddenly got why the older men in the village would always go on about them all the time! He walked by the cell me and mama were in, and stopped. He turned to look into the cell and after only a moment he reached out and ripped the cell door right off its hinges! He threw it into a man that was trying to sneak up on him, then turned back to me and mama. He stared at us for a moment, I don’t know how long he stood there, then he held out a hand to us. ‘Come with me, I’ll help you,’ he’d said, his voice sounded hoarse, like he’d been throwing up for a long time and hadn’t had any water yet. Mama looked at him for I don’t know how long, before she took his hand and he pulled us out of the cell.” Usagi looked Kakashi in the eye, her own shining with emotion.

“He went around the whole place and helped out all of the people there, all the people that Gato,” she spat the name out,” had taken and hurt. He pulled us all out of our cages and set us free! Then, when he’d gotten everyone, he asked if someone could go ahead and get some help! I volunteered ‘cause mama always said I was the fastest runner, and he told me to go to the village, but if I could go and find someone named Hatake Kakashi, that he’d help us if I asked for it! And he was right, you said you’d help us!” She grinned up at Kakashi, and Kakashi felt his body relax.

Seemed Naruto was still working his magic. 

That kid, he was so damn charismatic, it really spoke to the level of prejudice the villagers held for him that they weren’t able to see that, and only saw the demon sealed inside of him. Hated him for something that didn’t even affect his personality, it was damn annoying.

Kakashi eye-smiled down at Usagi,” ma, ma! Thank you for telling me who this Angel-sama is! I’ll help you,” he turned to Pakkun and tilted his head down where they had just come from,” Pakkun, go to the village and get some help. Usagi-chan can lead us from here.”

Pakkun nodded his head before turning and rushing off, and Kakashi turned back to Usagi, making sure to eye-smile again.

“Usgai-chan, lead the way please!”

The girl nodded enthusiastically and turned around and rushed up the hill, Kakashi and Haku hot on her heels.

Only a couple minutes passed before the scent of people and blood was on the air, and Kakashi had to suppress the urge to growl as Naruto’s scent, Naruto’s blood, touched his senses. Instead he focused his attention forward and saw in the distance a large group of people slowly making their way forwards. And there, in front of them…

“Angel-sama!” Usagi screamed in glee and rushed forwards, running into the boy’s open arms, laughing in glee as he gently patted her head. ”I did it Angel-sama! I got Hatake Kakashi, and he said he’d help us!”

A head of blond slowly lifted, and azure met charcoal grey.

Kakashi was frozen to the spot.

His instincts were going haywire at what he saw before him, it was all he could do to not rush forward as Usagi had, as he trembled in rage.

It was definitely Naruto. Kakashi had been sure before, but as a good Shinobi had allowed for the possibility that it was somehow someone else. 

But that, that was Naruto.

Eyes trailing, Kakashi felt his rage mounting at what he saw. A body that was supposed to be in an outrageously orange jumpsuit was bare, save for a pair of Shinobi issue black boxer briefs that Kakashi had somehow forced Naruto to pack. Strapped to his thigh was Naruto’s kunai holster, and Kakashi could see his hip pouch peeking out from behind him. There were what appeared to be leather bindings around his waist, biceps and neck, that were all attached to each other with chains and more leather, and his feet were bare.

Skin that was supposed to be clean was covered in blood. It was mostly in splatters across his upper body and face, but there was an excess on his legs, and more specifically, the backs of his thighs, where a mysterious white substance also was.

It was barely noticeable, but Kakashi’s keen eye, and nose, was able to pick it up, and there was no mistaking that scent, and considering he was also a man…

Something inside of him howled in rage.

He had known, had already come to terms with what was going to happen to Naruto, being in the hands of the enemy, but being confronted with the thing itself… it made him want to throw up, and scream, and kill whoever had thought to touch his student in such a way!

“Ka, Ka-kashi…”

The Jounin's head snapped up at that. He hadn’t even realized that he had looked away in the first place, but he looked back into the eyes of his student, of Naruto, and saw that something was missing. Naruto’s usual warmth and fire was gone, and in its place was a cold, dead stare.

“Ka, Ka-shi…” Naruto croaked out, and Kakashi couldn’t help cringing.

His voice sounded off, like it was raw from screaming or from-

He stopped the thought right there, and pretended not to see the white mixed in with the red on Naruto’s face.

Instead, he moved forwards, keeping his movements slow and deliberate, and walked right up to Naruto.

The stench was worse, in front of Naruto, and Kakashi had to force back his gag as the pleasant scent of Naruto, a scent like a warm summer day and fresh fruit and something spicy, was crudely mixed in with the scent of blood and semen.

He kept his eye on Naruto’s, and watched as something moved within them. Something was being held back, and it took a stupidly long time for Kakashi to figure out what it was, but his thoughts were kept within his own mind as Naruto opened his mouth.

“Ka-kashi…” he choked out once again, and Kakashi felt like weeping. It was so heartbreaking, hearing how wrecked his voice sounded. Why was he only saying Kakashi’s name? The man didn’t understand, but…

“Naruto…” he breathed in return, almost like a prayer, and he resisted the urge to scoop him up into his arms and hold him close, telling him how he would never let Naruto go through something like this ever again.

The boy reached a shaking hand out, his breathing seeming to become more and more ragged, and his eyes were swimming with held back emotion.

“Kakashi…” he whispered, his hand reaching out to him.

He took that hand in his own, and he held it.

“Naruto. I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Naruto shook his head and took a step forward, closer to him,

“Kakashi…”

He was in Kakashi’s space now, and he was looking up at him, his dark and dead eyes swimming with held back tears.

“Kakashi…”

He kept whispering his name, and he didn’t understand why.

The way Usagi had explained things, it sounded like Naruto was able to talk normally, but he hadn’t said anything other than Kakashi’s name and nothing else. It almost seemed like it was all he could do.

He tightened his hold on Naruto’s hand.

“OI!”

A voice shouted from far away.

Kakashi whirled around, keeping Naruto at his back and immediately pulling out a kunai, he distantly heard Haku do the same, and readied his stance for defense.

But it was only a moment later that he realized that it was unneeded, and he loosened his stance and put away the kunai, letting out a sigh.

“Tazuna-san.”

Tazuna, along with a group of men and women from the village, were coming towards them. Tazuna was grinning.

“Ho, Kakashi-san! Yer dog here said that you needed some help with-” he cut himself off as he saw the large group of people behind Kakashi, and he stood there gobsmacked.

There was a moment of silence before, with a loud cry, people from Tazuna’s group, and the people behind Kakashi, rushed towards each other with shouts of joy and surprise. They collided around Kakashi, Haku and Naruto, and the two groups hugged and cried and laughed and exclaimed how they thought they would never see them again.

Words of love and kisses were exchanged between long lost friends, family and lovers, and they all rejoiced at being reunited.

Kakashi felt Naruto stiffen behind him, and he reached his hand back and took hold of the small one that clutched at his back, squeezing it reassuringly, and the boy lost most of his stiffness, and he instead pushed his face into Kakashi’s back, as if seeking protection.

Kakashi felt his throat clog with emotion at the action and squeezed Naruto’s hand again. His mind whispered to him that Naruto, brave, strong Naruto, was seeking protection from him.

If Usagi was to be believed, Naruto had fought the rest of the thugs in Gato’s hideout and brought all the people trapped within out and to freedom. He was obviously still capable of protecting and taking care of himself.

But still he wanted Kakashi to protect him.

The feeling of failure swirling in his chest lightened some.

.

.

.

Several minutes passed before the hugs and kisses and exclamations of ‘I missed you!’ died down enough that Kakashi was able to say something.

Clearing his throat in order to catch Tazuna’s attention, Kakashi tilted his head behind him,” I think that I should be bringing Naruto back to your place… Will you be alright taking these people to the village?”

Grinning Tazuna nodded his head, thumping a hand on his chest he proudly proclaimed,” ho! Leave it to me Kakashi-san!” he gave a hearty laugh while tilting his hat back,” I guess building can wait another day or two, this is way more important!”

Kakashi nodded to the man, eye-smiling to show his understanding. He looked to the ground, where Pakkun sat silently and nodded to him.

"You can head back." Pakkun grinned in response,

"Na, thanks Kakashi! I'll be seeing you and the pup!" And with that he poofed out of existence.

Kakashi chuckled before turning his attention to said pup at his back.

He let go of Naruto’s hand and slowly turned around, giving Naruto the time to back away some, so that Kakashi didn’t accidentally hit him with his arm.

Once turned, Kakashi looked down at Naruto and felt his eye soften. Naruto’s dead eyes had gained back some life, though they were still holding back his true emotions, and Kakashi knew that until Naruto was in a place he felt safe he would continue to hold back his emotions, so it was with a nod that Kakashi started to gesture away from him, towards where he knew Tazuna’s house was.

“Kakashi…” Naruto whispered. He pushed forwards then fell against Kakashi, surprising the man, but he didn’t let it stop him from immediately letting his free arm wrap around Naruto’s head, so that it lay against his front, Naruto was just shy of his chest, and squeezed him reassuringly.

Kakashi could feel how tense Naruto was, no doubt from the crowd around him, and tried to think of a way for him to get Naruto to relax, maybe even ask if he could carry him (which he knew Naruto would be against, it was a sign of weakness after all) before something welled up within him.

He fought for a moment, before letting go, hoping that his instincts knew what needed to be done. But the fact that his body immediately tried to make him growl made him panic.

Kakashi almost stopped the growl from leaving him, but after a moment decided that considering the state Naruto was in, it might be beneficial, so he let it go, rumbling growls vibrating through his whole body.

Naruto stiffened against him, and Kakashi was worried that he had gone too far, but before he was able to stop and apologize, Naruto’s entire body went lax, a soft whine left his mouth while he nuzzled his face into Kakashi’s chest.

Kakashi felt his body flush in pleasure at the action, his inner beast whispering that this was Naruto’s way of telling him he trusted Kakashi to take care of him, and immediately scooped him up and held him in his arms. Naruto nuzzled his face into Kakakshi’s shoulder and Kakashi had to stop another pleasured growl from leaving him, instead he turned to Haku and nodded his head, before turning to the villagers, the saved, and rescued.

“It’s time that we return to Tazuna’s house,” then he looked down at Naruto, eye softening when he saw a less dull blue eye peeking out at him,” I’ll keep you safe,” he whispered, before turning his attention up and taking off, Haku right behind him.

.

.

.

It took awhile for the three Shinobi to get back to Tazuna’s house, and during that time Naruto’s body had started to tremble, more and more, bit by bit, and Kakashi was worried that he would become a heaving mess before he was able to get him somewhere quiet, and safe. He quickened his pace.

Before long they were standing in front of the door, and Kakashi carefully let go with one of his hands, the other tightly holding Naruto to his body, and softly knocked on the door.

He breathed a sigh of relief when Tsunami opened the door.

Eye-smiling at the woman he gently asked,” could you take Inari somewhere? Or at least make sure he’s not upstairs or in the living room? I need to bring Naruto in, and I don’t want the boy to see him…”

Tsunami’s eyes immediately flitted down to look at the boy in Kakashi’s arms, and her face morphed to one of horror as she took in the blood on the boy. Nodding her head quickly she ducked back into the house for a couple minutes, before returning with a soft smile.

“He’s in his room, and your students are still sleeping, so no one will be seeing him,” she opened the door fully and gestured for them to come in.

Kakashi nodded his head gratefully and walked in, his hands tightening around Naruto when he made a small noise, and nodded to Haku,” could you come with me real quick? I didn’t smell any fresh blood on him but I want to make sure Naruto isn’t injured.”

“Of course Kakashi-san! Will we be going to your room?”

The man shook his head and glanced at Tsunami,” no, I was going to take him to the bathroom. He needs to be cleaned up, and I don’t think he’s in the state to be moved around a lot,” he looked her in the eye,” I don’t know how long we’ll be in there. Naruto is most likely going to wake up in there and I don’t know how long it’ll take him to come to terms with everything that happened-”

“Take all the time you need!” Tsunami exclaimed, looking surprised that Kakashi was even asking,“ Kakashi-san, Naruto-kun is the priority here, if he needs to be in the bathroom all day that will be fine! We have a bathroom on this floor, though it doesn’t have a bath or shower, but everyone already bathed yesterday, so they can wait a day before taking another one,” smiling sweetly the woman started shooing them away,” now get! Naruto-kun needs your attention! And don’t worry, I’ll watch over your other students with Zabuza-san!”

Bowing his head to the woman and offering a quiet thanks, Kakashi and Haku went up the stairs.

They first stopped at Kakashi’s room, where Zabuza was, and told him that they would be in the bathroom for the time being and to make sure no one disturbed them please, before heading over to the bathroom.

Once inside Kakashi immediately set Naruto on the sink counter and had Haku check Naruto over. Naruto let out a high pitched whine when Kakashi made to step away, so he instead stepped to the side and kept a hand on Naruto’s shoulder while Haku looked Naruto over, poking and prodding his body to make sure he was okay.

“Well, it seems he is badly bruised around the hips,” he softly muttered, his eyes glinting in anger at the large, ugly, hand prints on Naruto’s hips,” and his wrists are a little raw, but healing quickly… ah, and his ribs are bruised, but not-oop, nevermind, that ones broken…” Haku grimaced as Naruto flinched away from his touch, arm flying up and grabbing at Kakashi.

He whispered an apology and continued his examination before he pulled back and looked at Kakashi.

“Well, he’s not bleeding. His ribs are bruised and one feels like it's broken, his hip bone is definitely broken as well, and he'll need to bandage up. I would bandage him up to keep everything in place, but that would be ruined by the bath so that’s going to have to wait until after you’re done bathing him. Here,” he reached into his hip pouch and pulled out a jar,” this is some bruise balm, rub it on the bruised parts when you’re done bathing him, and here,” he handed Kakashi some bandages,” I’m sure you know how to bandage someone with a broken rib, so do that when you’re done putting the balm on him. Is there anything else you need?”

Kakashi let his eye drift over Naruto’s head, and idly noted that his trembling had continued, before looking back at Haku and bowing his head.

“No, that’s all. Thank you for your help, Haku-san, please help Zabuza with my other students, just make sure they don’t unnecessarily disturb us. I’m sure you can think up some examples of necessary reasons.”

Haku nodded, grinning wickedly.

“I’ll be sure to tell them that unless I or Zabuza-sama tell them to, to leave you and Naruto-kun in peace.” he bowed before turning and swiftly leaving the room.

Kakashi waited until the footsteps reached his room before moving. He stepped in front of Naruto and lifted him in his arms, Naruto immediately wrapped his own around his shoulders and let out a shuddering sigh at the contact. Kakashi hummed and felt Naruto relax further in his hold, and walked over to the bathtub at the end of the room.

He set Naruto down on the edge of the tub, keeping a steady hand on Naruto’s side while he gently took Naruto’s weapons pouch and hip pouch off of him and set them down away from the splash zone, and then pulled out a kunai.

Naruto’s eyes watched the blade as it travelled closer and closer to his body, not once flinching as the cold metal touched his skin. His eyes flicked up to look into Kakashi’s, and the man held his gaze as, with care, he fitted the kunai under the leather wrapped tightly around his waist, and pulled.

It broke with a snap and hung uselessly from the chains connecting it to the other binds. Carefully, one by one Kakashi cut the rest from Naruto’s body, letting out a sigh at the same time Naruto did when the last of the assemble was gone and fell from his body.

Kakashi reached down and tossed the remains away, not wanting to see them any longer, and put away his kunai. He rubbed Naruto’s side soothingly, before shifting his position. Reaching around the boy he turned on the bath, adjusting the knobs until it was letting out a steady stream of warm water then plugged the hole.

Sitting on his haunches, Kakashi let his hand drop from Naruto’s side, letting out a soothing rumble when Naruto whined at the lack of contact, and moved his hands to his flak jacket. He took it off swiftly and set it aside, then he carefully took each glove off and placed them on top of the vest, then pulled off his sandals and set them next to his vest.

When that was done he put his hand back on Naruto's side, carefully rubbing in what he hoped was a soothing way, and waited for the tub to finish filling up.

Naruto stared down at him for a moment, then reached for his boxers.

Kakashi’s hand immediately went to Naruto’s and he shook his head when Naruto’s eyes lighted upon him. “No,” he whispered,” you don’t have to. You can go in your boxers, it’s okay, we’ll just let them dry later.”

Naruto silently watched him for a moment, before he nodded his head and let his hands fall at his sides again.

Kakashi smiled and moved closer, pulling Naruto so that he was leaning against him, feeling a rumble caught between a purr and a growl in his chest when Naruto let out a soft sigh and wrapped his arms around his neck. Placing a hand gently on Naruto’s back, Kakashi let his head rest on Naruto’s shoulder, breathing controlled and calm until Naruto’s own breathing matched his.

They remained like that for a time, waiting for the tub to finish filling up, and when Kakashi pulled away from Naruto to check on the water he placed his hand on his lower back, to steady him, and leaned forwards and let his fingers glide over the water's surface. Once determining that it was at a good temperature and full enough, he reached over and turned off the water.

At the sound of the water shutting off Naruto pulled away from Kakashi. He peeked over his shoulder and blankly stared at the water a moment before turning to look back at Kakashi.

The man smiled before carefully picking him up and setting Naruto in the water.

“Sorry,” he whispered as Naruto flinched at the warm water touching his cool skin,” it’s okay,” he murmured when Naruto moved about restlessly in the water, as if he didn’t like it, before leaning over and letting Naruto grab hold of his neck, burrowing his face and hiding it from the open air.

Kakashi just let him, humming softly and waited patiently for Naruto to feel comfortable enough to let go and actually sink into the bath the rest of the way.

It took a couple minutes but Naruto finally calmed down and slowly, little by little, let go of Kakashi’s neck and sank the rest of the way into the bath, sighing as the water reached his shoulders, his eyes now more drowsy than dead.

Kakashi hummed again and sat back, keeping one of his arms over the side of the tub so that Naruto could keep a hold of it, and waited as he let Naruto soak in the warmth.

He idly watched as flecks of dirt, blood and semen unstuck from Naruto’s skin and floated on the water’s surface, dirtying it as time passed, and yet still Naruto didn’t move to clean himself.

A couple minutes of watching the water get dirtier and Naruto still not properly scrubbing himself led to Kakashi sighing.

That caught Naruto’s attention, and the boy looked at him in curiosity.

Kakashi eye-smiled,” ma, Naruto, shouldn’t you be cleaning yourself? Y’know,” he mimed scrubbing himself.

Naruto tilted his head to the side and watched for a moment, unmoving, then reached a trembling hand out and grabbed Kakashi’s own, placing it on his shoulder.

Kakashi hummed in understanding.

“You want me to do it?”

Naruto nodded.

Kakashi sighed dramatically,” but my shirt will get wet…”

Naruto flinched away at that, startling Kakashi. He watched with rising alarm as Naruto pulled his hand away and huddled in on himself, his breathing going crazy.

“No, no! I’ll do it, I’ll do it! Naruto, Naruto sh, it’s okay, it’s okay,” he frantically tried to calm the boy down, not understanding what had triggered his reaction, but knowing he had to fix it. A moment later and Naruto had calmed down, his eyes filled with unshed tears staring into his face.

Kakashi gulped.

“I was just joking Naruto, I can just take my shirt off…” he swiftly pulled it off, wincing when doing so pulled on the wound on his arm, and set it aside next to his other things. The boy stared at him unblinkingly, and feeling self conscious, Kakashi started to chuckle,” ma, but it looks like you won’t be seeing my face today!” He said while pointing at his face, which had another mask that only covered his face and a little bit of his neck.

The boy still remained silent, just watching him with blank eyes. Kakashi was becoming more and more unnerved by that blank stare, and not a little bit upset. He didn’t know what to do to make the life come back to Naruto’s eyes, just knew that he had to somehow get Naruto talking about what had happened so that he could start the healing process. But he didn’t know how.

He knew he hadn’t been the best sensei in the world, knew that there were a lot of things that he should have done differently that probably would have prevented this from happening. He knew, from Naruto’s files, that the boy didn’t know how to properly perform the Escape from Bonds Jutsu. If he had made sure that Naruto actually knew how to do that then Naruto probably would have been able to get away from his captors. 

But he hadn’t taught him properly, and Naruto would now have to live the rest of his life with this trauma.

He let out a sigh and scooted closer to the tub. “Tough crowd, huh?” he muttered while reaching out towards Naruto. The boy didn’t respond, just turned so that he was facing Kakashi, allowing the man better access to his body.

Kakashi gently ran his hands over Naruto’s shoulders, making sure that he was okay with being touched before he went any farther, and was pleased that Naruto’s only response was to close his eyes and sigh, leaning into his touch. Emboldened by the action, Kakashi grabbed a wash-cloth and lathered some soap into it, before rubbing it over Naruto’s dirtied skin.

They sat in silence as Kakashi carefully cleaned Naruto off, lightly running it over his face and getting only the surface level filth off, then from his shoulders to his waist. Naruto had at some point leaned against the side of the tub, his breathing evening out until he sounded like he was sleeping, and Kakashi was loath to disturb him, so he continued on, careful of any sensitive spots.

But he eventually finished cleaning the areas that he felt were safe, and all that was left to wash was Naruto’s most private areas.

Kakashi was still reluctant to wake Naruto, so he waited for a time, just watching the boy as he breathed softly, his face still a little dirty from everything,  his lashes laying gently against his cheeks and Kakashi was suddenly struck with just how young Naruto looked.

From what he had seen Naruto was the shortest in his class, and most would probably say the most immature, loud, brash, idiotic, the list could go on. Add in his youthful features and most would say that he was both the youngest and most childish of his class.

But Kakashi knew that there was more to Naruto.

It was in the way he would sometimes just sit, silently and watch the sky, or watch others with eyes too old for a twelve year old. How he seemed to be able to understand people better than even Sakura, his only student that had lived a normal life and should therefore know how to interact with others better than a social outcast and orphan, how he could look into your eyes, and see something that no one else could.

Naruto was so charismatic. He understood people to a degree Kakashi had only seen from his own sensei, and if given the chance was able to bring out the best in that person.

He had done it with Iruka, with Konohamaru, Inari, Tazuna and even Sasuke. Hell, he had looked inside of Haku and brought the best out of him, and now they were allies with Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist!

It really spoke to the level of prejudice the villagers held for Naruto. If they had just allowed him to live, then Naruto would have no doubt been the best in his class, maybe not academically, but definitely socially, and probably ability-wise. He had so much potential, but no one there to help him tap into it.

And Kakashi was partly to blame.

Instead of cultivating that aspect of Naruto, he had sat back and watched as his other students berated and abused him, not lifting a finger to stop it. The behavior that Sasuke and Sakura showed Naruto would be unacceptable in any other team, but since it was Naruto that was being abused the Council saw it as being okay, which allowed for Kakashi to distance himself from the actions and tell himself that it had nothing to do with him, and so it was allowed to continue.

He felt sick to his stomach. His actions were inexcusable, and he would make sure that Sasuke and Sakura knew that, from now on, they were to act like a team, and not unfairly pick on Naruto just because he had a hard time socializing with others.

Naruto twitched, bringing Kakashi back to the here and now.

Humming softly he ran his fingers over Naruto’s cheek, a smile unconsciously coming to his lips when Naruto leaned into the touch.

He was still loath to wake him, but knew that letting Naruto sleep too long in the state he was in would be detrimental to his mental stability, so it was with a heavy heart that he gently started shaking him.

Naruto fought against him for a time, but before long his eyes fluttered open and he looked up at Kakashi. He stared at him for a moment, before a warm smile came to his face.

“Kakashi…” he whispered, his eyes full of warmth,” you’re here…” his voice sounded so distant, yet it was obvious that he was pleased.

Kakashi chuckled, his hand moving to support Naruto’s head as he leaned closer,” of course I’m here, don’t you remember?”

Naruto shook his head. He gripped the side of the tub and pulled himself up with shaking arms, Kakashi’s hands immediately went to his armpits and he lifted him up carefully, letting him sit up in the tub. Naruto’s arms then shot out and they wrapped around Kakashi’s neck, and he burrowed his face in Kakashi’s neck, nuzzling there.

He sighed in content.

“No, you’re here, you’re real. It wasn’t a dream…” he trailed off, his nuzzling unceasing.

For Kakashi’s part he was stunned. He wasn’t entirely sure how he was supposed to respond to that, so he just sat there, his arms slowly moving down to hold Naruto’s body to his. Closing his eye he finally let go, and let his face push into Naruto’s hair, uncaring of the blood and sweat there.

He was choked up by Naruto’s abject joy at just seeing him. He wanted to reassure him somehow, he just wasn’t sure how he was supposed to do that besides,

“Of course it wasn’t a dream… I’m here, I… I’ll always be here…” he whispered.

It was probably a promise he couldn’t keep, being a Shinobi was a dangerous job after all, but he was determined to keep it. He felt Naruto’s body melt into his own, and he let himself crumple into him, his worry, panic and pain at having lost him leaving him in a wash of relief.

The embrace was short lived, however, when Kakashi suddenly flinched back. He had accidentally pushed his wounded arm too roughly into Naruto’s back, and it hurt like a bitch. Sucking in air at the pain he pulled back some, bringing his arm to himself to see that, yep, he was bleeding again. Great.

Naruto let out a little confused noise when Kakashi started pulling away, his eyes going fearful before being filled with curiosity when he spotted the blood welling up under the bandage wrapped tightly around Kakashi’s arm.

Kakashi carefully pushed on the wound, yep, still hurt, dammit, and sighed. He eye-smiled at Naruto, trying to reassure him,” ma, I got injured fighting one of the Iwa nin, but I’m fine, just reopened it on accident!” he chuckled good-naturedly, but Naruto simply stared at the blood.

Kakashi was a little put off by Naruto’s seeming interest, and made to reassure the boy again but held his tongue when Naruto moved.

Slowly, his arms still shaking, he reached out and gently touched Kakashi’s arm. Kakashi winced, even that light touch hurt, and lifted a hand to grab Naruto’s.

Naruto pulled his hand back, away from Kakashi’s, then brought his other hand out and reached again for Kakashi’s arm. Slowly, carefully, he ran his shaking hands over the bandage, seeming to be trying to find something, before he stopped. He lightly tapped the edge of the bandage, then, with careful fingers, started to unravel the bandage.

Kakashi thought about stopping him, but decided to see where this was going, so only watched silently as Naruto meticulously unraveled the bandage, bit by bit so that it didn’t pull on Kakashi’s wound causing him even more pain, a look of determination on his face.

A moment later and the bandage fell away, silently falling to the floor. Naruto just stared at the gash on Kakashi’s arm, transfixed, for a time as blood began oozing out of the wound. Kakashi remained still, internally wincing as the warm air touched the open wound. Naruto’s eyes snapped up to his face for a split second before returning to the wound.

He lifted his hand and almost touched the gash itself, before seeming to change his mind, and instead lightly touched around it.

The hair on the back of Kakashi’s neck rose in reaction, the soft touch tingling against his skin in it’s careful exploration. He had to take a gulp of air before he could speak.

“Naruto, what are you-”

He cut himself off.

He stared, wide eyed, at what was happening.

Naruto had stopped his careful inspection of the gash, grabbed Kakashi by the wrist, and brought the wound to his face, and fit his mouth over the gash.

Kakashi’s entire body stiffened in reaction, his heart beating wildly and his eyesight becoming blurry as confusion swirled in his mind. He felt as Naruto laved his tongue over the wound, licking up the blood and running his tongue inside the gash itself. He pulled his face back a little bit and licked all around the edges of the gash, before fitting his mouth over it again doing the process all over.

“N-Naruto…” Kakashi stuttered, his mind spasming and blanking, unable, or maybe unwilling, to process what was happening. What was he supposed to do? He didn’t want to hurt Naruto by yanking him off of his arm, but he was sure that if he tried to gently pull him off it wouldn’t work, telling him to stop probably wouldn’t work either, and he wasn’t going to yell at him or shake him off, so what was he supposed to do?!

He wasn’t entirely sure how long Naruto licked his wound, but it was definitely for too long. 

At least that’s what he told himself.

But soon enough Naruto stopped. He pulled his face from Kakashi’s arm, eyes soft and satisfied as he looked at Kakashi’s arm.

Kakashi’s eye was locked on Naruto’s mouth, where he could see his blood there, smeared across his lips. He sucked in a harsh breath when Naruto licked his lips… and swallowed.

Azure orbs peered up at him, and Kakashi forced his eye to focus on them, because if he didn’t…

“Are you better?” Naruto asked softly, his voice a wispy little thing still. Kakashi had to gulp a couple times before he could answer.

“...I’m fine? What did you…”

Naruto gently took Kakashi’s arm into his hand, and turned it so that Kakashi could see his own arm.

“What?”

Kakashi stared in disbelief as, before his very eye, the gash on his arm healed. The saliva was bubbling up the wound, and with each passing second the wound grew smaller and smaller until all that looked to be left was blood mixed with saliva. Kakashi swiped his hand over his arm, confirming that all that was left behind was the spit and blood. Not even a scar remained, the skin was perfectly smooth.

His eye flicked up to Naruto, and the boy was only smiling, eyes still soft.

He tried to find the words, his jaw working for a couple seconds but no words were forthcoming.

It appeared he needn’t have tried.

“My saliva… can heal apparently…” 

Naruto looked off at the wall but he wasn’t seeing it. “When one of the men decided to shove his cock down my throat… I didn’t like it. So I tried to bite it off…” his eyes were swimming. Kakashi held his tongue, though his instincts were screaming at him again…

“They forced my mouth open, and he took his cock out of my throat. They were screaming, ‘cept for the man raping me, he was laughing like it was funny,” Kakashi’s spine stiffened at that, and he had to fight off the harsh growl that wanted to crawl out of his throat. He was only able to calm himself by telling himself that those men were already dead, so he couldn’t go hunt them down and kill them. 

He fought off his instincts and told them to shove it. Naruto needed him to listen to what he had to say, so now wasn’t the time! Wrestling his thoughts back to himself, he focused his entire being on Naruto, otherwise…

“Then the screaming stopped. Then they started laughing. Then one of them stuck his hand down my throat and rubbed my spit on the other mans’ penis… that’s when they found out that my saliva heals. No matter how hard I fought, they could just force me to heal them…”

Azure orbs, with regained life, turned to peer up at Kakashi. After a moment of searching his charcoal grey eye Naruto smiled, so soft and sweet, it made Kakashi want to weep.

“I didn’t want to heal them. But you… I wanted to heal you. I want you to be happy, and healthy, and without pain.” he touched Kakashi’s now healed arm, brought it to his face, and nuzzled it. “I didn’t like the taste of their blood on my tongue, in my mouth, down my throat. It was disgusting. But your blood doesn’t taste bad, and I don’t mind it in my mouth, if it means healing you,” he peered up at him, his smile still in place,” I had a choice. I didn’t have a choice then, but I had a choice now, so I chose to heal you.”

It was taking everything in Kakashi to not react to that.

His vision was starting to blur, and his breathing was becoming increasingly labored. He was trying so hard to keep it together, had so many things he wanted to say but just couldn’t pick what to say first, so he remained silent.

He watched as Naruto let go of his arm, and then held out his own, eyes becoming teary as he reached for him.

His smile was slipping away.

“Kakashi,” he breathed.

The man sucked in a breath.

“Hold me, please…?”

He surged forwards, and crushed Naruto to his chest.

Naruto whimpered in response.

Kakashi held him tighter.

Naruto let out a broken sob.

Kakashi wrapped his arms so tightly around Naruto he was sure it must have hurt him, but he didn’t protest.

Naruto cried.

Hard, heaving sobs wracked his tiny frame, and Kakashi held him through it, feeling as though something was stabbing into his heart with every sob. His body was vibrating with energy, energy he would never be able to use. Those men, those awful men, were dead. Naruto had already killed them. Kakashi didn’t need to kill them. But he wished they were alive, so that he could rip their pathetic lives from their worthless bodies.

“Sorry, I’m sorry, so, so, so, sorry Naruto,” he forced from his throat, eye welling with tears, throat clogged with emotion and everything inside of him hurt. 

Kakashi was barely able to keep himself from crying, it was so hard, but Naruto needed him, and that was all he needed to keep his own tears at bay. But he needed to get Naruto to calm down, at least a little, those heaving sobs couldn’t be good for his abused throat and bruised ribs.

Gently, he started to rock his body, back and forth. He hummed deep within his chest, using a hand to rub soothing circles into Naruto’s skin. 

Naruto let out a high pitched whine in between his sobs. His small, trembling arms clutched at Kakashi’s bare back, nails digging into his flesh but Kakashi didn’t care. 

He just held him tighter, a rumbling growl answering Naruto’s whine.

Naruto whined again, and Kakashi again growled in response. He let his head fall into Naruto’s hair, and he started rubbing his face against the top of his head as one of his hands found their way to Naruto’s head, and cupping the back of it held him to his throat.

Naruto heaved in a couple breaths, small sobs still being pushed from his throat. His small hands ran over Kakashi’s back and found purchase at the back of his neck, and Naruto hauled himself up so that he could more comfortably push his face into Kakashi’s neck.

Kakashi felt a deep seated pleasure rush through him, and the growl that left him this time showed as much. Naruto’s answering whine was softer this time, his sobs leveling off as he gripped at Kakashi’s neck with all of his strength, a different kind of whine leaving him.

Kakashi forced his eye open at the sound of distress and pulled away some so that he could see what the problem was. His eye widened when he realized that the edge of the tub was in the way, and Naruto’s legs were moving restlessly, weakly trying to lift themselves over the edge but being unable to.

He let out another growl, soothing in nature, and waited until Naruto’s shuffling stopped before he did anything. Once Naruto calmed, in one fluid motion he lifted him out of the tub and onto his lap.

They both sighed in relief. Kakashi rearranged Naruto’s arms so that they could wrap around his neck, and Naruto let out a purr, nuzzling his face against Kakashi’s throat, his body resting against Kakashi’s and relaxing.

Kakashi started up the rocking again and continued his humming again, his body bent low so that Naruto wouldn’t need to stretch out his abused body, and instead, relax, and finally come to terms with everything.

A couple minutes of humming and rocking later and Naruto was verbal again.

It took some time, but Naruto was able to calm himself down enough that he was now breathing evenly. And some time after that he lifted his head and looked at Kakashi. Eyes searching, before he smiled gently at him.

“You’re the reason I fought back, y’know,” Kakashi’s eye widened, but Naruto pushed on. “I had given up. The Iwa-lady… she was tough, and angry and stronger. She’d beaten me, used a jutsu to smash my body into the ground, and all I could think about was how it all hurt. I thought that maybe, it was okay for me to just die, that I’d fought enough, that maybe now I could meet them… my parents… and maybe I wouldn’t have to suffer because of Fate anymore.”

Naruto took a breath and closed his eyes for a moment, as if thinking. He leaned into Kakashi’s space, his forehead touching his, and stared into his charcoal grey eye.

He smiled.

“Then I saw you.” 

Kakashi’s eye fluttered closed as Naruto gently touched the scar over his left eye, going breathless at Naruto’s touch, his attention entirely on Naruto.

“I saw your face, and your laugh, and your smile, and I decided that I didn’t want to lose that. So I fought back. Everything hurt and everything in me was telling me to stay down, but I couldn’t not see you again, so I pushed it away, and I got up.” He bopped Kakashi on the nose, grinning widely as Kakashi opened his eye in response.

“You saved me!”

Kakashi felt choked up, so all he could do was nod his head in agreement. He couldn’t find it in himself to tell Naruto that no, he hadn’t saved him, Naruto had saved himself. He might have been motivated by Kakashi, but in the end it was Uzumaki Naruto that had defeated Tsumigachi Reiko and not Hatake Kakashi.

Both of Kakashi’s eyes snapped open when he felt the gentle brush of lips on his forehead.

He stared dumbfounded at Naruto, but Naruto was smiling softly again. He booped him on the nose,

“I know you’re thinking somethin’ stupid like ‘I didn’t save you,’ so you better stop that right now! Without you I wouldn’t have wanted to get up again. I don’t have much of anything to live for, being Hokage really isn’t all that important to me now, so if I hadn’t had you for a sensei, I probably would have just given up right then and there and not cared.” He closed his eyes and touched his forehead again to Kakashi’s, took a deep breath and let it out with a shudder.

“… You’re my reason to live, so don’t think for one second that you weren’t just as important in saving me as I was, okay?”

All Kakashi could do was gulp and nod in agreement.

Naruto sighed softly with a smile, a smile that fell from his lips a moment later and he was back to hiding his face in Kakashi’s throat.

They remained in silence for a long time. Kakashi needed time to digest everything that Naruto had told him, and Naruto was tired and just wanted to sleep, so there wasn’t any need from either one to say anything.

But of course that silence couldn’t remain, and once Kakashi was done digesting the information, he knew what was left to be done.

“I know you’re tired,” he started, chuckling as Naruto jumped a little at his voice,” but you need to finish cleaning up before you can go to sleep.”

Naruto let out a huff, but didn’t move his face away from Kakashi’s neck to answer,

“That would be nice and all, but I can barely move, holding onto you is about all I can do so…”

Kakashi hummed, tilting his head so that he could rub his chin on Naruto's head, chuckling when Naruto purred at the action.

“Do you… need me to clean you?” 

Naruto nodded his head.

Kakashi took in a careful breath, letting it out slowly he ventured further,

“And… cleaning you everywhere, including around and under your underwear, is okay?”

Naruto stilled for a moment, but again he nodded his head.

Kakashi gulped,” are you sure?” Naruto nodded again, quicker this time, and Kakashi let out a sigh.

“Okay.”

Carefully Kakashi lifted Naruto and set him on the edge of the tub. Naruto let out a noise of confusion that Kakashi quieted with a rumble in return, directing Naruto’s hands to hold onto the edge of the tub.

Once Naruto had a firm grip on the tub Kakashi stood up, wincing at the buzzing feeling in his legs, and carefully pulled off his pants, keeping only his underwear on. Naruto watched silently, his head tilting to the side as Kakashi kneeled down again, watching as Kakashi’s hands came up and rested on his knees.

Azure flicked up and stared into charcoal grey, and Naruto nodded his consent.

Kakashi nodded back and carefully moved his hands so that one arm was wrapped around Naruto and lifting him up, and the other gently tugged Naruto’s boxers off of him. Naruto squeezed his thighs together for a moment, and Kakashi stopped all movement. He waited, humming lowly and gently tapping a finger against Naruto’s side as he waited.

Naruto was trembling again, but after a moment of patience from Kakashi, he let out a breath and opened his legs again and allowed for Kakashi to undress him.

Kakashi pointedly kept his eyes up and on Naruto’s face, and didn’t even look down as he set the boxers on the ground, his hand coming up to cradle Naruto’s legs.

“Hold onto me.”

Once Naruto’s arms were wrapped around his neck Kakashi stood up. He stepped into the tub and sat down, internally wincing at the dirty water, but ignoring it as he made himself comfortable, setting Naruto in his lap again, mindful of his broken and bruised body.

Naruto let out a shuddering breath and leaned against him, his body twisted at an odd angle where his chest was pressed to Kakashi’s front, but his legs were hanging off of his thighs. But he didn’t seem to be uncomfortable so Kakashi let him be for the time being.

After situating himself, Kakashi reached over and grabbed hold of the towel he had been using earlier and got back to work.

Making his touch as gentle as possible he cleaned Naruto’s thighs and genitals, stopping every time Naruto moved away from him, only continuing when he nodded his head against him. Kakashi carefully grabbed Naruto’s leg and lifted it, rubbing the cloth between his thighs. He gently wrapped the cloth around his penis and wiped it off, then his scrotum, his perinael then up to his tailbone.

He waited once he was finished, setting the towel aside and holding Naruto as he allowed him to take in deep breaths. He had moved over those spots quickly so that Naruto wouldn’t have to be forced to endure touch there, knowing that prolonging it would just make it worse.

So he waited. Waited until Naruto’s breathing evened out and he slumped against him again. Moving carefully Kakashi gathered Naruto in his arms and started to move again. Naruto tried to lift his arms up to wrap around his neck, but the strength seemed to have finally left him, so all he was able to accomplish was weakly lift them an inch before they fell again.

Kakashi shushed him when he let out a whimper, using one arm to hold Naruto’s body up while the other reached for the plug in the tub. He pulled it and sat on the side of the tub, watching as the dirty water swirled away and down the drain.

After it was gone he looked back at Naruto, eye smiling when they made eye contact,” just a little more,” he whispered,” I just need to wash you off with a shower and we should be good. I’m going to set you down, but I’ll be holding you up so you won’t be putting any weight on your hip, okay?”

Naruto weakly nodded his head then closed his eyes, letting his body go limp so that Kakashi would have an easier time moving him around.

Smiling behind his mask, Kakashi got to work. He moved Naruto around until he had an arm wrapped around his middle, his small feet hanging just off the ground, his face laying against Kakashi's chest. Once satisfied with the position Kakashi reached out with his free hand and turned on the water. He stuck his foot under the spray, waiting for it to warm up before turning the shower on, and once it was warm he pulled on the stopper that would turn off the faucet and instead turn on the shower head.

A moment later and a warm stream of water was hitting both of them. 

Naruto jumped a little at the contact, but was soon moaning as the soothing patter of water hit his back. Kakashi couldn’t help his chuckle, smiling softly as he watched the top of his head. Naruto tilted his head back, though with some difficulty, and smiled lazily back, then let his face fall back to Kakashi’s chest.

Kakashi chuckled again while adjusting his grip on Naruto, his free hand grabbing the used towel. He somehow single handedly lathered it up with soap again then rinsed it out to get rid of the filth clinging to it, then lathered it up again so that he could use it.

He scrubbed Naruto’s body, this time focusing more on getting rid of any deep seated filth rather than just the surface level. He was still careful around Naruto’s genitals and butt, and instead focused his attention on the rest of his body. It was quite difficult to maneuver his body so that he could reach Naruto’s legs and feet, but he was able to manage. Naruto's giggle when he washed the bottom of his feet brightened his day.

Once done with his feet he finally brought the towel up and, after prompting him, scrubbed Naruto’s face clean. He scrunched his face up but didn’t fight as Kakashi got rid of the blood and other unsavory substances on his face. Kakashi’s constantly whirring mind finally settled once Naruto’s face was clean and smooth once again, like it was supposed to be.

He then dropped the towel and ran his hand through Naruto’s hair, rinsing it out so that it was also clean, and he was glad to see that Naruto looked good as new.

But they weren’t done yet.

Dread filled Kakashi at the aspect of having to clean Naruto’s genitals again, but knew that it was needed so that Naruto could feel completely clean. He took a shuddering breath, grabbed up the towel again, and gently ran it over Naruto’s skin.

He stopped just above Naruto’s penis, looking at the top of his head and waited for the boy to give his consent. It took a moment, Naruto was a couple blinks away from sleep, but he finally nodded his head once he realized what Kakashi was waiting for.

Again Kakashi scrubbed at him, gentler than the rest of his body, but not as gentle as before so that he was actually cleaning Naruto and not just wiping the surface level filth away. Naruto’s legs twitched, but he wasn’t moving away from Kakashi’s touch, actually it seemed like he was opening his legs up, if only a little. He was trying to make it easier on Kakashi, so that he could actually reach his most private areas, the man realized. Murmuring a soft thank you Kakashi continued his scrubbing, washing him from his penis to his tailbone again.

But once he was done with that, the hardest part was finally here.

Gulping, Kakashi set the towel aside again, letting his free hand rest on the small of Naruto’s back,

“Naruto,” he murmured into his hair,” I need to… I need to clean inside… is that okay?”

A moment of stillness passed, but it ended once Naruto sighed, and nodded his head.

Kakashi nodded back,” okay,” he breathed. 

The hand on Naruto’s back moved again, and Kakashi moved to grab the soap bar, but stopped. Thinking a moment he instead moved his hand so that it grabbed for his own personal body wash instead, took a couple pumps and rubbed his fingers together, getting it all over his index finger. He took a breath, and brought his hand to Naruto’s butt. He waited a moment, almost flinching when Naruto nodded his head against him. But he needed to get this over with, so despite wanting to put it off more, he forced himself to move forwards.

He gently ran his finger up and down the crack, letting Naruto get used to his touch again, before pushing a finger against his anus. He stopped when Naruto tensed, a soothing growl rumbling through him, and waited for him to loosen up. Naruto did, but he tensed back up when Kakashi touched him again, and so again Kakashi let out a soothing growl and waited for Naruto to relax again.

This happened a couple more times before Kakashi quietly said,” I need to clean you here… if you could do it yourself I’d let you, but you can’t even move your arms,” he spoke against Naruto’s head, his masked lips pressing to his crown while his eye was locked on his own hand,” you need to relax. Come on, take a deep breath and hold it,” Naruto did as told, Kakashi smiled,” good, good. Now, let it out,” he purred, his finger slipping inside at Naruto’s exhale. He felt Naruto tense around him again, and again Kakashi stopped, but he didn’t pull his finger out,” c’mon Naruto, breath in,” Naruto took a breath,” now out, there you go…”

Gently guiding him through his breathing, Kakashi felt Naruto relax as time passed, his body no longer clenching against him. Kakashi continued to speak into Naruto's hair as he moved his finger, his inner beast growling as he felt the ripped flesh around his anus and even inside of him. Obviously those monsters hadn’t found it necessary to properly prepare Naruto, and why would they? They were raping him, why would they need to prepare him? To make it enjoyable for him? They weren’t the type to cruelly force someone being raped to find any sort of forced pleasure from it, they were the type to just take what they wanted. 

At least Naruto was spared from that torment. Being forced to, even on a small level, enjoy, or feel any sort of pleasure at being raped was something that was even harder to deal with. If there was one mercy in all of this, it was that Naruto wouldn’t have to wonder if he actually liked it on some level. He very clearly had hated it and had detached from what was happening to him, so at least he had the small mercy of being able to separate that from himself.

He brought his hand out of Naruto, got some more body wash, then went back to cleaning him.

Naruto was completely compliant at this point. He had kept his legs open, making it easier for Kakashi to move his hand, and was focusing on his breathing. 

Kakashi went as quick as he could, cleaning him of everything inside of him. Bile rose in his throat as he watched blood and semen mix in with the body wash. It dripped out of Naruto and down his thighs, though it was quickly washed away by the steady stream of water, it still made Kakashi feel sick.

But he pushed through the feeling, and before long he was finished. But he wasn’t quite done.

He went ahead and took some of his personal shampoo and washed Naruto’s hair with it, gently leaning his head back to rinse it out. Then he did the same thing with his conditioner, rubbing it into Naruto’s hair until it was slick and smooth.

Naruto let out a purr at his ministrations, lazy smile tilting his lips, his eyes closed in pleasure. Kakashi chuckled warmly, unthinkingly laying a kiss against his forehead and washed the conditioner from his hair, inner beast growling in satisfaction when he was finished. 

He smelled right again. Naruto smelled like Naruto again, and he smelled like Kakashi, which made his inner beast very happy. It meant he was back and safe and sound and good, and he couldn’t fault his inner beast that pleasure, knew that he felt the exact same way. Their smell was no longer on him, so all was good now.

Finished with his task, Kakashi reached out and turned off the water. He stood a moment, letting the water drip from their bodies, before moving to step out.

Naruto made a noise of protest.

Kakashi stopped. He looked down at the blond head laying against his chest, and after a moment of struggling Naruto tilted his head back so that he could look at him. His eyes were so tired, as if he were about to fall asleep, but he still kept them open.

“Not yet,” he whispered,” I wanna stay here a little longer. I don’t wanna… deal with them yet.” He quietly explained. Kakashi nodded his head.

“Okay.” He breathed. He looked up in thought a moment before he sat down in the tub.

Naruto made a noise at the sudden movement, but he didn’t protest as Kakashi turned him around so that his back was laying against his front, his arm wrapping around his chest. Once Naruto was situated Kakashi reached out once again and turned on the water, waiting a moment to let it warm before plugging the drain once more.

Kakashi watched as the water slowly filled up the tub once again, idly letting one of his hands card through Naruto’s hair. The boy himself responded to that by purring, almost like a cat, and continued to purr as Kakashi let his hand move from his hair to his face, gently rubbing against his cheeks, then his hair again.

Even after Kakashi shut the water off and leaned back in the tub, letting out a content sigh, he continued to card his hand through his hair and rub his fingers over Naruto’s whiskered cheeks, the boy purring in response to the gentle touches.

They remained like that, for what felt like hours. It was nice, not having to do anything else, to be able to just sit back and relax after everything. Kakashi knew that he would, probably tomorrow, have to go to Gato’s old hideout and gather whatever was useful from there, but for the time being everything was okay. Naruto was okay, his other students were okay, his clients were okay, and the village was okay.

For now, all Kakashi had to worry about was not falling asleep in the tub so that he and Naruto wouldn’t end up like prunes.

.

.

.

Some time later and Kakashi knew it was time.

He didn’t want to get out, didn’t want to bring Naruto out of the safety of the tub. Once they left they would have to deal with the outside world again. But it was time, so carefully, in order to not jostle him, Kakashi unplugged the tub for the last time and waited as the water went down the drain.

Naruto murmured something, moving so that his face was turned into Kakashi’s chest, then sat still again. Kakashi gently touched the back of his head and held it to him, humming while his other hand went and turned Naruto around the rest of the way, his chest laying against Kakashi’s once again.

They remained like that until the water was drained, and Kakashi finally stood up. He cradled Naruto in his arms as he moved to the edge of the tub, stepped over and onto the tiled floor. He sat on the edge of the tub, grabbing a towel from the wall and wrapped Naruto in it. Naruto giggled again, bringing a smile to Kakashi’s lips, as Kakashi dried him off.

Once drying him off Kakashi grabbed another towel and placed it on his head, not drying himself off yet, and turned towards the pile of clothes on the ground. He reached for Naruto’s boxers but stopped, his instincts snapping at him that placing their scent back on him was out of the question! There was still blood and semen on the garment, and he couldn’t help agreeing. They had served their purpose, but for now they couldn't go back on Naruto’s body, not until they had been properly cleaned.

But he didn’t have anything else for Naruto to wear.

He mulled over what he should do for a moment, wondering if he should just wrap Naruto up in a towel and take him to his room, but he didn’t want to do that. As he thought his eyes refocused on what he was looking at, he realized that right next to Naruto’s boxers was his own shirt. He had barely had the thought before he was snatching the garment from the ground and placed it on top of Naruto’s head.

The boy shook his head weakly, humphing indignantly when he couldn’t dislodge it. Kakashi chuckled and pulled it off, holding it in front of Naruto’s face instead,” wanna wear this?” he asked softly. Naruto stared at it a moment, before nodding. Kakashi nodded back, a smile still in place,” good, now hold still.” And he put it on him.

When Naruto’s head popped out of the collar that was too big for him Kakashi couldn’t help cooing at how cute he looked. Gathering him in his arms Kakashi rocked back and forth a moment, cooing softly into Naruto’s hair, while Naruto himself blushed a pretty pink, small little smile curling his lips. Kakashi pecked him on the head, unable to help himself, then stood.

He set Naruto on the ground while he finished drying his hair, then quickly rubbed down the rest of his body. Naruto passively leaned against his legs, yawning from time to time as he waited for Kakashi to finish drying himself off, seemingly enjoying being wrapped up in Kakashi’s shirt.

Kakashi chuckled as he stripped off his wet boxers, ringing them out in the tub then set them on the ground. He pulled on his pants, then his flak jacket, and put his gloves into his hip pouch. He was just about to reach for his sandals when he saw the jar Haku had left with him.

He stopped short, and suddenly remembered that he needed to put the bruise balm on Naruto, as well as bandage up his ribs and hip, and sighed. Naruto tilted his head towards him, but didn’t turn all the way around.

Kakashi chuckled again,” ma, looks like I forgot to put the bruise balm on you! Just a sec, let me…” he trailed off as he sat back down, moving Naruto forwards some so that he could sit on the floor,” there, now…” and he gently took off his shirt so that he could get to the bruises on Naruto’s body.

He was a little surprised to see that the bruises were more healed than he remembered seeing earlier, but knew that Naruto had heightened healing so his body must have been doing just that while they had relaxed. But there were still plenty of bruises left so Kakashi lathered them with the balm, his nose scrunching up at the smell, then wrapped the areas over with bandages, both so that it stayed on Naruto’s body and not Kakashi’s shirt, and so that it would be able to properly be absorbed into his skin.

After that he bound Naruto’s ribs so that the broken one was back in place, and did the same for Naruto’s hip, and once finished he realized that Naruto looked a bit like a mummy, the bandages were covering him from his throat down to his thighs. Some even covered his upper arms and wrists, and something inside of Kakashi protested the sight, but he quickly shushed that part of himself and put his shirt back on Naruto. Once done with that he let out a sigh, then scooped Naruto up from the ground as he began to giggle tiredly. He pecked Naruto on the head again and grabbed the last of their belongings and left the room.

He was a little shocked to see Zabuza sitting not five feet from the doorway, Haku standing beside him, a disgruntled Sasuke and Sakura standing in front of them.

Sakura seemed to notice his arrival first.

She tried moving forwards but was stopped by Haku, her disgruntlement growing as she gestured wildly at the male.

“Sen-”

“Kakashi-san!”

Haku cut Sakura off, smiling pleasantly as he turned to look at Kakashi, eyes sparkling with mischief.

“How’s Naruto-kun? All cleaned up?” he asked, ignoring Sakura’s huffing in the background. Kakashi chose to ignore it as well, for the moment, and focused on Haku. He eye-smiled while tilting his head down,

“Yes he’s all cleaned up. Thank you Haku-san, Zabuza, for doing as I instructed you to do, making sure that I and Naruto weren’t disturbed while I was cleaning him up.” Kakashi thanked, emphasizing certain words as a way to tell his other students to shut up and not complain, Haku and Zabuza had only been doing as he had asked them.

Haku smiled beautifully,” of course! I understand that Naruto needed the peace and quiet so that he could be properly taken care of! Is there anything else you need my help with? Is Naruto properly bandaged up?” he asked, also emphasizing his words in order to shut up the other genin.

Sasuke looked properly chastised, but Sakura-

“But Sensei!” she nearly screeched.

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin, being forcefully pulled out of his half asleep state and started to whimper in fear, curling into himself in Kakashi’s arms.

Anger flashed through Kakashi, his eye landed on Sakura and the girl balked at the look in his eye, backing away in fear.

“Sakura,” he growled, his arm pulling Naruto into his chest more, his inner beast wishing both of his arms were free to hold him,” you may just be twelve, you may have just become a genin, and this may be your very first out of village mission, but that does not mean you are stupid! You may not have much experience with such things, but you can’t be stupid enough to think that Naruto was left unharmed while in the custody of the enemy! Naruto is in a delicate state right now, and because of that I asked Haku-san and Zabuza to look after you and make sure you didn’t disturb us! The only exception was if something urgent had taken place, and I trust Haku-san to be able to tell when something urgent had taken place. Do you have something urgent to tell me?”

Sakura meekly shook her head, but she began to straighten up again,” no, but Sensei, Naruto can’t possibly be that bad-”

“Don’t!” Kakashi cut her off, eye flashing,” don’t finish that sentence. Naruto can be that bad off and Naruto is that bad off!”

“But Sensei-”

“But nothing Sakura! I guess if you are ever beaten within an inch of your life by the enemy I should just barge in on you and yell at you about what I want, huh? Now I would lecture you more, but Naruto needs rest, and I’m feeling pretty tired myself, so we’ll have to continue this discussion later. But be aware Sakura, there will be repercussions for your actions when we get back to the village. Understood?”

Sakura, with a mighty pout, nodded her head.

“Good, now, if you’ll excuse me,” and with that, and a nod and thank you directed at Haku and Zabuza, Kakashi slipped around the group and towards his designated room.

He let out a sigh of relief once he entered his room, before focusing his attention on Naruto, who let out another whimper. Kakashi cooed, gently swaying to calm him. He tossed what he was holding on the floor and wrapped both arms around Naruto, pulling him close, gently pressing his masked lips to Naruto’s forehead.

Naruto whimpered again, his arms shifting but not moving, and Kakashi understood. Swiftly he shifted Naruto and wrapped the boy’s arms around his neck, letting Naruto bury his face in his throat, his whimpers dying down as he nuzzled there, his breathing calming and evening.

Kakashi swayed a little more until Naruto had calmed all the way down, humming softly while he waited, and once Naruto was calm he walked over to his futon and sat down. He turned his head a little and pressed his masked lips against Naruto’s neck.

“You okay?” he asked, voice hoarse as anger was still bubbling beneath the surface. His attention snapped back to Naruto as he nodded,

“Yeah,” his voice was wispy again, and anger flared inside of him once again. Naruto had been put through enough, he didn’t need to suffer more just because Sakura couldn’t do as she was told.

He sighed, pressing his lips more firmly against Naruto’s neck,” ‘m sorry,” he muttered, arms tightening around his small form. Naruto’s weak arms tightened as much as they were able around his neck,

“It’s okay, not your fault…” Kakashi wanted to protest and say that yes, it was his fault because if he had been stricter as a Sensei Sakura wouldn’t have felt entitled enough to talk that way. But he kept that to himself, now wasn’t the time, and simply nodded his head,

“Still, sorry, you need rest, you shouldn’t have to be afraid, not right now.”

Naruto hummed in reply, then fell silent.

The two of them remained like that for a time. The only reason Kakashi ended up pulling away was because of the approaching footsteps he heard, heading towards his room.

He looked up, recognizing that those weren’t the footsteps of any of the ninja in the house, so it must be Tsunami or Tazuna…

“Kakashi-san?” a soft voice called outside of the room. Tsunami.

“Yes?”

“Can I come in?”

Kakashi looked at Naruto, and though he couldn’t see his face, watched him nod his consent. Nodding back he looked back to the door.

“Yes.”

The door opened slowly, creaking on it’s hinges as Tsunami pushed it open, peeking around the door a moment, taking in Kakashi on his futon with Naruto in his lap, before she pushed it open the rest of the way and stepped inside.

She was holding a tray of steaming food, and she smiled softly as she took a step forward,” I wanted to make sure Naruto-kun got some food before he went to sleep…”

Kakashi eye-smiled at her,” thank you, that was thoughtful of you.” Tsunami shook her head, a blush crawling along her cheeks,

“No, no. Naruto-kun saved my and Inari’s life yesterday, it’s the least I could do, doing this.” Kakashi simply continued to smile, choosing not to comment.

“Either way, thank you, here,” he reached a hand out, carefully taking the tray from the woman before setting it down on the floor.

Tsunami nodded her head and bowed her head,” you’re welcome,” she turned to look at Naruto, though his face was turned into Kakashi so she couldn’t see it, and smiled warmly,” I hope you feel better now, Naruto-kun. You’re Sensei is a good man and wanted to find you immediately yesterday but everyone else forced him to wait until he regained some of his strength,” her eyes filled with pain,” I’m sorry you had to suffer because of that… well, anyhow you're back now, and I hope you have a good rest and heal fast.” with that she nodded at Kakashi once more and left the room, closing the door softly behind her.

Kakashi was still smiling as he moved Naruto, sitting him up in his lap so that he would be able to eat properly. Naruto grumbled a bit at the movement, but quieted once his eyes landed on the food sitting in front of them. A loud growl sounded from Naruto’s stomach, and the boy was blushing up a storm while Kakashi chuckled, though on the inside he was upset, because he knew that that meant Naruto had either been fed very little or not at all during his capture. But again that wasn’t important, so again Kakashi pushed it from his mind, it would just be one of the things he would be talking to Naruto about once he was in a better mental state.

But now Kakashi was going to focus on feeding Naruto, so he got right to it. He picked up the tray and placed it on Naruto’s lap, then with the same hand picked up the chopsticks on the tray and picked up some of the rice and held it in front of Naruto’s face. The boy weakly blew on it a couple times before opening his mouth, and Kakashi placed the food there. He chewed slowly, carefully, then swallowed it down and happily sighed, before blowing on the next bit of rice Kakashi held in front of him, doing the process all over again.

Ever so slowly Naruto  ate the food provided to him. He somehow was able to convince Kakashi to eat some as well, refusing to eat if Kakashi wouldn’t take some, so Kakashi was forced to eat some of the food, and while he felt guilty, he was moved by Naruto’s ability to care about another’s wellbeing, even in his state, and grateful for the food filling him.

He wasn’t that hungry, having already eaten earlier that day and doing little activity during that time meant that he had plenty of energy left over, but he was still recovering from the battle, so getting the extra food was extremely helpful.

Soon enough the two finished the rather large meal provided to them (large enough that Kakashi had to wonder if Tsunami had made enough to feed the both of them on purpose), and the two of them were satisfied. 

Naruto was again in a state of basically asleep, and Kakashi couldn’t help the slow blinks and jerking head either. Tired. They were both tired, and though something in Kakashi berated him for sleeping while still being needed by his other students, he countered it by telling it that he had focused most of his attention on those other students the previous months before this mission. They could survive without him for a couple more hours, besides he wouldn’t be much help this bone tired, so some sleep was in order.

Carefully, in order to not jostle Naruto around, Kakashi lay down with Naruto in his arms. He moved Naruto around until he was in a comfortable position with his head pressed against his shoulder, a position that allowed for Kakashi to hold him in his arms and against his body, and pulled the blanket over their bodies.

Naruto shuffled around a bit, before yawning widely and settling into place, breathing evening out and caressing the skin of Kakashi’s shoulder, his heartbeat slowing into slumber.

Kakashi hummed, content, and tightened his hold of Naruto, before closing his eye, and allowing sleep to claim him as well.

Chapter 3: Child or Monster?

Red

It was everywhere

Everywhere, wet, sticky, red substance, sticky, wet, red blood

It was all over him, on his hands, his legs, face, body, everywhere!

He felt it, in his mouth, as he tried to breath! 

His breathing was harsh, and he felt the blood catch in his throat and run over his lips and down his chin.

There was a loud dripping, and it took a moment for him to understand… it was coming from him, from the blood falling from his mouth, from the blood dripping down his chin.

He was trying so hard to just breathe, it was so hard, just breathing hurt so much!

He could see it, right in front of him, his victims! Their bodies, their blood, splattering everywhere, covering everything!

He wanted to look away, but he couldn’t, rooted to the spot all he could do was watch as their blood sprayed onto him, his face, his body, down his throat, watch as their bodies were ripped into by his own hand! Oh how he tore them apart! How he ripped out their throats and tore out their guts! How he twisted their necks off of their bodies, and slammed them into the ground so hard they were nothing but a bloody pulp!

But that wasn’t all.

Oh no, of course that wasn’t all.

He could hear it. He could hear them! Their screams, their pleading and begging and cries for mercy!

“Please! Mercy!”

“N-no! Stop, please!”

“Be merciful, please!”

“S-stop! Monster!” Wait...

“Help us, save us from this Monster!” That’s not right…

“Monster!” That’s not the…

“Murderer!” That’s…

“You should just die! Demon!” Those are the villagers…

“Monster! Monster stop!” Is it true…?

“Murderer! Die!” Were they right…?

“You should just die! Demon!” Right… he was just a demon…

“Mercy!”

“... Stop…” a voice whimpered…

“No, please stop!”

“Monster!”

“Please… make it… stop…” that was his voice… wasn’t it?

“Murderer!”

“You should just die! DEMON!”

“No…”

“Just die!”

“I’m…”

“Just die!”

“I…”

“Just die!” 

“Just…” 

“Just DIE!”

“I, no….” 

“JUST DIE!”

He gripped his hair, could feel it squelching in his fingers, tugging, it needed to stop-make it stop it needs to, please, just, help-he could hear it, plaguing his mind, over and over and over and over andoverandoverandoverandov-

“Naruto!”

Azure eyes snapped open.

They looked around, flicking this way and that wildly but not seeing anything.

He could hear someone screaming, but he didn’t know who it was.

It was so hard to breathe.

Whoever the hell was screaming needed to stop!

Something was touching his face, something wet was on his face!

He tried to wipe it off, but something held him back, held him down. He shook his head, thrashing wildly, no! He needed to get it off! The blood! The blood was-

Couldn’t they shut up?! Whoever the fuck was screaming needed to shut the fuck up dammit! It hurt his ears, it hurt his Throat-

“Naruto!”

He opened his eyes again, but he couldn’t see anything, but he wanted to! Who was calling his name? He couldn’t see, his face was wet, he couldn’t move dammit! And could they please stop screaming-

“Naruto, look at me, please.”

He wanted to, oh how much he wanted to! But he couldn’t see anything!

“Naruto, it’s okay, it’s me, it’s Kakashi, it’s your Sensei, I’m here, please, look at me…”

I want to! The words were caught in his throat. He couldn’t seem to be able to do anything, and it was just so gods be damned annoying!

He tried breathing in, he couldn’t breathe, but he couldn’t! Why? If he was sitting there why couldn’t he breathe? Why did his throat hurt so much? And why were they still screaming-

Oh.

Oh…

Was it him?

Was he screaming?

He had to be, if his throat hurt so much, if it was so hard to breathe, what else could it be?

“Naruto…”

Something touched his lips, and suddenly he could feel the pain in his jaw, it was wide open, and he forced a cough out.

The screaming was choked off.

“Sh, sh, Naruto, c’mon, it’s okay, shh,”

His throat was constricting, it hurt so much…

Something brushed under his eyes, wiping away the wetness.

His breath caught in his throat, and then he was coughing.

“There you go, c’mon Naruto, c’mon, just breathe.”

He coughed a couple more times, then he was heaving in breaths, he could breathe, his throat didn’t hurt nearly as much.

“There you go…”

He felt so tired. So drained. But he needed to see. He opened his eyes, fighting through the heaviness trying to keep them closed, and looked around him.

Everything was blurry. It all melded together, as if he were looking through a foggy window. His breathing started to speed up.

It calmed as he felt something touch his face. Eyes fluttering closed he just took in the feeling, focusing only on the sensation as-were those fingers?-ran over his closed eyes, gently brushing away more of the wetness.

“Naruto.”

Eyes fluttering open he looked up. He squinted, it was still a little blurry, but he could see an outline… But with his sight, came the rest of his senses, and suddenly he was able to feel the strong arm wrapped around his back, holding him up, the strong legs under his body supporting his weight. There was a hand gently touching his face, rubbing over his cheeks and over his forehead and he couldn’t help closing his eyes at the feeling. His erratically beating heart was slowing, as was his breathing, and it wasn’t long before he felt calm.

He opened his eyes again, and looked up.

“Kakashi…” the name squeezed out of his throat, it still hurt from all his screaming. 

The man was there, clear as day, and he could clearly see him eye-smile down at him, before he was suddenly moving and he couldn’t see him anymore, just his navy blue shoulder,

“Naruto…” he heard Kakashi breathe, and felt as his arms tightened around him, pulling him closer.

“Kakashi…” he couldn’t help responding. He wanted to hug him back, but his arms felt weak and useless and a helpless whimper forced its way out of his throat. But it seemed Kakashi understood the noise because he immediately pulled back, grabbed hold of his arms and wrapped them around his neck before he leaned back down and pulled him to his body once again.

He sighed in relief, and closed his eyes, his nose pulling in the scent of pine and peppermint, of Kakashi, and relaxed against him.

They remained like that, time passing them by but neither caring, until by some unknown signal Kakashi started to pull away again. He weakly protested the action, his body had just started to fall asleep dammit, but he was shushed a moment later, and that was that.

“Naruto, look at me.”

And he did just that. Eyes popping open he looked up, and felt his face grow warm at just how close he was to him. His eye was so expressive, this close, and he wanted to look away, but couldn’t, transfixed by the sight.

“There you go…” he felt the breath from those words hit his face, and couldn’t help blushing at the sensation.

“Now, Naruto, I have a question.”

Azure eyes snapped back to the lone charcoal grey, and he nodded his head. That charcoal eye softened, and something within it seemed to be in pain, and he wanted to reach out and sooth that pain but couldn’t, so he remained still.

“Naruto… why were you screaming?”

Everything stopped.

Suddenly he was no longer in Kakashi’s arms, and he was back, there, where all the blood and guts and screams and cries and-

“Naruto!”

He gasped, eyes snapping back to Kakashi’s face and he realized that he had started to hyperventilate. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, slowing it, calming his heartbeat and stopping the trembling in his body.

After a moment he regained control of himself, and with that control he allowed himself to look at Kakashi again. He gulped, coughing immediately after as the action irritated his raw throat. Something cool touched his lips and he opened his mouth, relishing the cooling liquid that slid down his throat, soothing it instantly. He could distantly hear Kakashi cooing softly, gently telling him to take his time and drink as much as he needed. 

Grateful he took his time and let the water do its magic, all the while Kakashi continued to hum and rock his body, soothing his body as well as his mind.

But he couldn’t put it off any longer, and the abject fear of before tried to seize him once again, but he held it at bay. Kakashi asked him a question, and he needed to answer it. But before that, maybe he could get an answer of his own…

Looking through his lashes, Naruto took in Kakashi’s eye once again, watching, waiting and gadging the look there before he finally asked his question.

“Kakashi… am I a monster?”

He felt Kakashi stiffen, and his eye widened in shock that quickly morphed into enraged horror.

“Why would you think you’re a monster?” he whispered harshly, his body trembling in his rage. Naruto looked away, feeling his lip tremble as he tried to keep the tears from falling,

“W-well, I-I killed those people, I ripped them apart, tore out their throats and gutted them, a-a-and the villagers, they always said that, that I’m-m a, a monster, that I’d killed a lot of people, and before, before I could always tell ‘em that they were wrong! B-but now! Now I can’t! Now their right and I’m a Monster and I don’t deserve to live-”

“No!”

Naruto suddenly felt his body being pulled tightly to Kakashi’s own, and he suddenly realized that he was crying again. He wanted to be able to push away from Kakashi, because he didn’t deserve to be held so gently, so kindly and with such love and affection, but he couldn’t. He was too weak to move, and he didn’t really want Kakashi to let him go, he loved those arms and that touch and that kindness and those soft words and gentle eyes and all that was Kakashi. He loved all that was Kakashi and he didn’t want to lose it just because he didn’t deserve it. For once in his life, just this once he would be selfish and hold on and not let go.

“No, Naruto! You aren’t a monster! You have never been a monster and you will never be a monster!”

“But, th-the villagers-”

“Fuck the villagers! They were lying, Naruto. They were lying so that they wouldn’t have to feel guilty for mistreating you! Naruto, they hate you for something that isn’t even your fault! How could you possibly be a monster? No, they are lying to make themselves feel better. Anyone who tells a child that they are a monster for doing nothing but exist are nothing but scum. Do you understand Naruto? If they call you a monster just for existing, that means they are the monsters.”

He was sobbing again. Naruto desperately wished he wasn’t, but he couldn’t hold it back anymore. How could he? Kakashi is the first one that Naruto has opened up about this to, is the only one he has told what the villagers have called him, and his immediate response was to tell him that they were wrong, that they were the monsters, if they were so willing to tell a child they were one, how else was he supposed to respond? 

So he cried.

Cried and sobbed as he clutched onto this man that had no obligation to tell him these things, but did anyway. Kakashi simply continued to hold him tightly, held him in his safe embrace and rocking from side to side in order to sooth him, whispering words that he couldn’t quite hear over his own voice, but knew were words of kindness, of safety and love and affection and everything that Naruto has ever wanted.

Naruto felt as a hand ran through his hair and to the back of his head, felt breath touch his face and felt the cloth covered lips press to his forehead. He opened bleary eyes and looked at Kakashi through his tears, sniffling and hiccuping as he stared into that lone eye, an eye he swore was full of a gentleness that almost hurt to look at, but look he did, looked and watched as Kakashi brought his face down closer, and kissed him on the forehead again, then the bridge of his nose, his nose, his tear stained cheeks and his chin.

Kakashi slowly brought his face away, and touched his forehead to Naruto’s, his eye boring into his own, and all Naruto could do was tighten his hold of Kakashi’s neck in response, almost as if he were trying to lift himself up. His sniffling and hiccuping had calmed, but his breathing still broke and jilted some, the after effects of crying so hard still there. Tears were still in his eyes, but they were no longer falling, nor were they clouding his vision. He stared into Kakashi’s eye, and felt his face tilt up, he wanted to return those gentle kisses but couldn’t, his body was still too weak, and he whined and whimpered at his own weakness.

Kakashi gently shushed him, and used the hand holding the back of his head to lift him up and bring Naruto’s face to his own. Naruto hummed in delight, and weakly pressed his lips to Kakashi’s covered nose, cheek and forehead. He pulled away and stared into Kakashi’s eye, then let his own wonder down and stare at those masked lips. Naruto watched as they moved beneath the fabric, and felt compelled to move towards them.

So he did.

Naruto pressed his own lips against Kakashi’s covered ones, and held it there for a time. He didn’t know how long he held them there, but he knew it was long enough for both of them to be panting after he pulled away.

His eyes fluttered open, and Naruto watched in amazement as a soft pink spread over the pale cheeks of his Sensei, something fluttering in his stomach at the sight, and he smiled. He heard as Kakashi’s breath seemed to catch, and the arms and hands holding him tightened their hold, but he didn’t pay it any mind, and brought his eyes back to that lone charcoal grey eye.

He felt as his smile started to border on being a grin, and was unconcerned when Kakashi started to shift his hold of him, his hand on the back of his head carefully cupping him. Then he was moving closer again, tilting his head to the side, and Naruto closed his eyes as those cloth covered lips touched his own once again.

Naruto hummed in pleasure, and tightened his hold around Kakashi’s neck, and returned the gentle kiss.

It was magical.

That thing with Sasuke… definitely didn’t count. That was like kissing a wall of ice, cold and unfeeling. This was different. It was warm and gentle and full of affection, and Naruto decided that this would be what he thought of, when he thought of his first kiss, though maybe it still didn’t fully count, considering Kakashi was wearing a mask.

But, that didn’t matter, and Naruto decided to focus only on what was happening. 

They kissed for a long time.

It was only lips on lips, nothing else, no extra touches of teeth or tongue or anything else, but it was wonderful and gentle and safe.

Finally, after what seemed to be too long yet not long enough Kakashi pulled his lips from his, his panting breath fanning over his face, and Naruto couldn’t help the soft purr at the action, eliciting an immediate rumbling growl in return. His eyes fluttered open, and could only smile at the look in Kakashi’s eye. He couldn’t quite describe it. 

It wasn’t like the awful looks of leering lust of those disgusting men, or the uncaring desire of the Iwa-nin. It was something different, something deeper, more animal, and yet it didn’t frighten him. Kakashi wouldn’t hurt him, he could trust Kakashi, and that knowledge allowed for him to continue to look Kakashi in the eye with no fear, a smile still on his lips.

“Naruto…” Kakashi growled, and Naruto purred in response, his arms tightening as much as they could around his neck.

But Kakashi shook his head, though he didn’t dislodge Naruto’s hold, or loosen his own, and seemed to be trying to focus on something.

“Naruto, are you there?” he asked, his voice a little gruff, he seemed to be coming back to himself.

Naruto hummed in confusion, brows furrowing as he asked, breathless,” what do you mean? I’m right here?”

Kakashi chuckled and lay a quick peck to Naruto’s cheek, eye flashing in delight at Naruto’s happy hum at the action.

“That’s not what I meant. I mean, are you back? Are you calm and aware of what’s happening?” he asked, worry creeping into his eye, and Naruto’s back stiffened at that.

His arms slackened and he almost wanted to push away from Kakashi, suddenly afraid and worried about what they had done, but Kakashi shushed him and held him reassuringly,” it’s fine, I’m fine, I… liked what happened. I just wanted to make sure you did too, that you knew what was happening when it did…”

Naruto was a little surprised when he felt his heart slow, only now realizing that he had started to panic, and let out a sigh of relief as he again tightened his arms.

He nodded his head with a smile. “Yes,” he whispered,” I knew what was happening… I liked what was happening… I want it to happen again actually,” he let an arm let go, and brought a hand around to trace Kakashi’s mask covered lips, smiling at the intake of breath,” without this here though…” he whispered, eyes trained on those cloth covered lips. He felt as Kakashi opened his mouth, and giggled when he gently bit down on his finger.

Kakashi chuckled in response.

“Hmm… I’ll think about it. But Naruto, you understand what’s happened? What will happen if we continue?”

Naruto stared into Kakashi’s eye, and nodded,” yeah, you’re my Sensei, and that means until I become a Chunin, or turn fifteen, we’re not allowed to have a relationship. Does that bother you?” he asked in turn. Kakashi shook his head, his eye crinkling but not closing as he smiled,

“No. I just wanted to make sure you were aware. And Naruto… what I meant earlier was also, are you okay with continuing now? With telling me everything else?”

Naruto’s heart seized for a moment, but he pushed through the feeling by reminding himself that Kakashi was here, and that he would continue to hold him.

He nodded his head, and told Kakashi his nightmare.

 A couple minutes of humming and rocking later and Naruto was verbal again. Softly, quietly as if he were telling Kakashi a well guarded secret, he started to explain, in detail, what had happened to him.

How he was captured, how the Iwa lady had decided to turn him into a whore, what the men had done to him and how they had discovered his healing abilities, everything. He told Kakashi everything the men did to his body, every little thing. He begged Kakashi to listen, and that he needed to say it, just this once, and Kakashi gently told him that of course he would listen.

He paused in his story, and tilted his face away from Kakashi’s throat. He caught his eye and smiled through his tears.