Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto

Special Thanks to isthisparadise, Nekotsume, Skins Thunderbomb, Angel of Forgotton Souls, Kai Dragoon and HikaruOfArrow thank you to you guys have reviewed chapter 3!

I don't know what to say! Wah! Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter IV: Abandonment

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"You dug a grave for him…" Naruto said, as he stood beside Kisame right before the grave of the ANBU. The kitsune scratched the back of his head, "I didn't expect you to dig a grave for him really."

Kisame just gazed upon the grave of his ex-teammate for a while and then looked at Naruto, "I killed him so it's proper that I should give him a place to rest." He said to the kitsune, when suddenly a few drops of rain came falling down from the sky. Kisame looked up; well that was one nice time for it to rain. He then turned around and started walking, "We have to go now." Kisame said, wearing his kasa (bamboo hat).

Naruto pouted and followed Kisame, "We're going to travel under the rain?" he groaned, speeding his pace to walk just right beside the older man. Naruto did not like it when it rained; to him it seemed to diminish the glow in every object, also it gets his clothes soaked wet.

Kisame sighed, took off his Kasa and placed it on Naruto's head. "It might not be much but it will help you." Naruto looked up with his innocent azure eyes at Kisame. He was learning things about the Akatsuki he had not expected before. Except, he just wished he would get untied from the ropes.

The rain started to fall down harder, along with the wind, so the two got soaked, the kasa helped Naruto but it was just that the wind had to help him get wet. Good thing that they arrived in a cave that somehow Kisame seemed so familiar with; since; they had to go in directions where Kisame did not even have a difficult time choosing.

Naruto sat on the ground, soaked, along with the kasa he wore. "Hey Kisame, could you untie me now?" he said, being uncomfortable in his current wet state. He tried moving his arms; they were looser than the one Kisame did before. He could move his elbow a bit and that is the only thing possible.

"Ninjas have jutsus for that kid…" Kisame said, pointing out the obvious that Naruto forgot. The blonde remembered, yeah, they do have jutsus for that. He laughed at himself; he forgot one of the most practical jutsus. Naruto then untied himself from the ropes.

Kisame then walked deeper into the darkness of the cave leaving Naruto wondering where the guy went as he took of the kasa on his head. The wind blew into the cave making the blonde shiver, it was getting damn cold, and he just wished he brought some spare clothes. Naruto shut his eyes hard and started rubbing his arms with both his hands with all his might. When suddenly the sound of wood dropping came to him and made his eyes open to see that Kisame was making a fire.

Naruto gave out a few blinks, in wonderment. "How'd you even know there was wood there?" the boy asked, as the fire was all set and ready. A fire, Naruto had already found something to warm himself up.

Kisame took off his cloak and placed it somewhere near the fire to let it dry revealing what he wore underneath, black, fit sleeveless, the regular Akatsuki pants and footwear, along with the light blue arm warmers. He sat down and leaned on the wall, "This used to be the hideout of the so-called, "Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist"," Kisame looked down as if he was remembering a few memories he had here, "Zabuza's dead, I haven't heard much from Raiga either but I heard he passed away just quite sometime ago. The other four I haven't seen for a long time ever since I left hidden mist." He started to look around, observing everything in the venue they were in, "By the looks of it, there haven't been people here for years."

Naruto could not believe it but he actually felt sorry for the guy. Zabuza and Raiga he knew those two, he actually managed to fight with them. The other four, well he has not seen them before. Suddenly, he saw Kisame spinning a kunai on his finger, amusing himself. Remember, if you play with sharp objects you will get hurt. The kunai accidentally gave a cut on his ring and middle finger making it bleed.

"See what you get for playing wi…" Naruto stopped in the middle of his sentence when he suddenly saw that the wound was rapidly healing, in seconds it completely healed. Naruto was shocked, no way, he thought, still looking at those two fingers of Kisame.

Kisame threw the kunai, piercing the hard wall of the cave. "Surprised to see another of your kind?" he said, giving out a laugh, stunning the boy in shock. Who knew Kisame was a jinchuuriki?

Naruto's jaw dropped and eyes widened as he fell into silence. If you are lucky, you might see a tumbleweed roll by. It was only after a while that sounds started to come out from the blonde's mouth and you couldn't even understand a thing. His fingers started to move into a frenzy, Kisame has a tailed beast inside him. He did not know why he was so shocked but it just happened.

The older man raised an eyebrow at him, "You okay kid?" Kisame asked, looking at the petrified Naruto. Okay the boy was over acting Kisame could tell, it was just that he too was a jinchuuriki, hell, Gaara is one too. Unless… Kisame suddenly got pissed off for some sort of reason.

The commotion stopped when Naruto suddenly gave out a sneeze, being out in the rain made him catch a cold and his clothes were not helping him either. "Take your clothes off." Kisame said, straightly and direct to the point towards the kitsune.

Naruto looked at him blinkingly like a little gerbil. It took him a few minutes to respond with a, "Why should I?" Kisame wanted to strangle the boy.

"You know what I mean!" Kisame exclaimed, resisting the urge to make the boy stop breathing. Naruto gave out a laugh at Kisame's reaction.

Naruto peeled his clothes off, placing to the side to dry. Leaving him wearing light blue boxers decorated with fish cake all over them. As you could see clothes keep you warm but if they're wet they make you cold but if you don't wear em' you will still be cold. It is simple logic. He just had to warm himself up against the fire.

To Kisame it seemed that the kid was too comfortable even in this type of weather. It was as if he did not care what would happen next, he did not care if he did catch a cold or maybe something even worse. "Hey kid, Kyuubi helping you?"

Naruto turned his head towards Kisame, he thought about it for a while, well Kyuubi is helping him in more ways than one and so he nodded. He can't help but wonder why Kisame asked him that question though.

"Remember this." Kisame continued, with his gaze at the flames dancing in the darkness that slowly came down upon them. "That demon inside you protects you because if you die it dies as well. Don't depend on it too much there will be times when it will abandon you…"

Naruto gave Kisame a wide grin, "I don't depend on Kyuubi, I am myself and I don't need any Kyuubi's help!" the boy said pumping his fist up in the air but in the end fell on his back because of the sudden sneeze he did.

Naruto did not get what Kisame really meant. As you could see, if one is a jinchuuriki, their immune system is somehow taken over by the demon, making the body depend on it to make sure no foreign bodies would be able to infect the body or just plain cure the damn sickness he has. Now by any chance, the demon abandons his never-ending task, the body would slowly go into a near dying state, accompanied by a very high temperature and so on. Kisame is not sure if a jinchuuriki could even die here since the demon might not abandon his container if he knows he could die in the process of doing so but demons could also make mistakes, they may be powerful but they're not really perfect.

Still Kisame had to admire Naruto's personality, he could be an annoying little brat to him at times but what the hell, the boy brings back memories of his childhood. Naruto shivered when the wind blew into the cave once again. Kisame, felt a little sorry for the kid, so checked to see if his cloak suddenly got magically dry enough in a few minutes, and hell, it's dry already, he then tossed it towards the kitsune.

"What the?" reacted Naruto, as he took off the cloak on top of him. Kisame just looked at him and gave out a smirk. Naruto blinked for a few times, as he wrapped the cloak around him, well it was actually warm what else could the boy say. Naruto yawned, it was getting late but he was not sure if he should sleep.

"Go to sleep, I won't bite." Kisame said snickering at the sight of Naruto trying his best to stay up. Naruto was not sure if he should trust one of the few who sought after the Kyuubi inside him. If he could not trust him, than whom should he trust? Well he had no choice; he had to sleep eventually. The boy wrapped the cloak around him and lied down on the floor. He observe the man's every movement but the cloak was really warm, he couldn't help but close his eyes and slowly fall asleep.

He just wonders…

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Kisame was already sleeping when he was suddenly interrupted by the blonde's gasps and moans. "Hey brat could you…" Kisame said slowly opening his eyes when suddenly he stopped in the middle of his sentence upon seeing Naruto shivering hysterically. It was either the kid was pulling his leg or it was the real thing. No, Naruto could not be pulling a prank on him. The boy was practically struggling to breathe to stay alive.

Kisame quickly went near the blonde, "Naruto you okay there?" the older man exclaimed, seeing Naruto slowly opening his eyes and giving a faint smile at him.

"I-I'm okay… It's just that i-it's so d-damn cold…" Naruto said, with his teeth starting to clatter, grabbing the cloak around him closer to his body. Naruto looked as if a bucket of sweat has been poured on him in his current state.

It was still raining but shivering like that would be exaggerating. Kisame touched Naruto's forehead and it was hot, too hot, the thing Kisame had wanted to tell the boy. Now's not the time to lecture though. Kisame began to think of what to do when suddenly he saw a somewhat quick flash of himself as a child in Naruto making his eyes widen.

He quickly grabbed the boy close to him; if that cloak cannot keep him warm, then his body heat will have to do. Naruto looked up at him, "W-what are you d-doing?" Naruto asked as his voice got weaker and weaker when his question ended.

"I'm sharing with you my body heat… what else does it look like?" Kisame said, as he brushed his fingers through Naruto's blonde hair. Observing the expression on Naruto's face as he held the boy very much close to him just to make sure he keeps the boy warm as much as he can.

When suddenly Naruto grabbed Kisame's top tightly and pulled himself closer, surprising the blue skinned man. Kisame looked at Naruto's face and saw a comforted expression. "Y-You're ac-actually, warm… UGH!"

Something's wrong, Naruto's grip on Kisame's clothes tightened, his comforted expression changed into a pained one. Naruto's body was aching all over and the shivering became worse. Kisame even felt as if he would see Naruto's eyes rollback into his head. Hopefully not. 'Naruto, don't die on me! Don't die on me!' Kisame yelled out in his mind, he had never been this worried for such a long time. When it came to things like these, the best way was to sleep through it; the hard part was if Naruto could even sleep with this thing.

"Naruto, just close your eyes, it will be over soon." Kisame said in a tone that somehow seemed gentle. A tone that he stopped used ever since he was young, at the time when he started to hate the village he used to love even though it was the same thing that resented him. He did not even want to think about it.

Naruto just looked up at him, "I-I…" He stuttered, trying it hard to reveal what was deep inside, "I-I'm sc-scared…" Kisame was surprised with the confession of the boy; the blonde was scared of dying. He could not blame the kid, even if he was in that state, even he would be scared of closing his eyes and turning out that he would not be able to see daylight again.

Kisame gave out a sigh but he knew just what to say to Naruto, "You won't die, you haven't been able to become Hokage yet, now close your eyes." He said to him giving out a wide grin.

Naruto smiled at him even though he was suffering in this state of his, "Y-you're right." He replied, slowly closing his eyes, he won't die, he hasn't become Hokage yet. What struck him most was that, Kisame was there for him, so he wondered is this what it feels like to have a father with you? Never leaving you no matter what happened in your life. "Hey Kisame…" he said before he went to sleep but still with his eyes closed, "I have a favor to ask you."

"What is it?" Kisame replied, wiping the sweat off Naruto's face.

"Nothing…"

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Naruto woke up with the relaxing feeling of sunshine on his face; he noticed he was still in Kisame's arms, he looked up and there was the ex-mist nin sleeping. Naruto gave out a soft smile and closed his eyes once again, wondering…

Is this the feeling of have a father by your side…? He just can't help but wonder…

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Sometimes the truth isn't always a good thing… There will be times when it will bound you into shackles and if you're lucky, it might even provide you, your own death sentence…So sometimes it's best just to shut up… Next chapter, Chapter V: Truth… That sad thing about truth is; the truth is sad…

I feel a little disappointed with myself when I made this! –sob- I don't know why but, I do. Well, what Kisame showed up there was what people call fatherly love… -raises an eyebrow at you yaoi/Shounen ai fangirls- So anyway, I hope you liked this. Now, I'm going to make chapter 5! –cracks knuckles- Okay, wish me luck!