AUTHOR'S NOTE 4/26/2014: Greetings all, I have come back to try to revive my interest in this fan fiction and at least finish part 1. If you are a new reader I welcome you to enjoy this fan fiction with open arms, and as for returning fans I would like to to extend my gratitude that some of you haven't given up on me ;) I have edited this chapter and corrected a lot of misspellings and some grammatical issues. I know I haven't found them all more than likely but after reading this first chapter I realized how much this needed to be freshened up to pull in new readers. Don't expect an update for a while for new content because I will be editing all of my chapters and possibly moving some for better plot mechanics. I have the same direction and mind that I wanted to go with this story originally, I just need to flesh out those ideas while working on fixing the old chapters.

Anyway, please enjoy this story, it's near and dear to me though I have neglected it for so long.

Chapter 1

The blonde shinobi stood near the gates of the sleeping village, veiled in the shadow of night as he took in the sight of his village of the Leaf. He took a moment to reflect on how long it had been since he left the place, unable to suppress the tinge of loneliness that crept up his spine as he drew closer to the village gates. He remembered the day his life was changed forever.

FLASHBACK

After Naruto and company had defeated Akatsuki's Kakuzu with his newly acquired Fuuton Rasengan shuriken, Naruto realized that perhaps he wasn't strong enough to face his old teammate again. Sakura and him trained constantly, preparing for their next possible encounter with the diabolical Akatsuki, or even Sasuke if they were lucky enough to come across him. Over some months Sakura had begun to open up to Naruto, even going as far as joining him on a few dates. Even stranger, they actually began hanging out together when they both weren't busy training, something that Naruto found himself enjoying even more than their actual dates. He began to notice a change in behavior towards him, gearing towards a bond he only dreamed of. Although it felt great, he had a terrible dread in the back of his mind that it would end up hurting him some way down the road; he killed those thoughts as fast as possible. One evening after enjoying a wonderful night out on the town with Sakura, he walked her home from one of the best dates they had been on yet. Both stood idly in front of her apartment door, preparing to say their goodbyes.

"I had a great night Naruto. I was surprised you knew how to dance like that" she said, blushing at the memory of their rather intimate dance positions only hours earlier after having a lovely dinner at one of the most splendid restaurants in the village.

"While traveling with the pervy-sage, I kinda learned a few things when we stopped in towns. I usually had to baby sit him when he went to dance clubs, always claiming he had important 'research' he needed to do" he said, gesturing air quotes and everything. She laughed and laughed, listening to his stories of how his old sensei's face would be black and blue at the end of many nights from all the women he asked out, their reactions quite similar to his Sakura's past "answers" when Naruto would ask her out. Naruto looked down at her feet, stalling like he always did.

"Thanks again for coming out with me tonight, I hope we can do that again really soon" he said, as he lightly bowed his head and closed his eyes . Before he had time to react her arms wrapped around his neck, her body pressed tightly against his chest.

"Did you think you could get away so easily without properly saying goodbye?" she asked in a silvery tone.
Her pink lips formed a sexy grin as she watched his eyes open in confusion, clearly savoring the shock in his eyes. As he opened his mouth in astonishment, he felt her soft lips mash into his own, holding his neck in place in her delicate arms. Instinctively he clutched her delicate form, pulling her hungrily into his chest, returning the kiss with equal tenacity. After a long exchange by the young love birds she leaned her head back, gradually breaking the kiss and resting her forehead against his. Their gaze bore deep into one another as he enclosed his arms around her waist, nothing but their excited breathing filling the silence of night.

"Now, you can go" she said, winking at her befuddled date and closing the door.

After that night,they remained as friends in public at Naruto's request; he didn't want her burdened by the village's hate for him, even if it had subsided tremendously. When they were in private, things were a different story, though it did hurt and little that he could not share their relationship with the world.

A few months after their first kiss, a tip from Jiraiya regarding Sasuke's whereabouts was filtered though his various spy networks to the shinobi of the Leaf. When Naruto found out, he secretly left that night without informing anyone including the Hokage; not even Sakura. A month had passed without any word if the blonde was alive or dead when suddenly a figure appeared at the village's front gates with another figure lying limply over his shoulders. As soon as the entrance guard spotted him, the standing figure passed out and crumpled to the ground.

Everyone quickly learned that Naruto had returned, but the other fact was almost unbelievable; Sasuke was finally in their custody. They both had suffered tremendous wounds, and as for how, no one knew. After recovering them from the front gates they were immediately hospitalized and both slept for weeks. Sakura and the other rookie nine with their respected Jounins visited them as often as possible, most coming to see the recovering blonde over the returned traitor. Sasuke was the first to wake and was questioned immediately about what had happened to the both of them. Orochimaru was of course a fairly popular topic among the interrogators. After a very long talk with the Hokage and shinobi interrogators he was declared a Leaf-nin once again, facing no charges of treason. One change that was necessary if he were to be reinstated as a Leaf-nin was the removal of his Curse Seal. Soon after their talk, Tsunade along with Shizune and almost every medic nin in Konoha worked in unison to begin the process of removing the mark. It took the combined chakra of many ninja, but after a laborious ceremony they managed to remove the curse seal. Sasuke was subsequently released from the hospital and allowed to move back to his old house in the Uchiha sector.

Naruto finally awoke from his slumber a week after Sasuke had been reinstated. He was discharged from the hospital after debriefing the Hokage of the grim details that had transpired in the last month. He explained how he and Sasuke had fought again, and that Itachi had shown up which forced them to team up in order to take down the genius older brother. After a long battle they had managed to wound Itachi, forcing him into retreat. Just wounding Itachi on such a level pushed them to their limits, both being grievously wounded by the end of the affair. Naruto explained that he made a promise to Sasuke that if he returned back to Konoha to face his charges that he would help him hunt down Itachi and destroy the rest of Akatsuki, which they both surprisingly agreed that their was more than likely a link between the two. Sasuke had accepted the offer only if he was allowed to face Itachi alone, which Naruto bitterly agreed to.

The team was back together, although Sasuke was still his normal ghost-like antisocial self. It had been almost three months since Naruto had brought him back, which by this time it was hard for Naruto to not notice Sakura's affection was waning from him, flowing back towards their raven haired teammate. He brushed it off thinking nothing of it, because he knew they both missed him very much and it was only natural for her to be so willing to make him happy. That was exactly the way he felt one morning while on his way to Sasuke's to pick him up for their morning training. This particular morning he decided to arrive an hour earlier than their usual meet time, toting some breakfast for the both of them. He walked into the Uchiha district, looking around at the old buildings he passed until he finally reached his destination. He opened the front door and walked in as he always did, setting down the box with two covered containers of ramen.

'Hmmm…. I know it's always quiet here, but damn it's creepy walking in here alone,' he thought to himself as he looked around the dim surroundings. As he made his way down the hall towards Sasuke's room, he noticed his bedroom door had a sound suppression seal above it, something he didn't remember being there from the many times he had entered his comrade's home. He glanced at the writing and could tell it was fairly new, with the chakra residue being so fresh. Truth be told, he usually would wait outside the front door for his teammate, but this time he was going to scare the heck out of him since he figured he would still be sleeping. Very gently he gripped the door knob, rotating it slowly while pushing the door open into a very tiny crack. As soon as he had breached the opening his ears were filled with the sounds of tired breathing, a woman's moaning making the hair on his neck stand on end. He heard the sound of skin smacking against skin, and with the other sounds in mind he was pretty certain what was going on. He smiled evilly to himself as he thought how much better this was going to be to jump out and scare Sasuke and his guest, thinking of his escape route while preparing to move. He moved his head to get a better look. Suddenly his heart skipped a beat, his blood rushing from his face and leaving him a sickly pale color. He saw Sakura on her back, naked with a Sasuke on top of her with her legs wrapped around his waist, pounding against each other while she moaned as he impaled her over and over. With insane stealth and speed Naruto was back outside, replaying what he just saw in his head, too shocked to register what he had just seen.

And then it hit him.

'…...Give us blood... you know what you have to do...'

The Kyuubi gripped his heart and squeezed.

He had to hurry before he lost all control. As he ran to the farthest possible training ground away from the village, he could feel the rage bursting inside him, tearing at his insides while trying to escape and be used to decimate anything that got in his way. He kept remembering the kiss he shared with his cherry blossom that night, the happy moments with her being shattered right before his eyes. As he arrived to the training ground a few miles outside of town he finally felt his own killer intent rolling off of him, wave after disgusting wave of pure anger.

'Kill them….….They're laughing at you….Everyone's laughing at you…..' The fox's voice swirled in his head, laughing manically at what he too also witnessed only moments ago. He could feel the demon beginning to establish control over him, though he was resisting the tainted power with all his might.

'I'm running out of time.'

Naruto created a shadow clone and started forming Rasengans as fast as possible, destroying the landscape as he screamed at the top of his lungs. The demon struggled fiercely to make the blonde his puppet, but the rapid loss of chakra would inevitable fail him if he didn't hurry. Naruto could taste his blood as he bit down on his lip, pausing for a briefly as he gathered as much chakra from his reserves as able. He pushed his chakra into one last Rasengen, forming it into an Odoma Rasengen, hoping he wouldn't die from the power he wielded so recklessly. He jumped to the base of a small cliff and launched the blue sphere into a rocky wall in front of him, destroying every bit of it in his wake. The shadow clone disappeared and he fell to his knees gasping for air.

'I won't lose control like this again...I can't trust anyone...'

He felt his mind slipping away, the tension forcefully leaving his over worked body.

'I must never love again...' he vowed to himself and promptly passed out, falling down on his chest from chakra exhaustion. Blackness enveloped the blonde as he was covered by the rock debris from the destruction left in his wake.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: FLASHBACK will be continued in next chapter, keep that in mind. Please review and provide me some good/bad criticisms :)