He Walked Away

He Walked Away...

{Sasuke's POV}

Orochimaru was pissed, boy oh boy he was pissed. Here I am chained to a wall and beaten well into semi-consciousness, but he won't go so far as to permanently scar his vessel.

All I kept thinking was, 'He's safe, he's safe, he's safe.' Every lash of the whip, every time a fist connected that was all that I cared about—Naruto...but ugly doubt crept in, 'What if they didn't find him? What if the wrong person, or people found him? The Akatsuki. One of the many demon hating villagers. What if he lost control of the Kyuubi?'

Suddenly I felt like escaping again. I know it was stupid. It will take at least a month before I'll be even slightly trusted again. I was stupid to come back to these monsters. My revenge will not happen. I can't continue fooling myself.

{Naruto's POV}

I feel myself being transported. The two perverts are swapping perverted stories. I think they don't know I can hear them. The one called Jiraiya talked about doing 'reserch' which pretty much involved him spying on naked women at the local hot springs. Kakashi-sensei gushed over his books, aparently this Jiraiya wrote those dirty books sensei is constantly pouring over. He even got the old guy to sight his first release copy of 'Ichia-Ichia Paradise.'

Jiraiya is a super strong shinobi called a sannin. There are only three in the world. One is a lady named Tsunade, and guess who the other is. If you guessed it’s Orochimaru...Ding, ding, ding you win the prize! Jiraiya also apparently is my godfather. Yeah I know thanks for all the support godfather. Where was this joker when I was being chased beaten and raped by villagers. I feel a little more then resentful toward the perverted old freak! At the same time the chance to have a family, maybe, possibly...

{Normal POV}

"How are the chakra bindings holding?" Kakashi turned a concerned eye on his ailing student.

"Not to good...I am afraid our old friend the Kitsune no Kyuubi is eager to come out and greet us," The man took a serious tone that did not bode well for his god son. Kakashi was getting really worried.

"When is Tsunade-sama going to be here?" Kakashi could not help but hold a little doubt that the famous Medic-nin; slash notorious gambler with a thousand debtors on her heels; was actually going to show up.

"Well right about now," A strong female voice blared out making the copycat ninja nearly jump out of his skin. Kakashi turned to see a very well endowed, not to mention beautiful, blond. Next to her was a very pretty bluish black haired young woman and a little potbellied pig in her arms.

"Ahh you brought Shizune," Jiraiya smirked.

"You keep your perverted eyes off my student and your hands to yourself, or I'll break them off!" Tsunade warned, "That goes for you to Hatake-san. Yes I know you the famous Copycat Kakashi second biggest pervert Konoha ever produced." Kakashi caught himself blushing he only realized he had been staring at her chest when she growled and tilted his head toward her eyes, "Got that?" he nodded.

"So where is the brat," She looked over next to the toad sannin, "Oh Kami-sama! He looks so like him. There is no doubt. Tsunade walked over to the prone figure of Naruto.

"Who does he look like?" Kakashi was feeling less then sharp for a supposed genius.

"You are telling me you never saw it? Wasn't he supposed to be YOUR teacher," She leaned down and stroked the boy's hair. Then she did a scan with her chakra. She punched the other sannin and sent him flying. He got up about fifty feet from the camp site.

"What the hell was that for woman?"

"You bastard! You can't tell me you didn't know! She got up and dragged the man back she looked darkly at the man the temperature dropped about thirty degrees, "Well you great lecher; based on my scans and the internal scarring that boy has been abused severely in the past! Do you even care that they RAPED Minato's child? I should castrate you with a rusty kunai!"

"Oh god Naruto why didn't you come to me for help?" Kakashi felt his legs turn to jelly. He truly had no idea what kind of abuse the boy had suffered. How could he? If there was ever a time when the child would have come and confided in him Kakashi had ruined any chances of that happening by neglecting his student. On top of everything this boy, why had he not seen it before? His mentor, the man he had idolized had a child. He used his own son to seal the Kitsune. Kakashi never thought. It was that simple he never thought about the child. He pushed him away. His guilt compounded exponentially.

Jaraiya was not faring much better at the news of the severe abuse Naruto had suffered, "I-I had no idea. I knew the Hokage told me of the anger people directed toward the child, but I didn't think he had been physically harmed by those brutes."

"So verbal abuse would have been ok?" Tsunade actually felt sick, "There was scarring in that one area and almost no other scarring indicating that he was brutalized repeatedly in the same area and possibly attacked several times at one point in a matter of weeks or days, I am starting to regret accepting the position of Hokage."

"When did you agree Tsunade-sama?" Kakashi felt like an idiot. He knew that they had been searching for a replacement for months,then suddenly they stopped. He didn't know they had one of Sandaime's old students in mind, mush less actually agreeing to such a headache of a job.

"The only reason I am not sending my regrets to them now is laying right there. He needs a better life in Konoha. If he dies tonight. I'm killing the two of you and becoming a missing-nin," She narrowed her eyes dangerously, even the old toad looked scared.

"Well it feels like the fox is getting eager shall we make the preparations?" She nodded to Shizune who had been staring darkly at the two men. She softened when she looked at the little blond. He was fourteen but at this point he would pass for eleven or twelve. A life of malnutrition and abuse had stunted his growth severely.

She took the blond into the small stony valley. It was about a hundred miles from the leaf village, and almost on the border of fire country. The valley was probably about the size of two football fields put together. The walls were steep and unforgiving if you slipped up you would not survive the fall to the bottom, but these were all elite ninja who could handle the nearly vertical slope to the bottom. There was a series of caves that would act as a shelter if necessary. If Naruto were to survive it would not be safe to move him for a while so storage scrolls with hospital equipment, furniture, a generator, and any other basic necessities were brought and set up in case Naruto suffered a seizure or some other ailment. "Kami-sama protect Naruto, he really deserves your favor after his rough life," Kakashi prayed to any god that would listen...