Powerless Chapter 1: Prologue, Part 1, a naruto fanfic

Powerless

Prologue, Part One

The world had been torn asunder and it calmed him.

He took advantage of his disfigurement to blend into the raging chaos that was the Emergency Room. The stench of char and singed flesh, the predictable hysterics of frightened family members as their child or spouse is carted away from them on a stretcher, and the lively display of open burn wounds, pink and weeping in the center and rimmed with black crusts like freshly licked candy dropped in the dirt, all of this the climax to his magnificent crescendo.

The squirming, screaming blood sack bundled in his arms had gone largely unnoticed by the overburdened staff. Until she showed up, pigeon-breasted beneath her teal scrubs and green haori, and blonde twintails bouncing behind her with every harried step. Glistening beneath the fluorescence and the weight of her mission this night and the many more to come, she approached him and her lips parted to speak.

He intercepted her, keeping his head down. "Here." He pressed the little stinkshit into her arms, turned and sped the way he had entered.

She shouted after him, but she need not worry.

He would be back for him someday.

Three years had passed since that night.

The government had declared it an act of terrorism, orchestrated by unknown persons. Nine districts had been hit, each perfectly spaced apart and had been oriented around the arboretum that stood at the heart of the metropolis.

Eighteen hundred dead, fifty-two hundred injured, and about an eighth of those survived did not come out of it the same. The government had estimated about seven thousand orphans had been produced out of this tragedy. Only three thousand had been moved into government housing, the other four thousand gobbled up by orphanages and human traffickers.

One such failing complex had been converted to house those displaced by the incident. This stacked and somewhat suffocating building was nine stories tall, with three hundred and seventeen apartments, arranged in a 'U' around an overgrown, weed-ridden lawn and built like a parking garage. The cement face was pock-marked and rust-stained, the only bits of joy and color to be seen were the crayon drawings scraped into the grey, and the two-foot tall mural that ran from end to end of the third floor like a comic strip.

At this complex, a blonde, blue-eyed little boy made paces across the rooftop playground, laughing as he found many things to climb up on and over. Many of the other orphans were far older than him and carried no interest in wasting their time on a rambunctious baby who didn't even have the attention span for one round of Hide and Seek.

His birth a mystery to most, a famous man who he would never meet had walked into the NICU the day following the attacks, with grief on face and had given him the name: Naruto.

At five years old, Naruto was a skilled climber, often perching himself up in trees like a cat.

He hugged the bark at the very top of a tree with his skinny legs as he leaned over towards the nearby orphanage, shielding a grimy hand against his brows. It was an overcast day, yet this gesture felt like it increased his vision and his concentration.

What stood in his way from getting to play with those other kids was a steel grate fence that curved inwards at the top.

Doesn't seem so bad from up here. He pictured himself hopping from the tree onto that curve of metal and jumping down into the playpen on the other side. All the kids back home had gone off to school, some of them had even become teenagers and were busier and moodier than he cared for.

Scar Face and his best friend Mizuki in particular were an annoyance to him, always making passing comments that meant more than how they sounded face value. He wasn't a crybaby like they were, but those two sure hated hearing that from him.

"Hey, look! It's a monkey!"

Naruto was well acquainted with the hostility of other children. He grit his nails into the bark and glared at the three boys below.

"No, I'm Naruto!"

The boys clutched their stomachs and bowled over, derisive laughter shaking their shoulders.

"He thinks he's Naruto!"

"I AM NARUTO!" He pounded his foot onto the dead branches a level below him. They snapped and came away with a crackle, twigs and dirt and possibly ants or mites showered upon the boys' heads.

"Why you!" The tallest of the three bent down and gripped a rock the size of a die and drew his arm back. He launched it. The rock arced through the air and struck the tree just an inch shy of Naruto's ankle.

The other two boys bent over and picked up rocks of their own. Naruto flinched, his eyes shut, as if that would prevent the rocks from making their mark. A stone struck his calf with a sting. Another punched into his lower back. He expected more, but then the assault had lulled.

He peeked down and excitement rose from his lungs at the sight of the tallest boy being pushed to the ground by a familiar head of bunned black hair. The other two boys were stunned, unsure what to do. That hesitation lead to two measured strikes to the face. They cried clutching their noses, then ran off down the sidewalk. The tallest boy pushed himself to his feet and sprinted after them.

Naruto waved his arms. "Haku!" He clambered down, then paused. "Ahhh, I broke most of the branches!"

"Come down as far as you can. I'll catch you." Haku spread his arms out, a serene smile on the six year old's face.

Encouraged, Naruto inched down to the branch closest to the ground. Sitting atop it, he wrapped his little fingers around it tight and lowered himself slowly until he was dangling, much like a monkey.

Haku approached him, beckoned with his hands and Naruto closed his eyes. He let go.

Being caught was like rug burn, and it wrapped around his chest, his shirt bunched up at his armpits. He giggled sheepishly and Haku placed him on his feet.

He smoothed down his shirt and smiled up at his friend. A smudge of blue stained his friend's cheekbone, but it did not resemble any marker he had ever seen. Haku reached up and touched it. His fingertips came away clean and the smudge remained unchanged.

His voice was soft, melancholic. "I'm not sure today is a good day to play."

Disappointment settled in like a plate of fresh vegetables, then a pair of pinched black eyes caught his attention from inside the front door. A woman who looked like a bulldog in a dress stood with her hands on her hips, glowering from the threshold as if her eyes could set things on fire.

Disappointment grew into displeasure as Naruto stuffed his hands into the pockets of his shorts and he retreated from the orphanage, in no particular direction.

"I'm sorry! Maybe next time!"

Naruto scuffed the soles of his shoes along the dusty concrete of the breezeway, having little desire to hole up in his apartment alone. He didn't process the pair of footsteps leisurely approaching, nor their idle conversation. The pressed black pants of a junior high uniform came into his view, then the teen brushed right past him. Naruto faltered, yet his brain told him to keep moving, don't worry about it, just keep moving. His stubby fingers curled at his sides. His spine tightened up and his face burned with anxiety.

"You get into trouble again, Naruto?" Naruto lurched to a stop. That voice belonged to Scar Face. His real name was Umino Iruka. He's been fifteen for a week. Always talks real nice, acts like he's super responsible. Most tenants here were fond of him. But Scar Face couldn't seem to treat him as anything more than a nuisance. Plus he never smiled at him.

Naruto glanced at his leg. A bright red trail as thin as string ran down the outside of his right calf and disappeared inside his sandal.

He shrugged petulantly. "Dunno."

Scar Face blew a deflated sigh. "You 'don't know'?"

An arrogant chortle from Mizuki ran a chill down his little back. That guy was all venom and acid, nothing else. "There should be a consequence for liars. What do you think, Naruto?"

Fear swooped into his chest and flew off with his courage. The rapid patter of sneakers against the concrete quickly gaining behind him grabbed his ankles and pulled him down into a pit of sticky panic. Naruto looked over his shoulders for a second and that was all he needed. Naruto pushed himself to run, run faster. His lungs fluttered and flattened with every rush of breath.

"GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" He shrieked, his eyes prickling.

"You were at the orphanage again, weren't you?!"

The collar of Naruto's shirt scraped along his throat, his legs flew forward as he was yanked like a dog. He curled his fingers around his shirt collar, grunting as he struggled to prevent the cotton from digging hot into his skin. "My… friend… lives… there! Leggo!" He kicked his heels at the concrete, but Mizuki was too big, too strong.

"You still tryna get adopted, huh, shrimp?"

"I will get adopted! I will!"

Slow and deliberate footsteps approached. They stopped next to him. Naruto squinted through the pain. Scar Face's impassive gaze was as if he were looking at nothing more than a rat to be rid of. "No, you won't."

Mizuki snickered and traded Naruto's collar for his wrists. He lifted him off the ground. Naruto jerked and twisted like snake. "Yeah, the truth is most people think they got enough problems; they can't be bothered to be adopting. They think 'Oh, surely someone else will do it'. But those people don't exist either. Most kids just rot there until they age out, then they're out on the streets."

"Shut up! You always say mean things just to scare me!"

"Why do you think you even deserve to be adopted?" Iruka's voice was colder and harder than permafrost. "I actually had parents. So why do you think you deserve something I can no longer have? The government is taking care of you and yet you're still ungrateful. Does that seem right to you?"

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and threw his head back. "I DUNNO!" He didn't understand what Scar Face meant by ungrateful, or what was right or wrong, or how he was supposed to feel about the government taking care of him. The government didn't come over to play with him or pick him up. It didn't tuck him to bed or hold him through the night when he could hear his neighbors violently arguing on the other side of his bedroom wall or when a series of loud pops tossed him out of his dreams and under his sheets. It never soothed him when his mind was full of dark clouds, thunderous and heavy, and all he wanted to do was scream and hit and break things. Anything. Everything. Even if it was something he loved every now and then. Hating it enough in that singular moment meant it had to be destroyed, that it deserved it.

Naruto kicked frantically as Mizuki walked over to the edge of the breezeway. Naruto screamed as the ground disappeared beneath his feet. Mizuki was dangling him over the edge, three stories high above the shaggy lawn.

"NONONONONONO! I DON'T WANNA BE THE BUG ON THE WINDSHIELD! I DON'T WANNA BE THE BUG ON THE WINDSHIELD!"

"Say you're a crybaby, you ugly snot!"

"NONONO! HELPSOMEONEHELPME!"

Mizuki flapped his little body over the side as if he were flicking debris off a dishcloth. "Say it, you little punk!"

What was this feeling? He felt like he was shrinking, but he knew he wasn't, not from what he could see. Small, so small, like an ant. Like that red rubber ball down below, tucked in the weeds. He was dirt. Somehow, he had become the dirt.

"I… I,I'm a crybaby…"

A satisfied grunt from Mizuki and he reeled him back onto the breezeway. He barely let his sandals touch the ground before he released his aching wrists. Naruto crumpled onto his knees, the shock of death rendering him limp and lightheaded.

Mizuki retreated and caught up with Iruka, their exchange muted but audible.

"You tease him too much, you know. If you keep feeding him attention like that, he'll just want more." Iruka's voice.

"Whatever, nerd." Mizuki's voice.

"We really need to study."

"Nah, you need to study. I'm way fucking smarter than you. I've got like thirty IQ points on you."

Several big kids were gathered inside what was formerly a gym but had been converted into a common room, complete with three recycled sofas - one brown, one a dirty orange that sometimes looked brown and a mossy green one with brass buttons along the front of the arm rests. There was also an old coffee table, composite wood and dented with its plastic veneer chipped away at the corners. Plus a microwave, a refrigerator, and most importantly a television. It was clunky, and cube-like with the bunny ear antennas, but it worked.

Iruka and Mizuki were here too, as well as two middle aged adults, a man and a woman, and one cranky old man who seemed either too poor or too stingy to get his own television.

For as long as the old man was here, he was in control of the remote, and predictably everyone was stuck 'watching' the news.

Things that were new rarely seemed good or happy. The man was old and rarely seemed happy, but Naruto assumed that he was good. Bread that was old wasn't good at all and it definitely didn't make him happy. If new things were bad and old things were kind of bad, then what was actually good? He liked frogs. The dry ones with warts looked like they were really old, but he liked them too. New ramen from Ichiraku was always better than old ramen, and the cup noodles were new forever. He figured things like that had to be considered good, in fact, they were very good.

"Oh my, what's this?" The old man muttered. It was a picture of a girl. A little girl, just like him. Her hair was short and straight and dark like a blackberry. Her skin was white like a plate. Her lips were fat and round and red like a half-eaten cherry. Her eyes were big, ethereal and pale, no pupils; it was like she had taken the moon for herself, as if she had no longer wanted normal, boring eyes.

"Daughter of the Hyuuga Syndicate, Hyuuga Hinata, was kidnapped early this morning at approximately 7:32 AM. CCTV footage shows a man who was not the chauffeur climb into the parked limousine and drive off with the four year old strapped in the backseat. Her mother is seen moments later running after the car. Police warn for everyone within the downtown districts to be extra cautious of their surroundings, especially at night, as this incident may lead to gang-style warfare between the families-"

The old man grunted derisively as he muted the sound. The closed captions popped up shortly after. Too bad Naruto didn't know how to read yet.

"Maybe this was a rescue." The old man proposed, earning strange looks from the other two adults. "To raise a child in such a dangerous environment is a negligence of duty in of itself. We have no need of Yakuza breeding more Yakuza."

Naruto, who had been hovering a few feet behind the sofas (and Iruka and Mizuki, for that matter), bit back his fear and shared the question that had grown too large for the confines of his brain.

"What do you mean 'no need'?"

Fifteen sets of eyes rolled away from the television, and he flinched, feeling skewered by their bland gazes.

Mizuki broke the tension that was strangling the common room.

"He means she's a good for nothing, at least that is, if she were to grow up to be a nemesis to society. People like that we wanna throw away." He was smirking as he explained all this and ended with the casual roll of his shoulder.

Those two words snapped his mind in half, and like a cracked egg what came out was the blackest of clouds and the harshest of thunder in his scream. "YOU CAN'T THROW PEOPLE AWAY!"

Mizuki's smirk dropped. He gripped the back of the sofa and vaulted over, his indoor shoes slapping against the dingy tiles.

The fear swooped in again and Naruto spun round on his heel. He ran at the door and pushed both palms against it. It swung open with a crack and he blasted across the lawn, as if dogs were nipping at his heels.

Across the street was an empty lot, just as bedraggled and overgrown as the lawn he left behind.

Here in this lot was an old car - abandoned, rusted - simply a skeleton of someone else's memories. It sat without tires on four weather-worn cinderblocks. Its leather seats were soft and musty, with a gentle spider-webbing of cracks along its surface. The locks still worked and the key had been long gone. The only way in was to climb was through a window, one of which he had broken - against fear of rain - seven months earlier using six big rocks in order to claim this as his quick access hiding place.

He gripped the passenger side door and pulled himself up. He dropped inside. He collapsed on his side and hugged his legs to his chest. He tucked his chin to his chest and pressed his eyes to his knees.

He didn't want to think anymore. It seemed like his mind only got blacker and blacker, his heart and stomach sicker.

Could Mizuki be thrown away? He entertained. How he wished Mizuki would be the one to go away.

Just outside the orphanage sat a sleek black car. It was built like a tank, with polished rims and tires cleaned to a wet shine. A solemn beast of a man leaned against the driver's side, his arms crossed over his chest. He wore black joggers and an untucked dress shirt, also black, as well as sandals, which made him look rather funny despite his grim countenance. His mouth and nose were obscured by a cloth mask and a pair of sunglasses sat atop his head.

The bulldog-ish caretaker woman was pulling Haku out of the orphanage and Naruto filled his lungs with air.

"HAKU! HAKU! WAIT!"

Haku turned and smiled at him. The caretaker crossed her arms, releasing a snobby sigh. Naruto bent forward and cupped his knees, heaving oxygen into his body. Picking his head up, his blue eyes glimmered with excitement, joy and unshed tears before he launched himself at his best friend and dragged him into the biggest of hugs he could offer. He ignored the troubling fact that Haku's eye was blue and purple again, that his lip was split too. Maybe someday he could finally look one hundred percent himself, no bruises, no blood.

"I hope we can see each other again." He murmured into his shoulder.

Haku rested a hand against the back of Naruto's head and gently patted the boy's fears. "If you can wait for me, we'll definitely see each other again."

A cheeky grin stretched into Naruto's cheeks, his voice dropping to a low whisper in his ear. "So where are you going exactly?"

Haku's smile was like that of a mannequin; unreadable. He merely said this: "I'm going to be part of a family."

Naruto wanted that too. He wanted it more than anything. What exactly was wrong with Yakuza if they called themselves 'family'? A bond that was thicker than blood, he couldn't wish for anything more.

The early summer sun had set about an hour ago beneath the cover of hot rain. It was Naruto's favorite type of weather because all the frogs came out as if the parade of fat rain drops had pounded them out of the wet ground.

Naruto was sticky with mud and the humid air. The soggy air smelled of sodden wood and crisp grass.

He sat on the first step of the left stairwell overlooking the bedraggled lawn, gently gripping a slick, chubby frog in his right hand, whilst he stroked the center of its head with his stubby forefinger and cooed at it affectionately.

A groan in the distance drew Naruto's attention away from his shiny little friend. The source of that groan was a white-haired teen, staggering like a drunk beneath the dingy lamplight. Mizuki. Of course it had to be him.

Half parts assuming and hoping that Mizuki would wander the opposite direction or ignore him completely, Naruto went back to adoring the chubby boy in his little hand.

"'Ey, you shit. Y'know what time it ish?!" Mizuki shouted from a few feet away. Naruto scowled from beneath his furrowed brows, his heart chanting for his sudden and immediate disappearance. "I said ish late you damn eyesore!"

Naruto puffed his cheeks and stood from the steps. He began to walk away, holding his friend close to his chest.

"Whatcha got there huh?!" His sneakers squeaked and scuffled clumsily on the concrete. He was getting closer. What was his problem? Did Mizuki really have to pick on him every time he saw him?

"Leave me alone!" Naruto protested, picking up his pace into a careful jog. Mizuki's drunken footsteps evolved into thunderous slaps along the puddle-ridden concrete and that thunder had been injected straight into Naruto's chest.

Mizuki slipped and knocked Naruto flat on his face. The blonde yelped then cried with dismay as his froggy friend began to hop away. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the scrapes on his elbows and knees, his eyes trained on the shiny form hopping away.

"Wait! I'll get it, I'll get it!" Mizuki groaned as he rose to his feet and stumbled past the dirt-stained boy. Naruto paused, wondering if Mizuki actually had a nice side sometimes.

He thought that, but Mizuki stomped on his hopes just as he lifted his leg and stomped the frog dead beneath his sneaker.

Naruto sank to his knees, his wide blue eyes trembling in disbelief as the oily gnashing of tender guts on concrete resounded in his head.

Mizuki murdered his Gama-chan.

For once, Naruto was interested in the news. He understood now why people pulse-checked the world's welfare with the stuff: All they wanted was some good news. And ever since that afternoon, Naruto came into the common room every day, waiting and hoping for it too.

It's been three weeks. Weren't they ever going to find her? Some days they didn't talk about her at all. Days like that took something away from him, like someone was taking a chisel to his heart and were steadily chipping away at his hope.

The old man was here in his usual spot on the brown sofa as it was positioned closest to the screen. A lady was here reading a magazine by the fridge. Iruka and Mizuki sat on the green sofa, playing handheld video games on their weekend.

The red ball thunked off the wall. It hit the floor and rolled to Naruto's feet. He bent over and picked it up, repeating his idle, mind-numbing play. He didn't know what was possessing him like this, neither of the adults here seemed to pay him no mind, but Mizuki, out of the corner of his eye, was just about reaching the limits of his patience.

"You better stop, you fucking brat."

The ball rolled to his feet and he picked it up again. Naruto turned his face to Mizuki, boldly staring into his bitter eyes. Naruto pushed the ball, letting it thunk off the wall for the umpteenth time.

His eye twitched, his nostrils flared. "One more time, I dare ya."

What the hell was possessing him today? Naruto stooped down and gathered the ball. He turned his body towards Mizuki and pushed the red ball, a jolt of satisfaction jammed through his chest as the ball popped off the teen's face.

"Naruto!" Iruka scolded.

"You little shit!" Mizuki clutched the little red ball in one hand and flung it forward. It smacked off of Naruto's right shoulder as he moved to duck away. Naruto's eyes bulged as a vice clamped across his throat. He dug his nails into Mizuki's forearm, growling, writhing and kicking for him to stop.

"Mizuki-kun, for God's sakes!" shouted the old man.

"Shut it, you decrepit fool!"

The woman swatted Mizuki over the head with her rolled up magazine. "Mizuki, stop or I'll call the police!"

"What, I'm just playing with him!"

"Shouldn't you be disciplining him instead? Clearly he needs more of that." Iruka commented blandly as he smashed at the buttons of his gaming device.

"Yeah, Jou-chan! I'm playing with and disciplining him! Both what he wants and what he needs." Mizuki tightened his grip on the boy's neck, finding satisfaction in his desperate wheezing.

"Don't play that bullshit with me, boy! Let him go!"

Mizuki loosened his chokehold and Naruto fell to his hands and knees. Gingerly he cupped his neck, his body wracked with wet, hoarse coughs that scraped at his voice. Mizuki bent down on one knee and whispered venom beneath his breath. "You better get out of my face. Hear me, crybaby?"

Despite shaking his head, Naruto obeyed him and pushed himself into a wobbly jog out of the common room.

Climbing the stairs to the third floor, and jogging towards the tenth apartment from the left, he slipped inside his unwelcoming home. He turned the lock and dragged over the chair he kept nearby, then shoved it under the door knob.

His little fists shook at his sides. He was tired of being a worm and Mizuki the crow. Tired of Scar Face's self-centered indifference. Tired of having three hundred useless neighbors that barely knew he existed.

It was bubbling up again. The bitterness that sought retribution, like a boiling, black miasma.

And he was fresh out of things to break.

He opened his mouth and released the storm brewing inside his heart. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU!"

Then one month later, on a drizzling day in September, Heaven had finally sent him an angel.

She was a gorgeous and mysterious woman, with hair the color of rain-drenched hydrangeas, moody grey eyes like a soft, overcast morning and a pensive frown that seemed locked to contain her thoughts. A piercing adorned her bottom lip. It looked like a silver ball. She strode through his front door, flanked by two strange men in pressed suits, dressed in a black turtleneck and a long, black skirt that sweeped at her ankles and split up to her thigh.

When her moody eyes drifted on his nervous form, her gaze softened, as if the clouds parted enough to allow a single beam of sunlight to caress the earth.

She bent down onto both knees and rested her hands atop her thighs. The men stood at the door.

"Hello there. You must be Naruto."

Sitting in a corner, bruised chin tucked against scraped knees, her unexpected presence rendered him mute and he simply nodded at her.

"My name is Konan. You see, my adoptive father passed away recently, and it would seem that he had included you in his will."

His face scrunched up, his swollen bottom lip pursed in confusion. "What does that mean?"

She smiled at him and he really wondered if she was an angel. "It means I've come to take you away from here."

For the first time he let those hot tears fall down his cheeks and drip off his jaw. What had been a toothy vice locked around his heart, sinking its maw deeper and deeper day by day, had finally been loosened and came away, clattered to the floor to trouble him no longer.

Naruto blushed as the concrete rolled beneath his sandals as he held hands with Konan through the crumbling complex. He stole a peek at the woman who he was allowed to call 'Onee-san', and doing so brought Scar Face and Mizuki into his line of sight.

The twin looks of naked jealously and utter bafflement on their faces filled him with a range of satisfaction that he hadn't experienced before. He felt warm and complete from head to toe.

Exiting past, Naruto turned his chin into his shoulder and stuck his tongue out at them.

He didn't say it. He didn't have to.

Told ya so.

The car ride took two hours, a hundred minutes on the freeway and twenty minutes on surface streets. The moment the apartment complex pulled into view, he couldn't stop bouncing and fidgeting in his seat. When Konan giggled, he remembered himself and tried to reel in his excitement.

Compared to that ramshackle complex, this place was a thousand percent nicer. Sturdy, lush green hedges reached up to the rain, barring onlookers from catching a glimpse inside, they added that cozy layer of privacy to the existing brick pillars and the black grate fence that ran along the sidewalk.

Beyond the entryway was a parking lot half-filled with various sedans. He did not think about the fact that they did not park in here. He turned his sparkling eyes up to her gentle ones.

"Which one is it?!" He bounced in the shallow puddles in the asphalt.

"That one." She pointed at a lone staircase off to the left. It lead straight to the apartment door.

Once inside, he hesitated and wrinkled the hem of his shirt. He didn't want to dirty this spotless and rather empty home.

He took in the living room and its white walls and bamboo flooring. Against the wall to the right were two nightstands flanking a single sofa, camel brown and softly textured. In front of it was something he had always desired: a kotatsu. Against the opposite wall was a flat screen television, which sat atop a dark brown wooden console.

Directly ahead he could see a granite-countered island and beyond that a polished chrome sink.

"It's okay. Take a look around." Konan encouraged softly. He pushed his heel into his ankle and scraped his sandal off his foot and did the same for the other. From there he was darting headlong into what he was sure was the kitchen.

He opened the fridge and saw that it was empty, but he didn't care. He had his own fridge! Plus it had the thingy where ice and water come out! He spun around and clambered up the bar stools surrounding the island, then pushed himself onto the smooth and cold stone. He lowered himself in a satisfied heap and smiled as the surface soothed his cheek.

Konan sauntered in, giggling at his reactions of simple joy. She understood him completely, her own childhood never too far from her mind.

"Would you like to see your bedroom?"

Naruto jackknifed from the granite. "Yes!"

The bedroom was as empty as the living room and the kitchen. Against the left wall, perfectly center-adjusted was a twin sized bed with a plain navy blue comforter and a single white pillow. Directly across the bed was a small yellow dresser, and left of the dresser was the closet.

He turned around and peered out the bedroom door. He was at the end of the hallway, along with the laundry machines and the bathroom.

"... Where's your bedroom?"

A frown set into her face as she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but this is your home, Naruto. I live another hour from here."

"Oh." Of course.

"But… I can help you settle in for a few days. Would that be okay?"

"Please. I'd really like that, 'Nee-san."

Smiling, Konan offered her hand. He grabbed it and lead them out of the bedroom.

Children's anime on the television and a piping hot pizza on the kotatsu, Naruto sat on the sofa, clean from a bath and bandaged up by Konan. He hummed and kicked his feet as he chomped on the second best thing he had eaten in a long, long time. Ichiraku always came first. Always.

Konan had more to tell him.

"So, it would seem that you inherited a last name as well, Naruto-chan."

He spun his head so quick, she thought his neck would snap, and she giggled at the cheese grease and mayo jaga dotting his cheeks.

"What is it, what is it?!"

"Uzumaki. From today onwards, you are Uzumaki Naruto." She presented him a sheet of paper, just a ripped scrap that she had written herself. "This is how it's written, okay?"

"Uzumaki. Uzumaki. Uzumaki Uzumaki Uzumaki Uzumaki…" He tasted the arrangement of syllables on his tongue, repeating it until he was satisfied. He flashed her a grin so big and so bright it rivaled the sun itself. "I like it! We're both Uzumaki!"

Konan shrank slightly, knowing she would have to disappoint him yet again. "I must apologize, Naruto-chan…"

His shoulders slumped and his demeanor dimmed. He turned away, sucked inside the heavy goop of his thoughts and wiped at his cheeks with the back of his hand. "I see. That name is just mine too, right?"

"Yes."

He grunted and nodded, then placed his half-eaten slice onto his plate. He wiped the grease and sauce from his palms across the fabric of his shorts, before casually shrugging the whole thing off. He smiled.

"Well, we don't need to be related, anyways."

Konan leaned over and affectionately squeezed him around the shoulders.

"That's right."

Turning six didn't feel particularly different, not emotionally maybe, his priorities were roughly the same too, although seven months ago he had finally been able to cross 'Family' off his wishlist.

Two months into kindergarten and he eventually came to an understanding: He was busier than usual. Sure, he didn't receive take-home work, not like those butt-munch brothers had back at the old place, but between waking up at a certain hour, remembering his uniform, his yellow hat, red backpack, remembering to eat, remembering to brush his teeth and doing all this in time to grab the bus had been a very taxing study in time management for his limited organizational skills. Sometimes he arrived a little smelly. Other times he slept in or missed the bus and Konan had to come over and drive him there.

Tonight she was going to show him how to get there from his apartment. Apparently it was actually within walking distance, but he couldn't discern that.

The first day, Naruto had hovered from the safety of the corner, wrinkling his baby blue shirt in his hands and observing who was who and what they were like.

There was a boisterous and confident girl with silky pearl blonde hair. Her name was Ino. She wore her hair short and clipped to the side. Her eyes were sky blue and pupiless, but in terms of uniqueness they paled in comparison to Hyuuga Hinata's eyes. She seemed to have a rather protective demeanor towards the weaker girls, especially Haruno Sakura.

Haruno Sakura looked just as shy as he felt yet much more miserable. Her blossom pink hair was also short and appeared as though she had never combed it since birth, a disheveled combination of static-charged flyaways and conditioner-thickened strands.

He wanted to talk to her, he really did. But he was somewhat intimidated by Ino.

Then there was Fatso, er, Choji. A round ball of dorky kindness, he was constantly snacking or asking for snacks but was never above sharing his food if another kid asked him. He had a best friend, Shikamaru.

Naruto couldn't say much about him, it seemed like he couldn't get enough of Nap Time.

Someone else that he couldn't figure out was the quiet and enigmatic Shino. He couldn't seem to get enough of reading science books on insects, nor could he be easily separated from the ant farm by the teacher's desk. He was the only one fascinated and unafraid to view the ants consume a freshly killed cockroach come lunch time.

Shino's buddy was the complete opposite of him. Kiba was a wild and energetic boy, a little hotheaded and competitive, and more than a little sure of himself. For some reason he always smelled like the inside of a dog's kennel.

Lastly, there was the well-mannered and independent Sasuke.

The day Naruto had the courage to approach him, he tripped on his face. It wouldn't be until second grade when Naruto finally tried again. By that time, he had grown into his place amongst his peers.

He was neither a nuisance nor a goody-goody. He was neither popular nor unpopular. Half the kids remembered his name and the other half did not. It seemed like he was perpetually caught in-between.

It was nice up until a point. Everyone's individuality had roughly formed by fourth grade.

Choji was a generous glutton with a berserk button.

Shikamaru was a genius sloth who was really into puzzles and board games like Chess and Shogi.

Ino was into flower arrangement and fashion.

Sakura, who had finally come out of her shell, started wearing headbands, all kinds of headbands: thick cotton bows, cat ears, silk ribbons, flower wreaths, anything. He wasn't against it, she sure made herself interesting by changing it up. Plus her forehead was super cute, big and round. That aside, she was growing into bit of a bossy streak, while being a studious goody-goody.

Kiba was just Kiba, and Shino was just Shino. Dog boy and Bug boy. Hothead and… Sunglasses.

And Sasuke, well, he came from a long line of law enforcement officers and civil servants. He was a quietly helpful guy towards the teachers when the two smartest guys in the class - Shikamaru and Shino - were respectively too lazy and too monosyllabic and odd to be relied upon. Sasuke had no obvious weaknesses, no quirks. Any girl who was catching the flow of puberty early seemed to crush on him hard, but he treated their affections with bland politeness as if their romantic interest didn't really exist, so he was no ladies' man either.

In the end, Sasuke was just Sasuke.

And Naruto wanted to be more than Naruto, in every sense. More than himself, and more than that fantasy hero who shared his name.

"Ehh? Naruto? Like the character?" This snotty girl, Ami, with cropped hair the color of a violet crayon, stood with her hand on her hip and her head craned so far to the side that he thought it would fall right off her shoulders.

Ebisu-sensei had decided to include him more in organizing the class, instead of making Sasuke always bear the load. So what his teacher had him doing was make rounds through the class, getting in touch with everyone so that they were prepared for the upcoming Study Marathon.

"Yeah, so this marathon-"

She interrupted him. "I don't care about that. No way I'm sleeping over here studying until my eyes bleed."

"But he really wants everyone to participate. He said we can have snacks. And there'll be a game-"

"So who's dumb idea was it to name you 'Naruto'?"

Dumb? He had grown rather comfortable since his inheritance, he hadn't looked back on those painful memories since, nor had he put much stock into the possibility that those days were never over.

"I,I dunno. Why, is it that bad?"

Ami shrugged, arrogance pulling at her lips. "It's alright, I guess. But the thing is, all I can think about when I hear that name is the redheaded hero, Naruto, not you who is also Naruto."

Not me, but someone else. The floor drew his gaze. This wouldn't be the first time he was overlooked, seen as something else other than who he truly was, something less than who he was. He wasn't the first Naruto, but he was a real flesh and blood Naruto.

"Maybe you should change your name. Ever consider that? Ah, hey! Where're you going?!"

Konan was treating him to a movie and dinner tonight. He could barely contain himself, so the very second that school had let out, he jumped out the classroom window and sprinted out onto the dirt track in the field.

He hadn't been keeping count, but the sun had dipped a degree since he began.

Unexpectedly, he had sprinted past Kiba. What was he doing here? Two laps later, Sasuke was catching up to him. Naruto whipped his head side to side and both boys ran alongside him.

"Whoa, whoa, hey, why're you two slowing down? I thought we were racing!" exclaimed Kiba.

Naruto looked at him as if he were insane. "Since when?!"

"I dunno, since you started, I guess."

"I'm getting picked up by my 'Nee-chan. I've got a lot of energy, so I'm just killing time." Naruto explained.

"Why are you expending your energy if you've got plans later? Aren't you going to be too tired or too dirty by then?" Sasuke offered.

Naruto slowed to a stop, Sasuke's logic dawning on him. Frantic blue eyes widening, Naruto gripped at his scalp. "Oh no! No, no! We're supposed catch a movie! Ahhh, I can't run home and make it back here! I don't have a phone either! Ahh, stupid, stupid!"

"Whoa, calm down. I wasn't trying to freak you out."

"Why are you here, anyways? You didn't think I was challenging you to a race too, right?"

Sasuke was tight-lipped as he offered a shrug. Naruto wasn't convinced that Sasuke came over on a whim. He wasn't that kind of guy.

Naruto brushed past them, aiming to rinse his face in the outdoor sink up ahead. Reaching the top of the hill, he called out over his shoulder: "You're both weird!"

Sasuke and Kiba watched him depart, and Kiba voiced what they were both thinking: "Wanna wait and see what his sister looks like?"

"Yep."

Naruto sat beside Konan in the dark of the theater, stuffing handful after handful of popcorn into his mouth as the gritty fantasy film played on the big screen.

"Waitwaitwait! I,I,I know you! I,I know you! Y,You're a g,gunslinger!" exclaimed a boy, thirsty after his trek across the desert and overwhelmed as a man he had seen in his dreams pointed an old-fashioned six-shooter at his face.

The film would eventually reveal the source of the boy's inner pain by way of a tempting illusion: his long-dead father was alive here in this other world and was beckoning his son to embrace him.

Naruto's hand paused at his mouth. The tears bubbling from the protagonist's eyes at the relief he was feeling to hear his father's voice again, to see him, it resonated inside Naruto only to make him realize that he felt hollow. He couldn't cry the same tears the boy did, for he had no one to miss, but knowing that this was something he should be feeling gave him a funny sort of pain. He felt like an anomaly, someone who had everything and nothing at the same time. Just stuck in-between.

He simply didn't know how to cry like the boy did.

Exiting the theater, Konan petted Naruto's hair. "How did you like the movie?"

Naruto sipped on his soda and gave a mild shrug. "It was okay. Some stuff was cool and some other stuff wasn't as cool." He didn't know how to go into detail despite the fact that all of it was floating inside his head, waiting to be strung together into a coherent sentence. But his opinion was all the same: He didn't hate it but he didn't care for it much either. Despite that, he mulled over the bond that had formed between the boy and the gunslinger, and Naruto began to wonder if it wasn't too late for him. Maybe he could form a relationship like that, find his own father figure. "Could we stop by a bookstore?"

Konan smiled and stroked his hair again. "Of course."

Just as expected, the novel the film was based on was being sold towards the front. Some books had the original cover and other books had the movie poster for their cover. The place smelled of coffee and poppy seed.

There were so many kids here with their parents, it nearly overwhelmed him. Chubby-faced babies passed out on their dad's shoulder, a noisy boy and girl tugging on a hand each of their father, and a mother double-swaddling her two sleeping infants, one attached to her front and the other at her back.

Naruto picked up the novel from the stand and turned his face into his shoulder. Instead of walking with him, Konan had allowed him to wander in on his own until he was ready for her. He couldn't ask her to pick him up and carry him on her hip like some of the other kids. He couldn't tell her that he wanted hugs so tight that he couldn't breathe. Konan was his new and only family but no amount quality time would fully remove the fact that they were still strangers to one another, only brought together by a loss that was one-sided.

But maybe Jiraiya was as close to a father figure that he could get. Death didn't have to keep them apart, did it? He could come to know the man, then care for him.

Then maybe he could learn to cry as the boy did in the film.

Ino and Sakura had broke up. Their friendship broke up, that is. Also, the classroom was pretty split on this, but Naruto felt pretty sure that Sakura had initiated it.

Both girls had developed mad hots for the dark and reliable Sasuke, and both had decided to compete with the length of their hair. It was rather cliché, but it was happening. Then somewhere along the way, Sakura felt it necessary to express her deepest gratitude towards Ino by throwing it in her face.

The aura between these two actually frightened Kiba on some level. It did seem that boys leaned more towards sportsmanship than girls did. Did girls even have a philosophy like sportsmanship? Sportswomanship?

He'd seen Ami do some crazy things to the other girls in and out class: grabbed their hair, made one girl pretend to be her pony for a whole day, tricked them out of their lunches and most prevalent were how she managed to turn compliments into scathing insults. And yet these girls remained in her presence. Did they think her a stronger Alpha than Ino?

He decided that girls simply existed within their own little society with their own little rules, and he would never understand them.

"'Nee-chan! 'Nee-chan! I got invited to someone's house! I'm someone's friend! … I think!" Naruto finally had a phone, and he loved it. It made organizing his life as a whole easier, but mainly he had that much more flexibility for his budding social life. He could maintain Konan's peace of mind by keeping in touch with her, and he could add people's numbers and emails into his contacts and become friends with them and never be apart from them too!

"That's so wonderful, Naru-chan. Which classmate invited you?"

"Sasuke! Sasuke did! It really threw me off because,because he didn't seem like he would, I guess. He's nice enough but kind of closed off, so I mean, I dunno what I'm saying, am I rambling?"

"It's fine. I hope you have fun."

"Yeah!"

Sasuke lived with his older brother, Itachi. Apparently his brother had a dispute with his parents and moved out of their home, taking Sasuke with him just recently.

Maybe that was why Sasuke reached out to him? A change like that would surely make you feel your mortality just a little.

Itachi was an awesome older brother. He was doting, calm, a bit sarcastic, sometimes he could be disarmingly weird and Naruto loved every bit of his attention. Sasuke seemed embarrassed in contrast.

After a meal of miso fish and rice, Naruto helped the two brothers clean up. He didn't want to mess up his opportunity of gaining his first true friend since Haku by being lazy, guest or not.

Naruto and Sasuke were gathered around the television, when Itachi poked his head out from the sliding door that connected to the kitchen. "You two good? I got to go take care of something, but I should be back in a few hours."

Sasuke waved him off without even looking. "Be safe."

With that, the sliding door closed shut.

The current program had ended and some anime had begun. Naruto's eyes widened as the title card slammed into his vision.

TALES OF A GUTSY NINJA RE: CONTINENT OF CHAOS

Naruto winced at the corny subtitle. After the opening sequence passed, it opened up into a vicious battle between magically powered super soldiers. Dust billowed high in the sky. Attacks were called. And then there he was, hair red as poppies, his visible eye strangely pale and oddly ringed throughout, no sclera.

"NARUTO!" cried a female ninja.

"Can I have the remote?" Naruto grumbled.

Sasuke observed him for a beat before placing the remote into his waiting hand.

"You hate your parents for naming you after him?" He began casually as Naruto flipped through the channels.

"I'm an orphan. I didn't even have a last name until five years ago. No point being mad at people I'll never know."

Well, that explains why those two don't look related at all. Sasuke, sitting lotus style, rested his elbows atop his knees as he leaned forward, confusion knitting his brows. "How did you get a last name? Did you discover your family register?"

Naruto's response was bland. "Hm… I hadn't thought about that."

"What, you're family register? Just look it up."

Naruto frowned. He wouldn't openly protest to drop the subject, not wanting to ruin his time here with Sasuke, but it was hard to think about this stuff sometimes. "But I wouldn't be on it."

"But it's your last name. The people you're supposed to be related to will be on it."

Naruto shrugged. How could that be proven? And what would he do with that knowledge? "... I think I'm fine. I have 'Nee-chan."

Sasuke knew there were a lot of orphans in the region, but Naruto was so happy-go-lucky, he never would have suspected. "When were you born?"

Naruto was quiet at first. But then finally, in a soft voice devoid of emotion, he answered: "On a bad day."

"Welcome back to the Evening Edition. Tonight's stories…"

Sasuke collapsed backwards with a groan.

"You watch the news and you're ten?!"

"I'm just checking something, it won't take long. I wanna know if they're going to talk about her at all."

"Who?"

Naruto's teeth sank into his bottom lip. "You're going to make fun of me."

Sasuke rolled side to side, flapping his arms and kicking his legs impatiently against the tatami. "No, I'm not. I don't give a crap. Who are you talking about?"

Who was he talking about, indeed. Other than a poor little soul with the most darling looks he had ever seen. A girl that he had never forgotten, one who he couldn't allow to be too far from his mind.

"... Hyuuga Hinata."

"Hyuuga…" Sasuke's eyes snapped to the size of saucers. "They're yakuza!"

"So!? That's not her fault! She's been missing for six years! Look," Naruto tapped away at his phone and pulled up her picture, the one from the news. He shoved his phone in Sasuke's direction. "She's cute, huh?"

Sasuke's lopsided gaze slid from the phone to Naruto, then to the phone, then back again. "Dude, that's a toddler."

"She's our age, idiot! Don't make it weird!"

"You're the weird one!" Sasuke rolled onto his knees. "You said a toddler's image was cute like you were into her!"

"She isn't going to look like that now!" Naruto's cheeks were burning, but he chalked it up to the conversation, and not the girl in subject.

Sasuke plopped onto his butt, his smile brimming with sarcasm. "Yeah, maybe when she's grown she'll be hot like your sister."

"Don't perv on my 'Nee-chan!" Naruto grabbed the lap pillow beneath his butt and chucked it at Sasuke's head.

Itachi would eventually come home to a television pushed askew, a lamp knocked over with its shade pierced through and a cloud cover of feathers across the tatami from one ruined lap pillow.

Naruto measured his breaths as his sneakers pounded away at the dirt track. He circled his fifth lap and Sasuke was jogging in place up ahead, waiting for him.

"You hanging out with your sis again?"

"Nope!"

"Then what are you doing?"

"Challenging you! C'mon, I already made five laps, you gotta catch up!" Naruto laughed as the spring wind tousled his sweat-drenched hair.

He soon regretted his taunting for Sasuke had easily caught up to him in two-point-five laps. That brief-lived disappointment bloomed into a glowing, magnificent idea. "Let's do sports together!"

"You mean join a track team?"

"Sure! But I wanna try baseball, basketball, volleyball, uhm, kendo!"

"Kendo? Really?"

"Yeah! Oh, and swimming, and gymnastics, and when I get bigger I'm gonna do weight-lifting!"

Sasuke couldn't keep up anymore, the laughter pulled him aside as he stood bowled over, grabbing his stomach.

Naruto jogged in place beside him, his scrunched into a frown. "What, you don't think I can lift weights?"

"That's not it. You just caught me off guard. But I accept," Sasuke straightened himself and offered his hand. "Let's be training partners."

Grinning with the glint of determination bright in his eyes, Naruto clapped his hand into Sasuke's.

At eleven years old, Naruto would develop a talent for teasing.

His homeroom teacher, Ebisu, was a silly man with a flair for dramatics, his gestures often wide and sweeping with the whole use of his arms, and his manner of speech complicated, haughty and theatrical.

And over these past four years, Naruto had learned something about Ebisu-sensei that no one else knew: He was a covert perv. And what better way to test his jokes than to be covert as well?

Every test paper and sheet of homework he would use a kanji character that was phonetically alike to the answer but would be read as something utterly lewd and inappropriate.

And Ebisu-sensei had grown to dread receiving his papers; always at his desk, head in his hands and brows clenched behind his round sunglasses, doing his best to grade his work with the utmost objectivity.

Did Naruto ever get into trouble for these antics? No. Because the truth was, Ebisu-sensei was too proud to punish him. An eleven year old handling advanced kanji all for the art of the joke, well, unserious reasons or not he had the motivation to teach himself and as a teacher he couldn't ask for more.

As the fifth grade was ending, one afternoon during the final week, Ebisu-sensei had called out to him. Naruto, who was mainly curious, obeyed his teacher and approached his desk.

The classroom had emptied, everyone had gone home or to their respective clubs.

Naruto folded his arms behind his head. "What's up, Sensei?"

Ebisu laced his fingers atop his desk and smiled gently at the boy. "I wonder if you have any inclination towards the art of language. Have you fancied becoming a writer, Naruto?"

"Nope."

Ebisu's grin faltered.

"I see. I realize you haven't enjoyed the required books that we've read and discussed in class, but surely you must enjoy some amount of reading, yes?"

"Manga, I guess?"

Ebisu thought to himself, That may explain his dexterity with the kanji. Perhaps he had been putting this little trickster on a pedestal. It was only natural for a child who received the desired response to attach to that and keep pushing for more and more of that response.

Ebisu decided to dismiss the conversation he had planned. He turned away and pushed himself to full height, never letting the acquired fondness slip away as he spoke.

"It is a shame I cannot follow you into your junior high years, but I do look forward to what you may become. Please do consider all the possibilities as they present themselves. You never know; You may find out that you're quite good at many things."

Had Naruto strongly invested in those words, he may have come to resent Ebisu.

A lot things about Naruto bothered Sasuke, but not all in a bad way. Between his bountiful enthusiasm for self-reinvention and his questionable obsession with a missing girl whom he had never met, Naruto seemed to truly embody his given names. He was a storm apt to spiral out of control, for better or worse.

Sasuke was the type of individual who strongly felt things, felt love and ache in simultaneous continuum, worry and humor like one fed the other, a symbiotic relationship of nerves and heartstrings that were only tamed by his inclination for empiricism and logic.

This psyche of his apparently ran in the family, had bred generations of passionate police officers and detectives, and for good measure a couple cabinet members and three police commissioners; people who saw pain and fought tooth-and-nail to turn it into peace for the victims.

In his opinion, Naruto was a largely overlooked individual, one who seemed to have deeper wells of empathy than he could fathom and a stronger drive for justice than he could muster.

That was one of the things that bothered him. A human has limits. If his heart does not, will it eventually corrode his mind?

As Sasuke picked at his dinner, his brother spoke up, having taken notice of the younger's pensiveness.

"Something troubling you, Otouto?"

"... Yeah. Naruto is weird."

"Ah."

At twelve years old, Naruto would be attending his final grade school field trip at the Tokonoha Metropolitan Arboretum. The other five classes had come as well, having diverged from the parking lot with their respective teachers and tour guides.

From the outside the arboretum was insanely massive, supposedly two miles in diameter and a mile high, with its design caught between a jumbo jet hangar and a gilded birdcage. It bubbled at the base, then rose into slender pointed arches with all the grandeur of an ancient cathedral. Sun-sparkled foliage billowed out the top and spilled over the structure like seafoam. The millions of glass shields glinted like gasoline beneath the late summer sun.

As they filed through the entrance and received their lanyards and educational pamphlets, a myriad of wet scents his nose all at once, the smothering comfort of hot rain and the stimulating tobacco-like scent of damp undergrowth, to the musty moss and the toady stench of moist peat and stagnant pond water.

Glancing at his pamphlet map, he saw illustrations of wooden towers and winding bridges and patches of rope netting to crawl over or lay out on.

"Hey, Ebisu-sensei! I wanna go to the Adventure part already!" Naruto badgered in good-nature, giggling madly to himself. He might have eaten a whole pack of caffeine chewing gum on the bus ride over, not that he was going to admit it. The last time he consumed anything that induced unnatural energy, he had been quite a handful, hopping, screaming and darting about, and had been assigned permanently to Ebisu's side for the remainder of the trip, much to the man's exhaustion.

"Please wait, Uzumaki-kun! We'll be there within the hour!" Ebisu did that thing where he pushed up his glasses when he was irritated or stressed. But sometimes he also did it when he was smug or reaching the best part in a history lesson, specifically when something really shocking and clever occurred that changed the tides of this war or that war.

Naruto flung his head back in a rather dramatic fashion. "Fiiiiiiiine!"

As they skimmed past the carnivorous plants that smelled vaguely of ass and the creeping vines that carpeted the glass walls with their star-like purple blooms, Naruto fished around in his cargo pockets, then pulled out his flip-phone. Clipped between the fold was a photo that he didn't want ruined.

"Sensei," Sakura called out tentatively. "Wasn't this place closed down a few years ago?"

Naruto paused and lowered his phone. Ebisu had fallen silent, his demeanor rigid.

"Yes, well… I'm not sure that is appropriate to discuss."

Well, nuts to that. His curiosity was piqued. "What happened?"

Ebisu palmed his face with a groan. "You kids have phones, yes? Look it up if you like, but please refrain from discussing it at length. We're not the only ones here today, the subject may upset someone."

Naruto jogged up to Sakura and Sasuke sauntered beside him.

"Sakura-chan, what is it? What happened here that's so bad?"

Her snippy glower softened when she became aware that Sasuke was the other half of her audience. She leaned in close, her hand cupped around her mouth as she whispered carefully. "See that massive vine at the center of the arboretum?" How could they miss it? It nearly took up the entire greenhouse. It was twisted clockwise, its dull bark like sinew and tendons. It tapered towards the top and was shriveled and wilted like a bloodless dandelion, the tip of which had these sharp, heart-shaped shields for leaves that reminded him of an artichoke. There was a flat plane in the center of these leaves. Perhaps it was meant to flower? "The bottom floor was forbidden up until three years ago due to an ongoing homicide investigation."

"What? They found a body way down there?"

"Not one body. Not sure how many; they really tried to keep it under wraps."

Naruto forced his voice lower as his curiosity rose. "When did they find these bodies?"

"Twelve years ago." Sasuke murmured solemnly. "I didn't realize you were talking about that, Sakura-chan."

Naruto's head snapped in Sasuke's direction. "Oh damn, did someone in your family work on this, Sasuke?"

"Yeah, my dad," The grim severity in Sasuke's eyes swept away the voyeuristic intrigue that had settled over his friends. They pulled away, subdued by the reality of the story. "Sensei is right, we shouldn't talk about this."

Naruto nodded with a muted vow, reminding himself he had more important things to do today. Shifting his eyes side to side, checking that no one was going to tease him, he pulled out the three by three photo and pocketed his phone.

Naruto slowed his steps and drifted well behind the class, hopping from stumpy ledge to ledge as he held the photo outwards, as if he was catching sun rays.

"Is that what I think it is?" Sasuke deadpanned with an arched brow.

Naruto stiffened slightly before sheepishly laughing it off. "Well, I figured since she can't be here to enjoy the trip with us, I thought I could capture some memories for her, then maybe she can see this place when she dreams."

Sasuke digested his words with a cautious uncertainty, as if he had no choice but to consume some mysterious slog concocted by a psychotically ill witch doctor.

"I'm sorry, you could repeat that?"

Naruto lowered the picture, deflating with an exasperated sigh. "I'm trying, okay?!"

"Trying what? You sound effing crazy, you know that?"

Naruto sunk claws into his scalp as he glared through slits at his friend. "Nevermind! Just lemme do this!"

As illogical as this conversation was, Sasuke uncovered the most logical explanation a person could and voiced his question: "Are you in love with her?"

Naruto's frustration melted away, replaced by cock-eyed innocence. "No. I've never met her."

Right. Sasuke internally shook his head, his heart heavy with concern. His friend was a hopeless guy. More than that, his friend's mind was a trap that he all too easily fell into, and there was no clear solution to his attachment issues.

This was an issue, right?

On the other hand, he expected no less from Naruto, bottomless though his heart was.

Sasuke turned away, intending to return to the back of the class. "Carry on then, you weirdo."

"Hey! Not cool!" Naruto jumped down and chased after him.

Sasuke's gaze slid in Naruto's direction as the boy stamped across the planks when an oddity caught his eye, one he should have noticed immediately earlier.

Across the atrium stood the lone silhouette of a figure, obscured beneath black cloths, adorned with a strange, one-eyed orange mask. That black void for an eyehole was aimed right at them.

Sasuke snatched Naruto's wrist and dragged him along. He ignored the boy's protests, the breathless fright hammering his lungs empty, threatening to sink his rationale into oblivion.

Daring a final glance, his expectations were turned upside down.

He was real. Still there. Still watching.

Sasuke threw himself into a headlong sprint and forced Naruto into the same.

The youngest Uchiha would find himself in a pit of nightmares later that night, the first of many to come, which he would keep to himself for weeks.

Naruto brushed his teeth over his bathroom sink, whilst tempestuous metalcore blasted from his new smartphone. His reflection revealed a squashed mop of spiky blonde locks and bruise-like shadows beneath his eyes. He reached up and fingered his bedhead. He contemplated getting a haircut. His gakuran uniform had arrived yesterday. Two more days and he would officially be a junior high student.

Naruto gripped the waistband of his boxers and tugged them away, assessing the changes he had undergone the past four months. Of course he was going to keep growing, but the foundations of adulthood were official. All he was missing was the deepening of his voice.

As usual, Sasuke was first at everything, even puberty. Then again… either Sasuke shaved his legs or his changes were the reverse of Naruto's.

Naruto murmur-screamed and headbanged along to the lyrics as foamy spittle dotted his reflection and dribbled down his chin.

The music cut out, replaced by a generic ringtone which he had yet to change out. He swiped the answer call.

"Sasuke. So who was it? Did I win?" He dipped his face into the sink and spat.

"Nope, we both lost. It was Choji."

"No shit, haha. To what?"

"Uh, apparently he's into dark girls."

It was too much for Naruto to take as he gripped the sink and laughed his heart out. The hollow porcelain amplified his volume, drowning out the laughter on Sasuke's end.

The cusp of thirteen was a ripe time for bodily humor.

Naruto would soon find that the cusp of thirteen was also ripe for trouble, imagined or otherwise.

But this was very, very real.

Naruto couldn't move. He couldn't process his concepts into abstractions, and those into intelligent thoughts. His palms were slick with cold sweat, his mouth had gone dry.

A strong grip on his shoulder jostled him, and the sharp gasp he drew was the fuel to his long dormant fire.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sasuke prodded. He had never seen Naruto like this, with such a venomous scowl shadowing his face.

And just like that, it was gone.

"Sorry, sorry. Everything's fine." Naruto muttered, forcing his legs through the muck of his anxieties and letting the fire in his gut burn a path towards the back of the classroom.

Taking the final seat near the window, Naruto reclined with an impudent arm slung over the back. Chin tucked against his neck, he glowered from beneath his brows, silently asserting his predatory dominance over the man in question at the teacher's desk. His desk.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm your homeroom teacher, Iruka-sensei."

This should be good. Naruto thought darkly.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura rested in front of a smooth stone fountain in the city, sating their teen metabolisms with grilled and saucy street food.

Sakura, her legs curled flirtatiously beneath her, leaned towards Sasuke for a kiss when Naruto saw an opportunity.

"Ah ah ah, Sakura-chan, bad. Bad girl. What do you think you're doing?"

Sasuke grinned, instantly tuned to his mischievous frequency.

Sakura, who had grown to be quite the little spitfire, skewered Naruto with her glare, offended by his interruption. "Get lost. You know we're dating."

"Well, that's the thing. Sasuke is like a brother to me and you never asked for my blessing."

Sasuke bit on the inside of his cheeks, his nostrils flaring as he withheld his mirth deep inside his chest. His sort-of girlfriend did need to learn to be a better sport. What boy didn't enjoy ribbing a cute girl? If she thought she was immune to teasing from him, she was going to be sorely disappointed in the near future. He was only human, after all.

"Yeah, babe, you didn't ask hi-" Sasuke sputtered and folded over his knees, wheezing for breath before a series of sharp cackles spilled from his gut.

"Sasuke is chaste like a shrine maiden. So, ya know, you guys gotta keep it on the outside. No penetration, only rubbing."

Sakura flew off the fountain, her face burning bright red, as her sort-of boyfriend broke down into renewed hysterics, his voice caught between a throaty bass and the breathless squeaks of an octave he no longer had access to.

"You're both idiots!" She huffed as she grabbed her school bag and marched off. Both boys managed to grab a hand each, apologizing as they pulled her back to the fountain, sitting her down between them.

"Ya know, I think you hold yourself back too much," Naruto grinned. "You gotta let loose. At least try to around us."

Sakura crossed her arms and glared at him skeptically. "Let loose like how? Is that another perverted joke of yours?"

"Well, see, I think if I keep pushing the right buttons, you'll probably hit me, right? And we guys like to communicate through violence. Am I right?" Naruto referred his rhetorical question to Sasuke. The youngest Uchiha replied with a swift punch to Naruto's shoulder. Naruto rubbed at the affliction and laughed, turning his attention back to Sakura. "See?"

"So, let me get this straight: In order to better get along with your guys' dynamic, I have to punch you?"

"It's a start." Naruto had no idea if he was thrilled or frightened when Sakura pulled her elbow back, a fist cocked and locked onto his face. She never gave him a warning as her tight knuckles connected with the bridge of his nose, sending him backwards into the municipal water. When he arose - frigid and soaked - with Sasuke's help, Sakura was freaking out, her hands clasped over her mouth in a frozen gasp. For her sake, he grinned at her and laughed it off. "There you are."

"You're bleeding." Sasuke commented with a touch of humor.

"Eh?"

Sakura burst into a panicked a shriek. "You're bleeding!"

Naruto reached up and gingerly grazed the bridge of his nose. Hot, sharp pain lanced between his eyes and lit his brain like a firecracker. Blood smeared onto his palm in a wide swath and for some unclear reason, he thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Naruto came in the next day, the flesh around his nose swollen and darkly bruised, and held in place by a thin white strip of tape between his eyes.

Amusement floated on his lips as he glanced in Sakura's direction. Her cheeks puffed with annoyed mortification. He knew she would come around someday, that she would join the two halves of herself, the one that she wanted people to see and the other that she kept locked away, becoming completely, unapologetically herself. She fought so hard just be comfortable in her own skin that he really admired her struggle, he felt it.

And if Sasuke was going to be serious about her someday, he would like to get along with her better. He wasn't particularly crazy for the type of people who lied to themselves.

"Naruto." Iruka's voice was flat and stern. Naruto questioned if he would get used to this arrangement. Becoming a teacher must have been Iruka's 'out' from the sticks. Naruto had a couple unqualified teachers in his day, to which he had turned to Ebisu with his frustrations, from whom he had learned that the application process was ungodly lenient. If you were young and willing, welcome aboard.

Squinting in irritation, Naruto reared back and stood before his teacher's desk. The man would not rise from his seat, nor look at him directly, but he had seen his face and the state of it.

"Did you get into trouble, again?"

Half of Naruto's face scrunched in derisive confusion. "What do you mean 'again'?"

"It's a nasty injury you got there. Who'd you pick a fight with?"

Naruto whipped his head in Sakura's direction. She shrugged, looking just as baffled as he felt.

"Nobody. There was no fight." He corrected.

Sakura rose from her seat. "Iruka-sensei, I hit him. The context is a little hard to explain, but we were just playing around."

Naruto decided that Sakura should be a keeper. Already much of that high-and-mighty veneer from their childhood had gone away, revealing hints of a virtuous young woman.

Iruka's bland gaze lifted from the educational material that he was compiling and he observed Sakura for a beat, considering her words.

"Haruno-san, you're the Class Representative. Do you think violence is becoming of your position?"

Naruto shifted his attention back to Sakura. Her face stained red, her expression squirmed. Her eyes dropped to the floor as she seated herself. "No, Sensei."

"If you would prefer, you could recant your involvement and I'll look the other way."

Sakura's eyes snapped up to Naruto's, confliction twisting a knife in her gut. Her lips fluttered wordlessly. What kind of choice was that?

Naruto's fingers curled into white-knuckled fists. "Fine. I got in a fight, I guess. I dunno with who. I didn't see their face."

Iruka looked away and nodded at his papers. "Go to the Infirmary, Naruto. Get a face mask. Your injury will disrupt the class's ability to concentrate on today's work."

Naruto couldn't have rolled his eyes further without losing them inside his skull. "Are you kidding me? I sit all the way in the back. No one is going to get 'distracted'. What, do you want me to dye my hair black, too?"

Two large hands slapped at the wooden desk and it seemed as if all the sound in the room has been sucked through a vacuum.

A tremble in Naruto's chest threatened to spread and overtake his body, and just like the other day, his mind was dead silent.

"You want to be insubordinate? Fine. Don't cover your face. You can go sit properly on the floor."

The class erupted in hushed, incredulous chatter like a field of cicadas during the height of summer.

"Properly?" Naruto parroted numbly.

"Yes, properly. Go. Now."

Iruka was referring to the seiza. An outdated custom in these postmodern times. At least for commoners. Naruto distantly thought that he would like to see Iruka try to sit properly, but he kept his retorts to himself.

Naruto resembles a freshly risen zombie as he turns away from Iruka's desk, and thirty-two sets of eyes drill and burn through his very core. He does not see them, not really, his mind too caught up in things he'd rather forget.

Naruto reaches his desk which he is not allowed to sit in, and he turns to face the front of the class. He drops to his left knee. Then he lowers onto his right. He's ignoring the quiet distress emanating from Sasuke seated to his right. Naruto lowers onto his heels and arranges his feet so that his ankles are outwards and toes are flush to the floor.

Iruka never told him how long he had to sit like this. Naruto could only imagine that his reprieve would come with the lunch bell. Four hours from now.

Iruka wasn't done yet. "I won't have brawlers in my classroom," The cicada-like whispers stirred anew as the students shared their anxiety and bafflement through pinched faces. Naruto was not a brawler. Naruto never picked a fight. Those who knew him never saw him injured outside of sports, and Sakura had already explained away this massive misunderstanding. And yet their teacher didn't seem to care about the facts or the contexts, but instead he was preoccupied with something else. Something no one could quite figure out yet. "Anyone who chooses to behave recklessly outside these doors will be met with discipline. You are all now considered adults. I advise you to behave as adults."

Sasuke looked to his lower left, his friend glued to the ground beside him. His hands were trembling in his lap. His eyes were flat, checked out. He appeared stony and limp at the same time.

And Sasuke felt utterly useless.

The intercom pinged with the call to lunch.

Sasuke bent slightly and offered his arms and Naruto, unable to feel his legs, clasped his hands around Sasuke's forearms. Sasuke gripped Naruto's forearms and pulled him to his feet.

Naruto stumbled. He planted his left hand against Sasuke's desk to catch himself, his right hand clenched around Sasuke's shoulder.

There was no helping it. Naruto couldn't leave the classroom. Sasuke eased his friend into his desk, hoping he'd recover soon. "I'll grab us food. What do you want?"

Naruto was slumped forward, forehead pressed against the wood and his left arm curled around his head. He shrugged. "Anything's fine. Thanks."

Ten minutes later when Sasuke would return victorious with an armful of curry-pan, he would see his friend in distress yet again, circled by a group of seven pissed off classmates.

"What's the big idea, huh, Uzumaki?" complained a girl.

"What're you talking about!?"

"Iruka-sensei. That lecture." She answered.

"Yeah, we don't deserve to be dragged down with your stupidity." said a boy.

"You really have to think of how your actions will affect others," said another boy. "You may have been the one punished here, but we all got threatened. Haruno-san especially-"

"How about you don't associate with Haruno-san," interjected the first girl. "Save her the trouble of going through that again."

That hit a nerve, he could tell. This was hurting Sasuke, too. Naruto was shutting down again, his eyes had gone flat and stormy, his body rigid, shoulders hunched defensively. Was Naruto really considering their demands? He should tell them to fuck off.

Sasuke chose to keep his head and not rush over, but somewhere in the back of his mind told him pride was for the weak. He couldn't heed to that voice, even in this situation. He wasn't wired that way. Not like Naruto was.

The group seemed to take notice of Sasuke's approach halfway before he reached them and they took their leave. Somehow their bias stung him. They wouldn't chide him for being friends with Naruto because he came from a good family, right? They wouldn't demand Naruto to break ties because they thought the Uchiha were infallible, right? Fucking idiots.

"Hey." Sasuke called out tentatively.

Naruto never spoke a word.

Those assholes had put Sasuke in a difficult position whether they meant to or not. Without his input, Sakura and Naruto had made a mutual agreement to suspend their friendship, leaving Sasuke to separate his time and attention between the two when he knew it didn't have to be this way. He absolutely hated it.

Twilight descended beyond the local library walls. Sasuke peered over his textbook, checking in on his sort-of girlfriend. She had grown cold since her agreement with Naruto, forcing herself back into her good girl shell by a hundred and ten percent, and throwing her all into studying. He couldn't help but ask her: "Do you miss him at all?"

Sakura flipped to the next page of her material, not once lifting her eyes from its contents. "Don't you think that's a weird thing to ask me? Why should I care about another guy that isn't you?"

Because he's your friend. Because you think he's fun. And I think you're bored as hell, even with me. "... Guess that is weird." He muttered.

Sakura flipped another page. "You and I, we can't even be serious yet. If my mom knew you were more than my study partner, she'd kill me."

"... Yeah, guess so." Sasuke knew these three years were a rite of passage, one that would be a practice in hermitry and resilience. Yet it seemed he was having a difficult time subscribing to the comfort and convenience of a hive mind society, or at least one that idealized itself as so. It was making his friends miserable, and it was making him miserable by consequence. If he had to see Naruto singled out as 'The nail that sticks up' one more time, he was probably going to get ostracized right along with him. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it would be for Sakura, though.

"That aside…" Sakura began, her tone changing, hints of sentimentality filtering through her walls. "I guess this arrangement is hard. I mean… I like you so much that sometimes it hurts."

Sasuke lowered his book. He reached out and grazed the exposed skin of her left knee. Her cheeks pinked, her brows pinched and her lips squirmed into a frown, then she pulled away.

The love he experienced was like that of a sun-warmed window against his face, simple yet abstruse. He did not experience the pain of her absence, nor did he yearn for her when she was near. His body told him to hold her hands and touch her lips, but his brain held none of the romantic passions he expected to feel, instead it was a sense of unconditional importance. Maybe he was devoid of romance, maybe he was still a kid in that sense.

He began to wonder about Naruto's continued attachment towards Hyuuga Hinata, a girl he could never have.

And he wondered if Naruto was ever going to wake up and move on.

Two months had passed since their first day of junior high, and the sports version of Hell Week was looming in the days ahead. Every junior sports team was having tryouts after classes for ten days straight, and knowing both Konoha South and North's reputation, there would be cuts.

Naruto had waffled between Judo and Track & Field, the former satisfying his low-burning aggression and the latter satisfying his desire to run for running's sake, but Sasuke convinced him he was too small-built for Judo.

Currently, he was chasing the dirt oblong side-by-side with Sasuke on their half of the sports field. The northern half belonged to the high school, which sat just beyond the net wire fence.

Their skin was pebbled and streaked with sweat, their measured breaths heavy yet Naruto's was louder, much harsher.

Sasuke was just good at everything. Twenty laps and he didn't seem to be slowing down at all. Naruto couldn't back down until he did, but Naruto also couldn't let himself puke in front of his peers.

"We can stop if you're tired!" Sasuke shouted.

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and forced his lungs to take in more air. "Shut up! I,I got this!"

"It's okay to have limits! You could break down your muscles if you overdo it!"

"Then! Why! Aren't! You! Stopping?!"

Sasuke took the hint. Naruto's obstinance was limitless too. Sasuke stopped running and in Naruto's surprise, he tripped on his face.

Taking his leave and knowing that Naruto wasn't going anywhere, Sasuke would eventually return with three ice cold water bottles, one of which he uncapped and poured over the steamed back of his knuckleheaded best friend.

The day that Naruto finally met Konan's surviving brother, Nagato, those long unobserved doubts that had been stagnant in Naruto's heart would begin to resurface.

Naruto sat at her large black granite-countered island, enjoying a bowl of fire-grilled fish over rice whilst the evening news droned on. Konan idly watched the footage of helicopters performing a rescue in flooded waters with him as she sipped on her glass of Riesling.

The click of the deadbolt echoed in the aerie, followed by the door shutting closed. After their guest shuffled off their shoes, a man emerged, his skin white as paper, his hair straight and bright red. It framed his jaw, parted above his left brow, revealing a single, stony eye.

He wore a three piece suit, slate gray and textured tweed, with a silk maroon dress shirt and a black tie. Beyond his dapper appearance, he really did resemble Musasabi Naruto from the Gutsy series. Or rather, that man Jiraiya really did design the character after his son, Nagato.

Naruto parted his lips to greet him, summoning all of his cheer and courage to smother his smallness.

Nagato took one look at the boy. Then he strode past him and greeted his sister. He bent in close to her ear, murmuring low. "- he doing here?"

Naruto's face burned at his rejection. So that's how it's gonna be, huh? Naruto turned in his seat, and Nagato understood that he had not been discreet enough. The man pulled away and stared the boy down with such a high level of disinterest that Naruto told himself not to be surprised.

Nagato knew about his existence for the past eight years, and not once did he try to meet him. Clearly he had planned on keeping it that way.

"... Maybe I could ask you the same thing." Naruto threw back, the black puddles in his heart vibrating to life.

Nagato crossed his arms. "I have a key."

"Nah. I mean 'what am I doing here?', 'cuz I'd like to know."

Konan lowered her glass, her placid eyes widened with the slightest of discomfort.

Nagato strode a step in Naruto's direction, rolling his shoulders forward, attempting to enlarge his thin frame. Aggravation rolled off him in waves. "I'd tell you if I knew, because your name that day sure was one hell of a surprise."

There it was. Out in the open. Nagato resented him.

Naruto rose from the stool, his feet in the bars so that he could confront Nagato at his level. "Wasn't your old man a bit of a womanizer? Do I resemble him? Is that what's got your panties twisted?!"

Naruto steeled himself the moment Nagato's mouth pulled into a toothy sneer. A slap against the counter broke the aggressive spell that had possessed them and they gave Konan their wary attention.

"Unbelievable. You're both just… unbelievable. Naruto, I thought you didn't care about blood." Konan was hunched over the counter, her forehead pressed into her clasped hands, barely masking her pained irritation.

The blackness squirmed inside Naruto's chest, forcing him to take his seat. He was upsetting her, something he never imagined he would or could do.

"... I don't." His reply was weak and defensive, as if he had trouble convincing himself how he truly felt about anything. His eyes dropped to the floor before a bitter scowl darkened his face. Naruto hopped off the stool and dashed into the shadowed hallway. He slipped on his sneakers, grabbed his school bag and let himself out.

He already knew that he didn't resemble Jiraiya, not even in the slightest. He had internet. The man had been an acclaimed novelist consistently since he was twenty-nine. It was easy to find even his childhood portraits.

Naruto knew. He just wanted to be a dick.

As the metro-bus rolled to a stop in front of his apartment complex, Naruto hopped out the doors and trudged up the stairs to his front door.

Sitting on his worn sofa, Naruto unfolded his laptop. There were seventeen tabs open, windows he had been reticent to close despite the convenience of the bookmark. It was a hoarder mentality.

The first three windows were about the Hyuuga Syndicate, the next five were about that mysterious multiple homicide at the arboretum, the following two were the Uzumaki family registry and a website offering DNA testing services respectively. The final seven were of Jiraiya.

When Naruto places his finger on the touchpad, it dawns on him: A nice apartment with solid walls and a solid ceiling. A small collection of high-end electronics. Furniture that had been new the day he arrived. A fridge that never ran out of stock. A bank account that never ran dry. And how was it that he deserved all this? A random, little wretch like him; there was a connection, wasn't there? Somehow, he had meant something to Jiraiya.

Naruto opens a new tab. He scrolls yet again for video footage of Jiraiya, desperately wanting to know this man, to understand him. To cure himself of Nagato's invalidation.

Naruto plugs the HDMI cable into the laptop and his surroundings blur, his senses zone in on the television screen.

The talk show recording was fuzzy, the bottom edges flickering with tears and the colors unbalanced. It was dated twenty-one years ago. It was the old man's first interview.

"Sensei, the reception of your second book has been immense. You've maintained the same spot on the best-seller list for Young Adult Fantasy for eight weeks. Had you ever envisioned that your main character would become so beloved?"

Jiraiya looked neither like an author nor a guest prepared for their time in the spotlight. He wore 100 ryo-store slacks, an untucked satin dress shirt and an old brown leather jacket that resembled the seats inside that broke down car from Naruto's childhood. Despite his amateur appearance, he held himself with a humble confidence. "Well, to be honest I hadn't really expected it at all, but looking back now I should've hoped so; See, Musasabi Naruto is very dear me-"

"It's true you were inspired by one of your sons, yes?"

"Yes. He told me not to talk too much about that part though, because it would embarrass him." Jiraiya clapped his knee and bellowed with mirth. He turned to the camera and waved. "Hi, Nagato! Are you taking good care of Yahiko and Konan-chan?" He clapped his knee again and rumbled with laughter as if he could picture his beloved son's face.

The interview carried on, though it faded from Naruto's mind. Just this man's warmth towards those three sent a hot shock of envy through his heart. The happy family photos that lovingly adorned Konan's nightstands and the hallway walls completed the whole picture in his mind. Suddenly he felt drained, cornered and unreal. He believed himself an afterthought, one who arrived too late only to find that all the seats were taken.

He reached up and rubbed the heel of his palms against his prickling eyes. Then he curled onto the couch, his body tucked against the corner and he shut his eyes.

Amongst those hoarded tabs was an address. It was to Jiraiya's grave. Naruto wanted to go there, he wanted to see if talking to Jiraiya's headstone would clear him of the poison that's been plaguing him.

But something held him back.

And now, he wasn't sure if Konan would even let him.

As Naruto drifted into a dreamless sleep, the red light of the laptop's built-in webcam turned on.

Sasuke had been looking forward to tonight for the past month. Itachi had bought three tickets to an MMA event and Sasuke had immediately invited Naruto, though he had been somewhat tricky about it at first: He had forced Naruto to study from a textbook when the blonde had been too dispirited to concentrate on getting his grades up. Upon reaching the sixth chapter, the ticket had been staring right at him. The look on his face was like a little kid discovering candy for the first time. In a gust of gratitude, Naruto pushed through five more chapters on his own.

Naruto burst out the front doors of their school and landed in a fighting stance. He punched and kicked at the air, grinning with enthusiasm. "You ever seen that video where the guy kicked his opponent so hard, his shin broke in half? That fucker didn't even feel it, huh? He went back into stance even though he had a fucking bird leg, like it was bending the wrong way. Man, it looked like rubber when he did that second kick." Naruto shivered for good measure. The blonde had started to pick up a habit for swearing. Sasuke wasn't particularly sure when it all started, but he chose to overlook it.

"I'll have to look that one up. I think the most gory fight I seen was-" Sasuke stopped when Naruto had drifted out of his periphery. He took a half step back. His best friend was entranced by something. Sasuke followed his gaze beyond the courtyard, and standing just outside their school gates was a male teen, no older than they were. At least, Sasuke believed this person in a black and green suit was a boy. His face was remarkably effeminate, with long lashes, big, deep eyes and a full, curvy mouth. He wore his long black hair parted at the center, with the other half pulled into a cloth-covered bun.

The pretty-boy waved towards the courtyard. In just seconds, Naruto had torn across the caked dirt, screaming a name in such relief it was as if he had been reunited with the dead.

"HAKU!" Naruto launched himself at the other boy, his arms coiling desperately around the long-missed familiarity. The other boy smiled gently and patted the blonde's head.

Sasuke drew up behind them, but kept his distance, half inhibited by his curiosity, and the other half knowing to respect their space.

"Holy shit, you really found me!" Naruto punched his friend's shoulder. He was bouncing, laughing, and glowing, his blue eyes shone wet beneath the evening sun. "Oh man, oh man! This is fucking great! Hey, I'm free right now! What about you?"

Sasuke felt like he was watching them from the other end of a telescope, and from his view they were getting smaller and farther away. Sasuke took a step forward, he opened his mouth and the boy named Haku acknowledged him. "Naruto, what about him?"

Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets as Naruto turned around. Yet again he opened his mouth and yet again he was unable to speak.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called out to him, and Sasuke took that as his invitation. He strode over before the door of their personal bubble closed in on him. "The match isn't until later, right? I'm gonna catch up with Haku until then."

Sasuke felt as though he had walked into a invisible wall as Naruto began tugging his friend down the sidewalk, brightly shining and talking the boy's ear off.

Sasuke assumed that Haku must have been another orphan, a childhood friend that had been well-missed over the years. He ignored the ickiness writhing in his gut from Naruto flaking on him, deciding he was allotted to it and that it wouldn't happen again.

Naruto wouldn't show up at the arena until the final fight.

Naruto was over the moon. He had regaled his positive uprooting from that shit shelter of government housing and all the things he had experienced since. He had asked Haku all the things he had been dying to: What were yakuza like? Were they really like family? Was he happy? Was he going to school? What did he do for the family? Nothing? Anything?

"I kill people."

Naruto's cup ramen slipped from his hands and spilled on the brick beneath his feet. Noodles sloshed out, the styrofoam cracked upon impact. MSG-laden broth dribbled down his chin as he stared at his friend agape and he weakly croaked: "Is that a joke?" In a way, Haku was like Sasuke but a thousand times more elegant. Both introverts had a thing for poker-faced shock value. Sure, it's been eight years, but Haku had been serenely dark back then just as he was now. It had to have been a joke.

Haku shook his head. "Do you remember how I made that old bulldog hate me? I kept feeding her white roses my blue drinks. I wanted to see them change colors. When they finally did, she decided to make me blue. Every day." Haku paused, and took a moment to observe Naruto for his reactions. Curiously, the blonde remained shocked, yet Haku could find no trace of disgust in his honest face. This made him smile, not just from his lips but deep inside his heart.

Haku continued: "I tried to stab her. So she sold me. Turns out she had owed them protection money and thought 'win-win; the Gato family could use a bloodthirsty whelp'. In the end, I couldn't be happier. As you can see, they treat me quite well," Haku pulled back his sleeves to bare clean, porcelain arms as opposed to the bruises from before. Then he became thoughtful. "Hm, maybe that's a gross generalization. The Kumicho is greedy trash, but Zabuza treats me very well. You saw him that day, remember?"

"I… I,I'm so confused." Naruto laughed weakly. His gentle, elegant childhood friend… how could he be this way? Was it learnt? Was he just desensitized to it now? They put him up to it. He never asked for this, he got fucking sold like property! That lady couldn't have been allowed to do that! You can't throw people away!

"That I tried to kill someone when I was six? Is that really so strange?"

Naruto's mouth dropped open, the words lodged in his throat. Maybe it wasn't Haku that he was confused about, but himself. He should be reviled. He should be more concerned, more frightened. But he wasn't. He just wasn't. All he could think about was the danger that Haku was in, and yet the relief that his friend had survived this long.

As surreality and reality collided like tectonics plates, a tsunami of fear and reverence slammed in Naruto and he threw his arms around Haku once again. He murmured 'sorry, sorry' over and over again into his shoulder. He was sorry for Haku's ordeal. He was sorry for reacting uncomfortably towards his admission. He was sorry for hugging him this often because it's just something boys shouldn't do anymore. But there were good exceptions and bad exceptions and Haku fell somewhere in-between.

Pulling away and ducking his face, Naruto asked: "They're bad people, right? You're not being made to…" How was he going to justify in his mind that this was okay? That what Haku was being made to do was somehow okay and that they could be two normal friends for the rest of their lives? Haku could keep killing if it meant staying alive and Naruto… had no idea what that meant for him. Compared to his yakuza friend, Naruto was a civilian. Just an ordinary kid. Was there or wasn't there some sort of boundary to be heeded? Was Naruto truly bad after all to be friends with someone like him?

This was Haku's answer: "Moral relativism is a nice thing to believe in. In our world, death comes to those who deserve it."

A slightly unusual trait of their school's inner government came to Naruto and Sasuke's attention the very afternoon of the Track and Field tryouts.

A judging table was set up to watch the runners vying for a spot on the junior high team, and rather than be judged by the captains themselves, the judges were comprised of their upperclassmen from Konoha North High.

Yakushi Kabuto in particular emanated pure trouble, from the fact that he was both a senior and the high school's president, to his demeanor alone, the way his calculated gaze was perched menacingly atop his steepled hands. He seemed precisely the type of guy to befriend you with wisdom and a smile before sticking you in your kidney with a scalpel.

And first year junior high kids were fair game.

Naruto hadn't even ran the hundred meter yet, but as he and the other students including Sasuke hunched down into position, he began to glisten with sweat and vibrate with nerves.

Had his growth plateaued for the time being? That's not a thing, right? So why was everyone here larger than him? He would have to really push himself. His stride wouldn't keep up with theirs at all.

The starting pistol popped and the runners had pushed off. They thrusted across the track with might and determination. Muscles burning, determination waning into desperation, the cool air scraping moisture from Naruto's throat as he fought and fought against his physical limits; Naruto could feel himself slipping behind, his chest screaming at the halfway point. That scream would soon gain voice, then volume as the white line- was crossed by Sasuke.

Naruto tripped on his face. Like a bug caught in a stampede, the other runners plodded past him. Naruto kept his head low as he growled and punched his fist into the ground.

Naruto would proceed to fumble and blunder throughout the afternoon, from the two hundred, the four hundred and the eight hundred meter dash. His endurance just wasn't there yet. He eventually realized that he had been doing the wrong training for the past three months as well. By the end, Kabuto would request that he demonstrate his broad jumping abilities. Naruto got caught on the first hurdle and came crashing down with it tangled in his legs.

As tryouts concluded, the selection and cuts were commencing. All forty-eight hopefuls from first year to third were gathered on the ground like sweaty children waiting for storytime, or that's what came to Naruto's mind, as he sat hunched and out of breath at the back, resting his miserable forehead against his dirty and scraped knees.

The selections and cuts seemed about even when Kabuto decided to interrogate the best one out of all of them.

"Uchiha-san, why did you slow down during the hundred meter?"

"Well, I still came in first, didn't I?" Hearing Sasuke be sheepish was like hearing a goat hiss. You just don't hear those things together.

"Uh-huh. Some of you may not understand what my relevance is here, so let me explain: Konoha South and Konoha North have the largest sports program. It is also the best. As school president, I put in the time to pick the teams and I also pick the managers-"

A first year interrupted, Naruto didn't recognize the voice, so he must have been from another class. "Wait, you're judging every team for the next ten days?!"

"I am simply ensuring that we are unbeatable across the city," Kabuto answered as he pushed his glasses up. He redirected his attention back to Sasuke. "Uchiha-san, I would like to welcome you to the track team, but I get the feeling you aren't much of a team player."

"Because?"

"Because you chose to slow down."

"He tripped." Sasuke's admission caused Naruto to squirm and his face to burn. Yeah, he tripped twice. Who slows down for a klutz, anyways? Naruto was in agreement with where Kabuto was coming from: Sasuke's priorities were skewed.

"And that's holding you back. Do you really want to be on a team? Or are you doing this just because he is?"

Naruto lifted his head and watched for Sasuke's response. Naruto began to wonder if Sasuke just saw him a charity case or if Sasuke really wanted to do whatever he wanted to do. It was cool at first, in fact, it was wonderful. But that's when Naruto didn't have any friends, when he didn't know how to get someone to hang out with him and how to earn their interest. Somehow he did with Sasuke and that was cool, but some things were cropping up that Naruto hadn't noticed before and they were beginning to bother him. Sasuke was like a blank slate. Naruto wasn't sure if he was passionate about anything, he seemed like he was just along for the ride.

"... He is my teammate. I don't really know what else to say."

And there it was. A vague, impersonal answer. Sure, it made Naruto feel good about himself knowing that Sasuke regarded him so well, but it also put him off, because this was sports. This shit has to be all or nothing.

"No, he isn't." Kabuto hammered the final nail in his decision. Naruto already knew he wouldn't be accepted, but now he finally heard it.

Sasuke, in the back of his mind, sometimes wondered if he was good at running because of the nightmares. Itachi used to tell him that he had night terrors since he was very small, about three or four. Then one day when he was six, they just stopped.

For the nightmares to end when he turned six seemed arbitrary, and yet the day that a small boy the color and disposition of sunshine had approached him only to fall on his face, Sasuke had slept well later that night. That boy wouldn't talk to him again until they were eight, and they wouldn't be best friends until they were eleven.

Sasuke hadn't had a single nightmare for six years, but then that field trip fucked with him.

Five years ago Itachi couldn't stand to live under their parents home anymore, for what reason both parties had kept from the younger Uchiha. Sasuke hadn't pried once. He hadn't the curiosity, for some reason.

Shortly before sundown, Sasuke arrived at his parent's house intent on speaking with his father. Or rummaging through his study if the old man wasn't here.

As Sasuke turned the knob and carefully pushed the door open, he was startled to witness the sheer pile-up inside, from the stacks of files from end to end of the old wooden bureau, to the partially hidden suspect map just above it. Even the floor was a minefield of acquired evidence tucked away in accordion folders and novella-length personal files. The wastebin was overflowing with fast food wrappers and disposable bento boxes.

Where's mom? Did she step out on Dad, too?

Sasuke made his own mental file to complete on another day: Look for mom and see if she won't go back to dad.

A small flicker of orange light peeked out from under a stack of files and Sasuke reasoned that it was his father's laptop. He wove over the mines and crossed the threshold, making it up to the bureau. He grabbed the stacks and lifted them away, then placed them carefully beside his feet. He opened the laptop and was met with a predictable obstacle: What was the PIN to dad's laptop?

"Damn…" Sasuke muttered, before typing through all the basics. Dad's birthday? No. Mom's? No. Itachi's? No. His? Nope. Anniversary? Which one? Wedding? Nope. A passing? Sasuke tried the day that Shishui died. That didn't work either. Sasuke almost palmed his forehead when he decided to try the month and day of The Nines Incident: 1010.

The laptop screen flashed and Sasuke was in. He could only assume that he may have to decrypt some of his files as well.

Was this why he was here? Snooping through city files? He just wanted to ask his dad about his nightmares, but he had no idea when he was going to return.

There's a SD card in the port. Sasuke clicked on the drive and fear rammed his heart to the wall. It was a video file and the same masked man from the arboretum was staring right through him from the preview image. A harsh light was shone upon his blurry figure, and behind him was a woman. He couldn't see all of her, just part of a green apron dress covered in blood, some red hair and her arm raised above her head. The background was dark and difficult to discern, but it was likely the base of that giant, dead vine where they found the bodies.

Sasuke's finger hovered over the touchpad. He ignored the bile churning to rise up his throat as he clicked the video file.

A feminine scream ripped through the speakers, heavy with sobbing, pained groans and panicked pleading. The door slammed behind Sasuke, startling him out of his skin. He turned around. His father was red in the face.

"SASUKE! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Fugaku, in his pressed suit and trenchcoat, stumbled over the threshold, fists cocked at his sides, ready to beat some sense into his nosy youngest.

Shitshitshit, I'm dead, I'm dead! Sasuke flipped his attention back to the laptop, intending to stop the horror show when the color of sunshine caught his eye beside the mortally abused young woman.

Sasuke cupped his mouth and sank to the floor. The stern retribution of his father's hand was the furthest thing from his mind as he puked on the dusty hardwood beneath the bureau.

Without a doubt, he had just seen Naruto's parents.