How's it going ? Sakrosankt here with a brand new story, In Utter Darkness.
Warning: Mild swearing and slightly graphic scenes. Be prepared.
Without further ado, please enjoy!
"Speaking."
'Thinking.'
"Bijuu speaking."
'Bijuu thinking.'
Chapter 1: In Utter Darkness
"Haha! Look at Uzumaki! He's so stupid! Haha!" Naruto grunted as he blocked another punch from his opponent: a boy the same age as him. They were surrounded by their fellow orphanage members as the crowd created a ring where he and the other boy fought until he dropped. Or at least, that's what the others expected. At 7 years of age, he was shorter and thinner than average, and his small stature proved disadvantageous in his fight against the other boy who stood half a head taller. "Get him, Keigo!"
Keigo reeled his hand back and prepared to punch Naruto in the gut, leaving his front exposed. He wasn't prepared for the smaller boy to retaliate with a swift jab to the face.
"Agh!" Keigo lost his balance, and as he tumbled to the floor, the ring growing larger to accommodate his fall. He landed with a thud when his back hit the hardwood floor. "You're dead Uzumaki!"
As Keigo tried to sit back up, Naruto leapt onto the boy's chest and smashed the back of Keigo's head back onto the ground, eliciting a series of "Oohs" and "Ahs". Naruto brought his fist down on the boy's face, aiming for his jaw. Despite the easy hits, Naruto's lack of strength made it difficult for him to do any serious damage. Only a few bruises appeared on Keigo's cheeks.
"Get up Keigo! Beat Uzumaki up! He's weak!" The crowd seemed to raise Keigo's confidence and morale as he pushed Naruto off in a burst of strength. Getting up from the savage beating, Keigo leapt at the blonde and delivered a swift blow to the gut. And as Naruto doubled over in pain, Keigo delivered a kick to the side. This time, it was Naruto who hit the hardwood floor in pain.
Quickly recovering, he managed to scramble some sort of guard as Keigo threw another punch. Blocking it with his arm caused him to take a few steps back to regain his balance. Once again, the ring grew larger to give the two combatants more space.
'I need to catch him off guard. He needs to reel his hand back for another punch. That'll leave him exposed again.'
Naruto let down his guard to bait the larger boy's punch. Seeing that action, Keigo reeled back to deliver a powerful punch that would probably end the fight if it landed, yet Keigo fell right into Naruto's trap. As Keigo drew back, Naruto gave another swift jab at his face, yet this time, Keigo didn't fall over. Anticipating that move, Keigo took a large step back to keep himself steady. He expected the boy to leap at him like before. What he didn't expect, however, was the swift kick to the groin.
"What! Agh!" As Keigo doubled over, clutching his groin, Naruto brought his knee up, and smashed it into Keigo's face. A sickening crunch could be heard as his hard kneecap came into contact with the other boy's nose.
"Ahh! Blood!" A girl screamed as the ring began to dissipate, the crowd, slowly backing off. The girl pointed to Keigo's battered form on the floor, one hand on his groin and the other in front of his face. Blood seeped from the cracks in his hands – the ones on his face – indicating a broken nose.
Naruto walked up and over the broken body of the boy he had just fought, his own body covered in splotches of purple: heavy bruising. He snarled at the crowd and bared is teeth. With his mangled clothes and bloodied knuckles, he gave off a menacing aura that caused the crowd to separate and allow him through. They were scared, and they should be.
XXXX
'What is happening to me…' Naruto sat alone on his large cot, staring at his hands. The orphanage dormitories were two per room, but nobody wanted to room with Uzumaki Naruto. In fact, nobody wanted to get anywhere near him, hence the empty rooms to the left and right. 'Why does it hurt so much…'
It wasn't a physical pain. He had suffered physical abuse plenty of times, either to bullies or adults who would lash out at him when he made a mistake. No, what he felt was a deep seated pain in his chest, one that was pulling and threatening to rip his heart out from the inside. In his mind, he saw the broken body of Keigo, clutching himself in pain, the sheer terror on his face when he looked at Naruto. They called him a monster. Perhaps he was one.
Yelling in frustration, he punched the brick walls of his room. The hard surface only proved to damage his already bruiser knuckles, causing them to bleed as the hard stone cut into his skin. Yet he felt nothing. His mind, too clouded with thoughts of his actions, could not register his nerves as he bashed away at the wall. 'As if it was Keigo's face.' And he could see the face of Keigo on the wall, the small crack, right where Keigo's nose should be.
'This is sick. Why do they keep coming for me? If they would just stop, nobody would get hurt. Not me, not them.' A tear began to form in the corner of his eye: the loneliness was consuming. 'All the parents hate me. Anyone who tries to be my friend ends up learning I'm a monster and leaves. Anyone who tries to fight me only gets hurt. Everyone else is just afraid.'
He curled up on his cot and wept for himself, and within minutes, he was asleep.
XXXX
"Hey, Uzumaki!" Naruto turned around to see a group of boys approaching him. He was in the orphanage cafeteria, sitting in his corner alone. From the looks of it, the group consisted of kids that were much larger than Keigo. 'They must be the teens of the orphanage. They never come down here.' With the orphanage built by layers with older children on the higher levels, Naruto never expected one of the older kids to come down. It's not like it wasn't allowed. It's just that nobody wants to associate with those much younger than them.
"What do you want?" Naruto spat back before continuing his meal of poorly made tasteless soup. He brought the bowl up to drink, but it was knocked out of his hands. The bowl dropped and smashed into pieces as it hit the floor, the shards of glass scratched the hardwood.
"I know what you did to Keigo." Naruto glared at the boy who addressed him. The older boy stood a foot taller and looked much bulkier. If he was going to fight, he was probably going to lose. Not only was his body at a complete disadvantage, the bruises and injuries he suffered from Keigo were still there. He might heal fast, but one night wasn't enough to wash away all his injuries. His muscles were still sore from the fight. "You know who I am?"
Naruto shook his head. He didn't know anybody older than him. Other than meeting with the Hokage and the occasional doctor, he didn't go out much.
"The name's Nobu. Ever heard of it?" Naruto shook his head again. Whoever this person was, he must have been hot shit in the older groups if he thought his reputation would spread down to the younger kids. "I'm Keigo's brother, and the strongest person in this orphanage."
'Oh crap.' Naruto mentally cursed. It seems like Keigo talked to his older brother about the fight and now his brother was here to exact revenge. This was going to be bad.
Nobu grabbed Naruto's shirt and brought him off the ground, the younger boy's legs flailed desperately to hit his attacker. Laughing, Nobu threw Naruto onto the ground, the latter landing on the ground in a twisted heap.
"This is for breaking my little brother's nose!" Before Naruto could even recover, Nobu kicked him in the stomach. With the strength of a boy twice Naruto's age, Nobu delivered a kick with enough force to completely knock the wind straight out of the injured boy. Naruto rolled on his back and clutched his stomach in pain. "You broke his nose so it's only fitting that I break your face."
Nobu jumped onto Naruto and straddled the younger boy's bottom half before reeling back and throwing a powerful punch at the younger boy's face. Naruto's head snapped to the side as his cheeks felt the impact from Nobu's hook. Another one came, this time from the other side. And another. And another. He could feel blood rushing into his mouth as Nobu savagely beat the boy's jaw. By the time it was over, Naruto's jaw had turned black from internal bleeding and was so swollen he could no longer talk.
"And this. This is so you'll never do anything like that again." Naruto gurgled with a mouthful of blood as his eyes locked onto Nobu's hand. Or more specifically, the object in his hand. Nobu had grabbed a long shard of glass from the broken plate. The sharp edges dug into Nobu's hand, drawing small streams of blood, but the older boy didn't seem to care. The damage it would do to Naruto far outweighed any injury that the older boy would sustain. "Now let's see, where should we put this?"
Naruto's eyes widened in fear. 'And they called me a monster.' Was he going to die? Perhaps it was for the best. He had nothing to live for, nobody to care for. He merely passed each day with a single purpose in mind: survive. That was it. As long as he could see the next day. The only dream he ever had was to be a ninja of Konoha, a member of the elite force that kept the city safe. The elite force that operated under his only benefactor, the Hokage himself. Yet not all was meant to be, it seems. 'So this is the end.'
Nobu clutched the shard of glass and brought it down on the fallen boy. A maniacal grin was plastered on the older boy's face as the shard descended into the flesh of the younger one, and the only scream was drowned out by a series of boisterous laughter from the rest of the older gang.
Naruto's vision blurred and before he could register what happened, the right side of his vision disappeared. Completely stunned and unaware, Naruto's left eye turned to his right, but was blocked by a giant shard of glass, embedded in the socket of his right eye. He froze. Time seemed to stop as his mind tried to register everything that had happened. He had been stabbed; stabbed in his right eye. That's why he lost vision. That was why half of his field of view turned black. Because he had lost an eye.
And soon, the rest of his vision disappeared as well as he sank into unconsciousness. Only a small laughing could be heard, but it was faint and seemed far away. He slipped into the darkness.
XXXX
Naruto awoke, only to sputter and choke as a flood of water entered his lungs. Coughing, he spit out the inhaled water and stood up, only to realize he had both fields of vision. More exploration allowed him to discover his jaw was completely unhurt and in perfect condition. 'What in the world?'
As he analyzed his surroundings, he deduced he was in the tunnels of a sewer system. Which means the water he had inhaled was probably sewage. 'Yuck.' Ignoring the fact, he looked around for any signs of Nobu or his gang, yet all he saw was the long stretch of the tunnel. One end had been blocked off by collapsed rubble, forming an impassable barrier. Whatever this was, it only gave him one route to go in.
Upon reaching the end of the tunnel, Naruto was brought to a dark room with barely any lighting. The high ceilings disappeared into the darkness and the hanging light bulbs on barely illuminated the spacious enclosure. As he stepped in, he felt something different, something off. As if another person was nearby. He looked up, only to see two gleaming eyes and a rows full of razor sharp teeth.
"Ah! What the hell!" Completely startled, he screamed as he fell backwards, onto the wet floor.
"Welcome to my humble abode, warden."The voice sent a shiver of fear down Naruto's spine.
"W-w-who…?" Naruto could barely speak with his entire body shaking at the thing before him.
"Speak." It spoke with authority and conviction. Steeling his nerves, Naruto stood up and tried again.
"Who are you?" His question only elicited a deep booming laugh that resonated and echoed through the chamber.
"I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune, although I expected you to at least know your tenants."
'Kyuubi.' That single word struck fear into the hearts of everyone in Konoha. Not even a decade ago, the demon had rampaged through the village and had caused the death of many of the finest shinobi the world had ever seen, including the Yondaime Hokage. What was perhaps one of the greatest entities to have ever existed doing in a sewer?
Yet the boy's largest source of confusion came from the names the Kyuubi used for himself and Naruto. 'Warden? Tenants? This doesn't make any sense…'
"Aren't you…dead?" The boy had been told the Yondaime had defeated the fox in glorious combat, ending with the loss of both lives. Perhaps it made sense. If the fox was dead, and he's meeting the fox, then it must mean that he must be dead as well. His hand reached up and covered is right eye, remembering the attack from Nobu and his gang. "I was stabbed. If you're dead, and I'm meeting you, then I must be dead too."
"Come here…" Naruto looked at the visage of the fox before taking a few steps forward. As he moved closer, the darkness began to clear and he could make out hundreds of lines stretching from the ground into the darkness of the ceiling. Upon closer inspection, Naruto saw that they were steel bars. "Yes, come and let me show you just how dead we are!"
Upon taking another step closer to the fox, Naruto's instincts sent warnings throughout his entire body, causing him to take a step backwards, and none too soon. A blur of orange appeared in Naruto's vision and was followed by a resonating clang! A giant paw had lashed out at the boy, only to be stopped inches from his face by the steel bars.
"Lucky." The fox retracted his paw as the row of teeth twisted into what seemed like a smirk. "To answer your question, no. We are not dead."
Not dead. At least that was a reliever. If not in the afterlife, then where? The fox seemed to read Naruto's mind as it answered his question.
"We are in your mind. More specifically, the seal."
"What seal?"The fox let out a sigh and mentally slapped his face with his paw. Perhaps the boy was truly unaware of the circumstances of his condition.
"Your Yondaime couldn't kill me. That's impossible. I am chakra incarnate. No, what he did was much worse. He sealed me into you." The fox rose one paw and pointed to something in the air. Naruto raised his head and saw two giant handles, connected together with a padlock. On the padlock was a piece of paper with intricate designs and symbols crisscrossing and weaving in strange ways Naruto had never seen before; the seal.
"What in Kami's name?"
"Now you understand? I am trapped in this infernal cage – your body. I can't get out, I can't escape, I can't do anything!" The fox grabbed the bars and rattled them in an attempt to rip them from the ground. Despite a bijuu's strength, the bars remained fixed.
"What happens to you if I die?" Naruto recalled Nobu's attack and how his eye and beaten face were spewing blood across the floor. He was surprised the shard didn't kill him outright, but it was nothing to complain about. He might live for another few hours, but it seemed bad. "I'm dying, aren't I?"
"That you are. If you die with me sealed? Well, shit. I'll probably reincarnate after a long time. Your Yondaime's Shiki Fujin is a strange one, indeed. It hinders my ability to reform, although given a century or two I'd be back."
"Is that why you tried to kill me?"
"This seal won't let me kill you, even if I tried. Even if I wanted to, these steel bars will hold me back. Unless of course, you let me out…" He trailed off.
"And why would I do that?"
"Because you're dying. Because as we speak, you are lying on the floor bleeding to death while Nobu and his goons laugh as you slip away. Now tell me, why wouldn't you?"
"You'll attack the village again, won't you? You'll kill everyone here."
"Maybe, but I never planned to attack Konoha. Blame the man with the Sharingan: Uchiha Madara. But I might get a little bit of revenge for keeping me in here for 7 years."
"How about Nobu and his gang?" The fox raised an eyebrow at the statement.
"Is that an offering?"
"Save me. Protect me, and I'll let you kill my enemies."
The fox laughed at the deal. He would gain some freedom in exchange for the blood of a few bullies. Easiest bargain he was going to get.
"And I want your eye. Your damaged one." The fox's claw pointed at Naruto's right eye.
"Why would you want that?"
"You're blind in that eye. It doesn't matter what I do to heal it. It doesn't matter what any of your medical ninja do. It's gone. What I can do, however, is give you one of mine."
"What? Are you serious?"
"But of course. Think of it like a memoire of our deal. Give me enemies, and I'll give you sight. Stop fighting, and you'll stop seeing."
If the Kyuubi was going to allow him to see another day, then it would be well worth the price. He was even getting sight back. What more could he possibly ask for. "Deal."
"Then come." This time, the Kyuubi held out a paw and beckoned Naruto to come closer. Naruto grabbed a sharp claw and pulled himself onto the fox's palm.
"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto addressed himself and bowed.
"Kurama." And Naruto saw only darkness as he was brought into the cage. "This is our covenant."
XXXX
Nobu stopped laughing as he felt an intense wave of pressure push him and his gang to their knees. He turned to see Naruto getting up, and pulling the glass out of his eye. A red aura enveloped his body as the Kyuubi's chakra poured out. "Assuming direct control."
"You are Nobu, correct?" The Kyuubi didn't even need to ask. From the blood on his clothes and hands, it was quite obvious this boy was the perpetrator.
"Who are you?"
"Me? I'm Uzumaki Naruto. He was the one who wanted your blood, but I'm the one who's going to take it."
And the room was filled with high pitched screams and shouts as the floor and tables were painted a crimson red.
Whoo! That was intense. If you've gotten this far, then it means you're ready to handle anything I dish out. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review and comment on anything. Your likes, your dislikes, your hobbies -. Whoops. That last one shouldn't have been there. Anyways, I'll be waiting on your input. Tell me what you think.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Cookie for anyone who gets a reference I made in this chapter and where it's from.
-Sakrosankt
