Title: Old Curses and New Beginnings
Summary: AU What if the Kyuubi attack had been on September 12th instead of October 10th? Smart/Strong/LogicalNaruto! NaruOCthreesome! NarutoOCteam! Sandaime/Sakura/Council bashing!
Rating: M [for gore, swearing and possible future lemons]
Disclaimer: I don't own the anime Naruto, only this fanfiction, everyone please enjoy.
Old curses and New beginnings – Ch1
Blood, sweat and tears.
He had shed blood, sweat and tears to get where he was, to be able to do most mid to high Chuunin level skills. He had to work for everything, he used whatever resources he could from using a henge to get into Konoha's public library to searching through the trash of Clan compounds to get as much information as he could.
He could not afford to be ignorant when pretty much every single citizen was out to use the tiniest excuse to get rid of his existence.
He knew why now, on this cold night after running into a civilian drunkard, he was supposedly "housing" a demon which the Sandaime Hokage explained to the population of Konohagakure that the Yondaime Hokage didn't really kill the Kyuubi in the legendry attack of the Kyuubi No Yoko but died using all of his power to seal it in an infant.
That infant was the only survivor from a slaughtered Clan of travelling Nomads that were unfortunate enough to stumble near the Kyuubi's path, all the children and older died except for the infants but by the time help arrived, all the infants except for him had been killed by hungry, panicking animals.
Nothing could be done to stop the Kyuubi No Yoko, all women that had happened to be close to giving birth, in the process or already done so, had died from feeling so weak and from the exhaustion of their bodies which couldn't handle the intense KI of the Kyuubi's chakra.
The orphanage, where most of those children whose mother's died that were taken, was also, by pure chance, one of the first buildings to be destroyed.
There no newborn children that could survive having the Kyuubi No Yoko sealed inside them, and so, little Naruto, the last of the discovered Ophiuchus Clan, the same Clan Orochimaru came from, the Snake Charmers, having been recently born guessing from his size and weight, was the only hope of sealing the Kyuubi away.
And that night, on the 12th of September, Naruto Ophiuchus became the container of the Kyuubi No Yoko and, if being distantly related to the Nuke-Nin Orochimaru didn't make him an outcast already, being a Jinchuuriki sure did.
So, throughout his life, Naruto had learned to become strong enough to defend himself from his rather nasty assailants. Due to the "he's a relative of a traitor! He'll betray us all!" excuse to other children, most children other than the Naras and Akimichis wanted to play with him.
So he was somewhat socially inept but hey, it could be worse.
So here young Naruto was, staring out at the river within the forest of death, with his back kept against a tree, after all, it wouldn't do to get so far to be killed now.
He sighed and massaged his aching forehead, everything made more sense now that the xplanation to Kyuubi was involved and why it took so long for him to be able to use Genjutsu despite how much he enjoyed it.
It would also explain why he had such large Chakra reserves; no other 12 year olds had that much chakra!
His golden yellow eyes stared at the glittering water and blinked, the sound of a person he knew well brought him out of his thoughts. Naruto brushed the long raven black locks of hair covering his scarred and blind left eye further together to hide the mark of his carelessness during one of his attempted escapes from a mob when he was 8.
"You don't need to do that, Naruto, I'm not here to judge you."
"I know, it's a force of habit."
The person shrugged and sat down next to the equally dark haired Naruto Ophiuchus; "If they judge you for something beyond your control, then who cares? They're too troublesome to worry over."
They meaning everyone else outside Naruto's small group of friends and people he could trust.
"So you know about my fuzzy free-loader?" Naruto asked as he turned to look at his tanned, dark haired and dark eyed friend Shikamaru Nara.
Shikamaru nodded, his ponytail bobbing at his careless movement, his narrow face kept his usual lazy expression but his dark brown eyes held the worry the boy truly felt for his friend. "Yeah."
What else was there to say?
The pale boy with ever inky black hair smiled bitterly, revealing his sharp fangs. "Are you scared, now that you know?"
"I'm scared of the fox, yes, but not of you," Shikamaru replied, he noticed how Naruto tensed at first then relaxed.
Some wounds never truly heal.
"Kaa-san's worried about you," Shikamaru probed, hoping his friend would come to his home with him for even a little while to keep his crazy mother calm.
Naruto chuckled, knowing Shikamaru long enough to know when he was probing for Naruto to save him from the wrath of his anti-lazy mother. "Let's go and reassure her, then?"
Naruto had never seen his friend so impatient to get going in all his life.
Naruto woke the next day in his bed which he made in his hand-made tree-house within the Forest of Death, near the lake he was at yesterday. He used the water he collected from the river yesterday to clean his body off with a sponge and some soap that Shikamaru's mother had given him, as well as some shampoo to wash his emo-styled hair.
The back of his hair was set out in several layers and was wavy and messy, even when he combed through it and the long locks of hair that covered his blind eye was pretty much in the same condition, minus being layered.
Being an Ophiuchus, he could obviously talk the original snake language, only snake summons could speak a human's language and since Orochimaru held the snake contract, Naruto just made friends with the everyday snakes who, in some ways, were more sly than their summon counterparts.
Naruto smiled as he felt his little friend Kurohime, a poisonous black tree snake, climbed up his arm and wrapped around his shoulders snugly. "Hello Naruto-kun," she hissed in snake-tongue and Naruto scratched her forehead before he grabbed his toothbrush and, using some of the water from the large bottle almost 2/3 the size of his back, he brushed his teeth and got a little more water to use it in the small cooking pot in the centre of the room.
His cooking pot was held above a small fire via iron stand and it was in a small boxed in area set below the floor boards which could be easily covered up to hide when he left, the fire was surrounded by stones and the wood nearby the fire was coated in fire-proof varnish to stop possible house-fires.
Naruto pulled out some instant ramen from his own hand-made cupboards and put it in the pot. He didn't have electricity so he couldn't keep anything refrigerated, hence all he had was dry junk food that he could easily put to boil and he would have to go to Ichiraku's Ramen Stand if he wanted something healthier.
Normally he would go to Ichiraku's and eat as much as he could to make up for the lack of customers it got but he wanted to be on time for Team assignments, he had passed with average grades in the exam that took place last week.
"Why must you eat that junk?" Kurohime hissed in disgust, her tongue tasting what her nose couldn't smell.
"Because I want to make sure I'm on time for the Team Assignments," the young Ophiuchus replied tiredly.
"Pft, you'll just be put with one of the top level students and then one of the bottom level ones," Kurohime hissed and Naruto nodded in agreement.
"Even so, I need to at least know who I'm with so I don't make a fool of myself," Naruto retorted, Kurohime just hated humans in general, hence why she was putting up such a fuss.
The little snake looked like she was pouting of all things. "Fine," she sulked, resting her head on top of Naruto's messy hair whilst he chuckled in amusement.
Once Naruto cleaned up for a second time, he grabbed his ninja gear and sealed them into a scroll, minus his weapon pouches which he attatched to his legs. Afterwards, Naruto used the tree walking exercise that he learned last year from the help of the Naras and jumped from tree to tree towards the edge of the Forest of Death and towards the Academy.
Once Naruto arrived, he walked straight to his classroom with Kurohime still on his head, and sat near Chouji and Shikamaru, the latter catching on any sleep he missed thanks to Chouji more than likely dragging his best friend along out of nervousness and anticipation.
"Hey Chouji, Shikamaru," Naruto murmured, no wanting to draw more attention than what he was already getting.
Sasuke Uchiha and in Naruto's eyes the worst bastard in society would watch him from afar, sometimes the Uchiha would even blush when he was caught by Naruto's distant yellow eye. It was obvious to everyone but the civilian council and his fan-girls that Sasuke Uchiha was gay or at least Bisexual and had a thing for the mysterious outcast Naruto Ophiuchus.
However Naruto considered it an attraction towards power, most Uchihas, male or female loved powerful potential mates but because of how Sasuke was obsessed in getting as much power as he could to kill Itachi, Naruto would unlikely take Sasuke's advances seriously, even if he did, Sasuke was one of those hidden shy types, he would be cruel to hide his shyness which would make it hard for Naruto to want to bother with him. Yes, Sasuke had hidden very well behind a mask of cruelty and arrogance so he wouldn't be hurt and used only for his reputation and wealth.
Shino Aburame who was much like Naruto, he was mysterious and rarely talked, more to do with the fact everyone found him creepy because of his bugs and so he poured himself into studying and learning Clan jutsu which gave him an advanced vocabulary, this caused him to become even more of an outcast.
The only two other people there were a girl and a boy, both of whom made Naruto blush. These two people were Sumire [translation; "Clear and lovely"] Chiba [translation; "Thousand Feathers"]. She would have been a beauty if she tried; she hid behind square framed glasses, large ones that made her dark brown eyes look too wide, and she wore a rather plain grey kimono styled shirt that hide her hands, which one the rare occurrence they were seen, were completely hidden beneath bandages. She tied her wavy raven black hair into a plate and she wore baggy plain faded black trousers tucked into black leather boots that hid the shape of her legs.
She wasn't shy, she just followed the quote; "a ninja's greatest tactic is stealth" and so she wore plain baggy clothes to blend in the crowd much better, however that didn't help her already bad fashion sense in the least. Naruto only knew a little about her but he liked her a lot cause she was practical and even though she could be a tad distant, she could hold her ground – for an Academy student – and she had a good head on her shoulders, Naruto was curious about her.
Naruto knew that, going into puberty, he'd be curious about both sexes and right now, he felt like he wouldn't mind trying something in the future with this guy; Taiki [translation; means "Large Radience"] Shimizu. His skin was tanned but not overly so like Sumire, Taiki was fairly tall for his age with silvery white hair and icy blue eyes that regarded everyone with cautious curiosity.
Taiki was silent, he rarely spoke out but when he did, his deep voice, which had broken early, would often gather attention easily and he showed off his bare chest by leaving his sleeveless dark green jacket open and he also wore dark brown trousers that were neither baggy, but not tight. He was confident but he was practical too and he was also one of the popular kids.
"Get out of my way Ino-pig!"
There was a screeching match in the corridor and both of Sasuke's biggest fan-girls, Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka tumbled through the door, arguing about who was first.
Sakura Haruno was a pink haired girl with a large forehead with great intelligence and potential, it was however wasted due to peer pressure to stay slim – hence her rather ridiculous diet – and the fact she was a fangirl that kept her long hair loose – which could lead her to getting captured if her hair was grabbed, plus, it would block her eyesight in a fight on a windy day and that could be fatal. She was smart but lacked common sense, she was a complete oxymoron.
Ino Yamanaka trained because she noticed that Sasuke liked powerful women but she still kept up the diet which made her energy levels really low... that heightened miraculously whenever she was given the chance to go shopping. She had more common sense than Sakura as she kept her long hair tied back and she wore more durable clothing too. However unlike Sakura, she wasn't as intelligent which she made up for from the experience of her training.
Soon others filed into the classroom, the noise escalated much to poor Kurohime's dismay. "Please let me bite them!" The proud little snake begged, much to Naruto's amusement.
"As much as I would love to I can't let you."
"Just one, just one little bite but noooooooooooo!" Kurohime grumbled and sulked on top of Naruto's head which made the raven haired orphan chuckle quietly.
"Kurohime's putting up a fuss again?" Shikamaru questioned whilst looking up warily at the little black snake that seemed to be glaring at him from atop Naruto's head.
"Yeah," Naruto answered as Iruka, one of the school's many senseis/teachers, walked into the room and at his desk and, unlike the usual continued ruckus the students would cause, all fell silent.
"Congratulations all of you for passing the exam," Iruka begin. "Although it pains me to let you all go, I'm very proud of you all; achieve your hopes and dreams. Now, for the teams..." And so, the Teams were announced, everyone was sorted into different teams, some reacted gracefully and others... not so gracefully.
"Team 6 is Naruto Ophiuchus, Sumire Chiba and Taiki Shimizu." Naruto did a mental happy dance at who he was set with, but at the same time, he was worried about what they thought of him being a relative to the traitor Orochimaru as well as what some drunken shinobi and civilians may try against them. "Your Sensei is Kumiko Yamaguchi."
Kumiko Yamaguchi, Naruto had heard of her, apparently she was kicked out of her Clan, the Yamaguchi, for being an open Lesbian. Whether this was true or not Naruto wasn't sure, after all, this information came out of a gossip's mouth and you can't truly trust anything a gossip says since they'll bitch about anything they could.
"Team 7 is Sai, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha," Naruto felt sorry for the Uchiha. "And your sensei is Kakashi Hatake." Now he felt even sorrier for the Uchiha. "Team 8 is Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga and Kiba Inuzuka, your sensei is Kurenai Yuuhi..."
The list went on and Naruto actually smiled; everything seemed to be going well for him today. So, he walked over to his new team-mates, not before bidding Shikamaru and Chouji a quick "see ya later", and tried his best to give as much a friendly smile as he could without revealing his fangs which would often put people off him.
"Hello," Naruto introduced himself and then mentally smacked himself in the head; he was being way too formal.
"Um, hey," Taiki replied with a raised eyebrow at the long haired raven whilst Sumire gave him a small smile and a slightly timid wave.
"I was wondering; would you like to go to have lunch outside? It's a wonderful day," Naruto questioned, trying with all his might not to show how nervous he was.
Taiki shrugged; "Sure, let's go." He walked outside, carrying the small cardboard lunch box with him. Sumire squeaked out an "okay" and hurried after Taiki, her footsteps quick and slightly unsteady. Naruto followed, making sure to walk beside them within their sight so that they can keep an eye on him should they feel wary of him.
"Ya know..." Taiki turned to look at Naruto, his icy blue eyes piercing into Naruto's bright yellow ones. "I never thought of you to be a social type."
"I'm not usually," Naruto agreed, continuing to keep eye contact with his male counter-part. "But considering we're going to be on a working team together, we should at least get to know each other and trust each other."
"Good point," Sumire agreed, her voice was soft like chining silver bells being rocked in the breeze.
Taiki nodded at both, whether in agreement or respect, neither Naruto or Sumire were sure.
"We haven't properly introduced ourselves," Sumire spoke up after an awkward silence. "I'm Sumire Chiba."
Naruto forced out a smile, his pale cheeks giving out a tint of pink; "I'm Naruto Ophiuchus, pleasure to meet you Sumire-san," he stopped them all by grasping Sumire's hand, moving the sleeve up, and kissed her bandaged hand.
Sumire blushed. "D-ditto."
"I never pegged you as a flirt either," both the dark haired team-mates turned an interesting shade of red at Taiki's rather blunt comment.
"Buzz off!"
Hey peeps, I know I should be finishing my King of Libra Story, but I've had this idea stuck in my head for ages and wanted to get it out so I can concentrate on King of Libra.
Please review only for constructive criticism, I'll be purposefully slower if you tell me to hurry up, I work at my own pace, got it?
Enjoy your day.