Title: Alternates
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.
Summary: Naruto has been alone for his entire life. Is it any surprise that with his creative imagination that he imagined up someone to be there with him? Schizo/MDP!Naruto.
Warnings: Angst, character death.
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As he huddled on the floor, curled up on himself, wishing for someone to help him, to hold him, to love him, he cried in fear and terror and pain.
There wasn't anyone for him. He was young, too young to be alone, but no one cared. Not about him.
Tears fell down his slim cheeks and mingled with the blood from his mouth, his missing teeth scattered across the floor. His nose was broken and his cheekbone was cracked. The six slash marks on his cheeks had been cut open again by poisoned kunai and were weeping a steady stream of blood down his neck.
Rain started to fall and he huddled closer in on himself, knowing there was nowhere for him to go for cover, to get out of the weather. Who would allow such a boy as himself into their home or under their porch?
As he was drenched by the torrents of rain that fell from the clouded sky, he wished and wished and wished. Just one person. A nice person. A nice lady, who was warm and smiling. Blonde hair like himself, he thought to himself as he imagined the woman walking down the alley towards him. Not very tall, maybe two feet taller than himself. He was short for his age, five years old and three feet, one inch. He didn't need someone tall, he just wanted someone able to hold him and hug him and tell him that everything was okay.
The nice lady, five foot one with blonde hair and a wide beautiful smile, knelt down by him and reached out and stroked his face.
"Oh, Naruto-chan," She whispered in his head sadly. Her voice was a husky, lone tone; an alto even if he didn't know the word to describe it.
Naruto Uzumaki leaned into the warm hand on his cheek. Under her gentle palm his cheeks healed and the bone mended. His teeth grew back and the blood stopped flowing. The rain never touched her.
"Kyoko-chan?" Naruto murmured, confused, through his bloody mouth and the woman's eyes took shape, a brilliant violet blue color. Her cheeks became marked like his were, though fainter. Her hair grew past her shoulders to her ribs and curled.
"Otouto," The woman's face transformed like molten metal from mid-twenties to sixteen-ish and her shoulders narrowed. "Why are you crying? I'm here now." She helped him into a seated position and sat in the pooled water, drawing him into her arms.
"Kyoko-chan?" Naruto smiled up at his older sister, "Thank you for coming." Naruto buried his face in her neck and she rocked him back and forth.
The warmth was unending and the rain stopped touching him. Instead, it flowed around him, like it was doing for her. Kyoko started to hum softly and Naruto dozed in her arms.
He was warm and he was loved.
He didn't care that she wasn't real; she was his sister, his caretaker, the center of his world.
Her hand petted his hair and combed through the tangled locks.
"Everything will be okay now, Naruto-chan," She whispered in her singing voice, "I've got you now. You'll never be alone again."
Sleep forced his eyes closed and Naruto slumped against the wall he was curled up next to. His fingers stroked unconsciously at the ground, an imaginary soft thigh under his head, a silk kimono under his fingers.
Kyoko sung him to sleep.
He never woke up.