I don't own anything...
Naruto giggled a little at what Minato and Kushina had just said. They looked shocked as they heard the hysteria in his giggle.
"What have you taught me? Can you tell me that?" Naruto's voice rose the longer he spoke. "What about the last time I got to celebrate my birthday with you? Do you remember that?"
Kushina and Minato glanced at each other, both hoping that the other would speak.
"Isn't that right. You wouldn't remember. Since they were born you stopped paying any sort of attention to me." Naruto stormed out the door, slamming it behind him and leaving behind his bewildered parents.
(Earlier on)
"Naruto where have you been?" Kushina demanded, hands on hips and a scowl marring her face.
He silently walked past, showing no sign of having heard his 'mother'.
"Naruto, I expect an answer." Kushina scolded him as she followed Naruto to his room.
"Oh. I was with friends." Naruto didn't look at her as he said this, knowing that it was a lie and hoping that his 'mother' didn't pick up on it.
"That's fine, but today was an important day Naruto. You should have been home."
"It's fine, you didn't need me here today. I would have just gotten in the way." Naruto finally looked at Kushina with no emotion showing on his face.
"You would not have! Besides, your younger brothers look up to you. They were expecting to see you on their birthday." Kushina started to scold him again, starting to get annoyed with the attitude of her eldest child.
"I couldn't turn down my friends after having had this planned for a few weeks, could I?" Naruto asked, looking back at his room, and moving over too his rest where he proceeded to read over the scrolls that he had taken from his parents person library and some books from the library. "I will wish Kaito and Sora a 'happy birthday' tomorrow."
Kushina nodded before leaving Naruto's room. He was finally able to start reading in peace when one red haired and one blonde haired rockets burst open his door.
"Naruto, come one!" Akane pulled on her older brothers arm, hoping to get him to move. Yet he only laughed until Suzuki tried pulling on his other arm.
"Yeah. Hurry up! We don't have all night!" Suzuki added, as she tried to pull him out of his chair along with her twin.
"If you stop trying to tear my arms off, I'll follow you two." Naruto murmured as the two let go of his arms.
After they had let go, knowing that there wasn't going to be much choice, he followed. What he would never tell them is that he would have followed them even without their antics and his big show of not wanting to go.
They lead him into the lounge where Kaito and Sora were sitting looking at their older brother.
"Happy Birthday, little munches." Naruto handed each of them a present, when they opened them that had gasped. Inside were twin necklaces, one had a red gem on the end and the other had purple.
"You had these fashioned after Tsunade baa-chan's didn't you?" Sora asked, looking over at his brother.
"Yeah. They also have the same properties as her one." Both Sora and Kaito leapt at Naruto and wrapped him in a life squeezing kind of hug.
Kushina walked into the lounge to see her three sons in a group hug. She smiled, seeing that her son had kept his word, although she thought that had something to do with the two girls sitting on the floor.
Minato also saw the happy scene when he walked through the door. Once his brothers released him, Naruto gave them a small smile before going back to his room. He was looking over what Sarutobi had given him. He saw a new jutsu scroll. Happy to be taught something new by his jiji, he snuck out the window right before dinner to go met one of the few people who hadn't actually forgotten him.
Naruto arrived at the Sarutobi manor, and was enveloped in a hug from the old man immediately. "Sorry we couldn't celebrate your birthday yesterday."
"It's alright jiji. Minato and Kushina would have been worried if you hadn't made it to Sora and Kaito's birthday dinner." No one flinched when they heard the way that Naruto spoke about his parents. They already knew that he hasn't been close to them for a long time.
"But you weren't there either." Tsunade rounded a corner and pulled Naruto into a hug of her own. "So did they like their presents when you gave them to them?"
Naruto smiled a little remembering his brothers' actions. "Yeah. They'll be happy when they see you next."
"So where did you disappear to last night?"
Naruto smiled sadly. "I went to see nee-chan."
Tsunade pulled him into another hug and whispered in his ear, "she would be so proud of you."
Both Sarutobi and Tsunade knew it wasn't normal, but had overlooked it as just being part of who Naruto was, as his nee-chan had long since died in the first shinobi war.
When Naruto was younger, Sarutobi had asked Ibiki and Inoichi to check Naruto's mental health. They were surprised when Inoichi told them what he had found.
Naruto had a barren mind scape except for one one tree. The tree looked as though it had already died. And as though it had caught fire by lightening, it was black. Not only that, there were cuts in the tree, old ones that had scared, and new ones that were even being made before Inoichi's eyes. Some were deep and some shallow, but all indicated to the worst of an unstable mind.
So yes, they knew he was unstable and were waiting for him to snap. Even though they were waiting for him to snap, they still wondered how he kept his sanity intact.
"So, Baa-chan, when are you going to start training me along with jiji?" Naruto stared at Tsunade with his puppy eyes, watching the moment that she caved. "Thanks Baa-chan!"
They could hear Sarutobi laugh as his students easy defeat. Even though he suspected that she had wanted to train him soon. After that they dug into dinner, and kept talking about Naruto's training.
Naruto snuck back inside his window, knowing that his parents never really took much notice of what was happening. He smiled when he saw both Akane and Suzuki asleep on his bed. He picked both up and went to put them back into their own beds.
He had just stepped back into the hallway when he saw Kushina waving for him to follow her.
His eyes narrowed but did as she wanted. They ended up in the lounge, with Naruto sitting opposite to Minato and Kushina. "What are we here to talk about?"
Naruto saw the grimace that both shared at his tone. "We were hoping that you would be able to help with training your younger sisters."
"We're also hoping that you would teach them the jutsus that we've taught y-" Minato had started to say but saw the look on his eldest a face.
Naruto giggled a little at what Minato and Kushina had just said. They looked shocked as they heard the hysteria in his giggle.
"With the... haha... What have you taught me? Can you tell me that?" Naruto's voice rose the longer he spoke. "What about the last time I got to celebrate my birthday with you? Do you remember that?"
Kushina and Minato glanced at each other, both hoping that the other would speak.
"Isn't that right. You wouldn't remember. Since they were born you stopped paying any sort of attention to me." Naruto stormed out the door, slamming it behind him and leaving behind his bewildered parents.
Naruto ran around to the Hokage monument, laughing the whole way there.
He felt a presence behind him and turned around with a maniacal grin. "Hehe… It's a nice night…"
Naruto stood while leaning to his right, the smile never leaving his face.
"Naruto?" Sarutobi hesitantly asked.
"What is it… hehe… jiji?" Naruto started to creep closer. "Come to… hehe… see if I'd… hehe… snapped?"
Sarutobi shuddered at Naruto's high voice. "No. I just wanted to check on you."
Naruto screamed at the tone of voice, sending a powerful chakra wave out. A crater formed around the boy, nearly pushing Sarutobi back. In an instant Minato was standing next to Saurtobi.
"Hehehe…" Naruto's voice started soft before growing louder and turning into a cackle.
Minato watched his son. He was sure that he couldn't hide his expression of worry from the boy. "Sarutobi, what has happened to my son?"
"Hehe… so this is what… hehehe… it takes for them… hehe… to worry…" Naruto started his cackle again, another powerful shock wave of chakra being sent out from his body. Minato was surprised at the amount of chakra Naruto held.
They could hear Naruto murmuring under his breath, hearing the occasional word like 'happy' and 'nee-chan'.
"What happened Naruto?" Sarutobi tried to look him in the eye, but Naruto's eyes were roving over them.
Naruto wasn't answering him though and his eyes had stopped on Minato. Naruto had lunged at him, moving faster than he had with Sarutobi in their training practices. Naruto's laugh was the only sound that could be heard.
Minato being able to keep up with his sons speed, was able to move out of the way. He turned to look at his son who had tilted back at the waist and neck to see his father.
"Minato, what happened at your house?" Sarutobi had asked while trying to help in fending off Naruto.
"Kushina and I had asked Naruto if he wanted to help in training Suzuki and Akane with what we had taught him." Minato responded softly.
"That was kind of… hehe… stupid. Don't you… hehe… think, jiji?" Naruto finally had his eyes locked on Sarutobi. "Hehe… what they taught… hehe… me."
Once his eyes had landed on Naruto, Sarutobi had tried to put him in a genjutsu, only for that to fail.
Naruto screamed again, forcing himself out of the genjutsu. His somewhat explosive chakra pushing Minato and Saurtobi back this time.
ANBU had come rushing to surround the boy. Ibiki and Inoichi with them. "So it has finally happened?" Inoichi looked towards Sarutobi as he landed next to him.
The old man nodded, waiting for Tsunade to show up as well. She had a moment later, looking at her old sensei for conformation.
She moved closer to the boy, his eyes roving over her body giving her the creeps. "Why now?"
Naruto cackled again. "Hehe…"
Naruto moved towards Tsunade, doing what none had predicted, wrapping himself in her arms. "Hehe… You should… hehe… hurry, if you really… hehe… want to help."
Tsunade understood and quickly knocked him out before sending an electric shock wave through his nervous system, mixing all the commands sent from his brain to his limbs in case he should wake up.
"Inoichi, take a look into the boy's mind again." Tsunade ordered him. "Ibiki, get over here and help me to hold him down should he wake up."
Ibiki did as the kunoichi wanted, not in any sort of hurry to invoke her wrath.
They watched as Inoichi entered Naruto's mind. Both the bodies of the man and boy staying still. Inoichi opened his eyes slowly. "The tree has split, there is no longer anything to be done."
Tsunade pulled Naruto's body closer to her. "If only I could have helped you before."
Tsunade was watching the boy that they had put inside a cell carefully, waiting for the moment that he might stir. When it finally did come, the boy had become a danger to himself as well as anyone who had tried to go in there to try and restrain him. He had a crazy look in his eyes, and the cackle wouldn't stop. Tsunade went in there, the only one who he wouldn't outright attack straight away. She used that to her advantage, knocking him out before putting on restraints that would sap his energy, and chakra, hopefully making him less excitable when someone walked through the door. It didn't happen the way they wanted though, now he was even more of a danger to himself. They wouldn't let his family near him, in fear that he would try something.
After weeks of the near isolation, nothing had changed, the boy only sat in there, mumbling way under his breath, eyes roving around the room, even the futile attempt to escape. At one point, Tsunade realized that the boy they all knew was gone forever. Now all that was left was the broken child in front of them.
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