Not a word
Summery: not all children are born healthy, some develop problems, this is a story of one of these children, his name is Naruto and he was born without a voice.
Disclaimer: Yo, if you can't figure it out that I do not own Naruto then you are a Baka. But what ever, I don't own Naruto, for if I did; Orochimaru would be making me a nice bowl of ramen.
Onwards
Chapter 1
A small boy walked down a seemingly deserted street, in his hands, a small package. This boy looked at the setting sun with brilliant blue eyes, and the crimson hues reflected off his golden hair. The disappearing light shined on his cheeks to show three lines, imitating whiskers. He smiled as he hugged the package, almost in a protective manner.
Little did he know, he was being followed. When Naruto turned the corner a large group of angry villagers moved in for an attack. They quickly beat him to the ground and started to pierce his body with sharp implements.
As the villagers crowded around, they yelled viscously, crying out for the demon's death. Naruto's body contorted with pain, as he let out a silent scream.
One man began to chant, "die demon die" and others soon joined in as the attacks became more frequent. They then started to throw things at the bloodied boy, anything and everything. Before Naruto fell unconscious he had one thought run through his mind 'why?'
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The Hokage was furious, an Anbu found Naruto abandoned in an alleyway, he was knocked out and barely alive. If the Anbu didn't sense Naruto's fluctuating charka in the alley, Naruto would have probably died over night.
The Sandaime signed, the child had no voice, so he couldn't attract attention easily and thus being a much easier target. The Hokage had arranged for someone to take in the child and train him, but no one would have anything to do with the Kyubi carrier. And he was running out of options.
There were still two people that might be willing o take him, his former students Tsunade and Jiraiya. The only problem was that neither has been here in the last few years. But he was confident that the sannin's certain interests would make them easy for his Anbu to find them.
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Naruto was currently in the hospital; he had numerous gashes all over his body, not to mention a few badly broken bones. The nurses flat out refused to take care of him, thus earning them a dock in pay, so the nurses were forced to take care of him.
They did do their job, but no one said they had to be nice, so they made the process of healing Naruto. When they had to align the bones, for them to heal properly they did this without painkillers and without knocking the boy out. Sure it was painful but the thing that really got to Naruto was the cold glared that the nurses gave him. He thought he'd be used to them now, but they still sent shivers down his spine.
Naruto was currently sitting up in his bed, watching one of his many cuts slowly fade away; it took about 30 minutes for a smaller cut to heal. As he looked at another one repeat the same process, the door opened, revealing the Hokage and another man. He had long spiky white hair and two red tattoos running down from the bottom of his eyes to the edge of his jaw.
"Naruto how are you feeling?" The Hokage asked.
Naruto just stared blankly at the old men.
Thinking it meant 'ok' he continued "well anyway, I'm here to introduce you to your new sensei" The Sandaime faced the other man" this is Jiraiya"
"Yo kid" replied Jiraiya.
"You will be traveling with him as he train you to become a shinobi and to be able to communicate with others efficiently"
All Naruto could do was nod. He was graceful; maybe this person didn't know what he was. And even better a teacher. He grinned widely at that thought.
"you and Jiraiya will be leaving Kohona when you have fully recovered" he glanced at the shocked 5 year old" but don't worry you will return when you are ready"
Jiraiya stayed in the background observing the boy. He shuttered at his injuries 'who could do that to a child?', but watched as Naruto's eyes filled with hope at the Third spoke. 'Good kid, to bad he has that speech problem, but I think I have the perfect guy in mind to help'
"Jiraiya is there anything you would like to add?" inquired the Hokage.
"Yeah, now kid since you can't talk, we will have difficulty communicating, so tomorrow I'm going to start teaching you sign language. This is a more complex version of the sign language used by most Anbu, but with my help you should pick it up just fine"
Naruto looked annoyed at the use of 'kid' but became more enthusiastic at the thought of learning Anbu techniques.
"Good , I thought you'd like that" the Sannin smiled and turned to the Hokage "well I need to contact a few people and see what I can set up for the squirt here" he directed at the Sandaime.
"Good and Jiraiya, don't do some 'research' until everything is prepared"
Jiraiya grumbled muttering something like "works of art" and "crazy old man"
After he left, the Third continued" Naruto I suggest you get some sleep, you'll need all the energy you can get to deal with that guy"
Naruto nodded as he watched the Sandaime leave, before falling asleep.
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A few months later
Naruto picked up the sign language quite fast and could communicate to the same level as Jiraiya, with a few slip ups here an there. The Sannin was surprised by this, but was glad that he now didn't have to guess as to what the boy wanted.
/how do you know all this/ asked Naruto
"Simple, one of my contacts lost his ability to speak after a fight a few years ago, I just picked it up from him." Jiraiya answered with speech as Naruto still had trouble figuring out what someone else said to him with hand signs.
/Oh/
"Anyway, kid I need to do some research"
/Pervert/
Jiraiya started at Naruto. "Where did you learn that?"
/Not telling/
"Fine, no training for you" smirked a rather childish Jiraiya.
/damn/
"Well?"
/the Hokage/
"Sensei?" he fell down in a comical manor.
/ He was your teacher/
"Yes, but there's time for that later, why'd he teach you that word?"
/because that's what you are/ grinned Naruto
"shut up" fumed the old man" I'm a Sannin and I demand respect"
/Maybe you should show respects as well, pervert/ Naruto couldn't resist adding that last word.
"How did you get the idea that I was a pervert?"
/ You denied it/
Jiraiya's eye was twitching now.
"Got out smarted by a kid I see" The Hokage smiled as he leaned against the door. "Even I haven't gotten so low" he said with a slight blush.
By now Jiraiya had a beet red face and steam coming out of his ears; he just stomped out of the room trying to figure out what happened.
The Third chuckled" that was amusing to watch, to think that Jiraiya the 'great Sannin' as he named himself, get out smarted by a 7-year old"
/so Hokage-sama what should I do now?"
"Please call me Sarutobi-sensei"
/ Ok sensei/
"Now that we got that covered up, I'm going to continue on with you communication training. How far are you now?"
/ I think I'm at perverted sensei's level, I'm just having trouble figuring out what someone else is saying to me in hind signs/
"Ok, I have a simple solution to that, all you nee to do is ……..
TBC…
Edited Jan 18th 06