7.1.2018
Sasuke
There weren't many things that sparked the interest of Uchiha Sasuke.
However, Uzumaki Naruto was an enigma. The times she spoke were rare. The times she showed emotions were even rarer, if ever. Even after observing her for a while, her stoic expression remained unreadable; she was irritatingly undemonstrative, and far more impassive than the infamously anti-social Uchiha himself.
It aggravated Sasuke to no end. But why—why it did, he had no idea. She was one of the rare few that didn't fuss over him, so he really shouldn't have cared. She was constantly missing days, causing her to end up near the bottom of the class, and he really shouldn't have cared. She was a dead last who simply didn't care for school. Other than that, he really didn't know much else about her. So why she seemed to intrigue him so much, to a point he actually cared to find out about these things, he truly had no idea.
Today was one of the days she was in class. It was impossible to predict when she would be in, since her absences showed no patterns. Yes, he had been keeping track of when she was in. Today was also one of the days she was wearing a mask; a black mask that covered half her face, to be exact. She only wore it on some days, which made no sense to him. You either wear it, or you don't, right?
It didn't really matter. All it did was only further make him believe that she truly was an enigma. That was the only true label he had for her. A bibliophile, maybe? All he ever really saw her do was read whenever she wasn't doing work. And Naruto hardly ever did work. What exactly she was reading, he didn't know. He hadn't attempted to find out, really. She was always secluded when she was reading, and he wasn't going to approach her.
The girls thought her odd, that much was obvious. They would whisper about her often, noting how she wasn't friends with anyone, or how she never spoke, and other stupid things he didn't really pay attention to. The only girl who seemed to have any positive interest with said enigma would be the timid Hyuga heiress who often hovered around her, as if trying to start a conversation, but never seemed to actually engage in any form of communication. There was a possibility she viewed the blonde as intimidating. Even if Naruto was quiet, it wasn't because she was shy.
Perhaps he simply found interest in observing her.
That's what he liked to believe, but that didn't explain or let him to understand why her odd behaviour caught his attention so much.
When he wasn't thinking about getting stronger in order to seek vengeance on his brother, or something of that nature, his mind seemed to go back to her.
Maybe she was just a distraction for him. Not the bad kind, nor the good kind. Simply a distraction.
He would settle for that for now.
He didn't know whether she was strong or not. He hadn't ever seen her fight. She was never there to spar. The only pattern there was, that may or may not have even been a pattern since she missed so many days, was that she was never there on days of the week they would focus on things such as fighting. These days alternated every other two weeks, then again, so unless she had access to some kind of rota, he didn't know how she managed to always miss those days. That only seemed to drive him to wanting to know whether she could fight. Perhaps she was better than the other girls in his class. Although, he didn't believe that was necessarily too hard to achieve.
Why did he care? It wasn't as if knowing whether she could fight would benefit him.
Uchiha Sasuke did not need nor want a sparring partner.
Naruto barely spoke. Barely anybody spoke to her. It was as if she was a plague. Almost every academy teacher would give her a look. It was never a good look—it was always one of hostility. Anger. Fear. Disgust. Hate. It only made him want to know more.
He hated not knowing.
He shouldn't have cared.
But he did.
He didn't even know what he cared about exactly.
The only time he could remember seeing her outside of the academy was when he was extremely young. Long before the night of the Uchiha massacre. Perhaps around when he was 5 or 6. He never interacted with her, he simply recalled her being a trouble maker. She'd run around the village, hiding from shinobi chasing her after pulling pranks. He only ever caught glimpse of her if anything.
If he had any recollection of a time she smiled, it was then. There was never a mask in the way, or any memory of her brooding like him, as she does now.
His father used to make a somewhat light hearted comment something along the lines of "Make sure you don't copy that behaviour. I can't have the son of the police force being a trouble maker."
That was to be expected. It was more his mother's reaction to seeing Naruto which really sparked most of his interest. She'd never comment, but a sad smile never failed to appear on her face. She looked as if she knew something—as if she regretted something. He never found out what. It bothered him to this day.
It was at some point during the first year of being at the academy that her attendance dwindled. He didn't have an interest in her at this point, but he remembers her smile and somewhat annoying persona disappearing.
One person might not understand why there was such a dramatic change in personality, but he did.
Albeit not knowing what exactly happened to her, he knew something must've happened. He hadn't been able to figure it out himself for a while, but then he realised the exact same thing happened to him. After the Uchiha Massacre, he never was quite the same. He didn't like talking to people after. He didn't like people bothering him. His goals in life changed. His focuses changed.
He wondered what happened to her.
So, what did Uchiha Sasuke know about Uzumaki Naruto?
She was an orphan. Parentless. Always had been. He didn't know who her parents were. He didn't know if anyone did.
Appearance wise, she had dark blonde hair—golden, even—that reached her lower back. It was held in pigtails most of the time, or a ponytail, and she had messy bangs which framed her face. Her hair was never worn down. There was only one day that he could remember her wearing it down, and it was because her band had broken.
That was a rather irrelevant memory he remembered vividly, for some reason. She had a habit of playing with the bands in her hair, constantly taking them out and re-tying her hair. He never figured out why she would repeat this process so many times, but she did. After pulling too hard, her band snapped. The class had been quiet enough for him to hear the slight murmur of annoyance she had uttered under her breath. The rest of the day was spent with her hair down, and a rather potent killing intent radiating off of her. He noticed that, ever since then, she began to wear two extra hair ties on either of her wrists.
Naruto also had three odd whisker-like marks on both her cheeks. Her eyes were blue. Her birthday was in October. And she wore orange.
Sasuke didn't particularly like the colour orange.
She didn't wear too much of it—her clothes were still predominantly black. Black shorts. Black shoes. Black socks. Black mask. Black mesh top. She only wore an orange jacket that was forever unzipped, and even that had black around the shoulders, but, nonetheless, it was mostly orange.
He couldn't understand why someone who was becoming a ninja would wear such a bright and obvious colour. Orange.
He knew she always disappeared after class. The second she walked out of the door, she seemed to just vanish into thin air. He had never actively tried to properly pursue her, but he'd always look around to see whether she was in sight. She never was. He wondered where she ran off to. He wondered how she just disappeared. Everything she did seemed to evoke too many questions for him.
He didn't know whether she belonged to any clan, or whether her parents were of civilian background. The very name 'Uzumaki' didn't seem to ring any bells.
Who was Uzumaki Naruto?
Sasuke wanted to find out.
A library visit later, Sasuke was stunned.
The information had been relatively easy to access, but the dust that covered the scrolls on this particular clan and this part of Konoha seemed to suggest it had remained untouched for a while. The Uzumaki clan.
Sasuke had resisted the urge to wince when he walked past that of his own clan, but, not too far across from it, filed under 'U', there they were. Scrolls about whatever clan Naruto had descended from.
Or, rather, a scroll. Rather than having multiple of them which usually informed a reader on things such as clan history and such, there was only one scroll under Uzumaki. His own clan had about five, and even that was on the scarce side compared to some of the scrolls and files of certain clans in the library.
He grabbed it, eager to find out more, and threw himself on the library floor.
The Uzumaki symbol was the first thing that caught the attention of Sasuke upon opening the first scroll. It was exactly the same as the one on the flak jackets worn by Konoha ninja—as well as being on Naruto's sleeve. Did that mean she knew of her own clan? Was it just a coincidence? Why did Konoha ninja wear them?
His curiosity and intrigue grew.
The Uzumaki Clan were the most prominent clan of Uzushiogakure, a Hidden Village located in the Land Of Uzumaki clan were renowned for various things, such as the members living notoriously long lives, earning the village the name "The Village of Longevity", as well as their knowledge in fuinjutsu. A common known physical feature of the clan is their deep red hair, which is often what allowed outsiders to recognise people as a member of the clan.
There were two things from this which led Sasuke to be even more confused. One was the fact that Uzumaki Naruto did not have red hair, and also the fact this was all entirely written in the past tense. He ignored the subtle lump in his throat that developed because of this and continued to read.
Uzushiogakure held close ties with Konoha, due to close relations between the Uzumaki and the Senju—who are rumoured to be distantly related—which is why the flak jackets of Konoha shinobi don the Uzumaki clan symbol. It's worn as a sign of friendship and, today, as remembrance of a close clan's extensive knowledge on seals is argued to be what led to the village's destruction during the Second Shinobi World War, as certain villages feared they were growing too powerful.
It seemed the lump in his throat couldn't be ignored any longer.
It is unknown where the majority of the survivors scattered to, especially so many years after, but there are known and particularly notable members and descendants of the Uzumaki Clan in Konoha. Uzumaki Mito, wife of the Shodaime Hokage, migrated from Uzushiogakure to Konoha and was a formidable kunoichi, possessing a very unique and powerful Chakra type even for an Uzumaki. Like many of her clan, her fuinjutsu skills were exceptional.
Sasuke extended the scroll further, only to be met with blank paper. For a clan that was supposedly so formidable, he was sure their had to be more. For a clan that had such a close relation to Konoha too, he couldn't understand why there was only that.
Sasuke couldn't ignore his interest.
© Masashi Kishimoto