Summary: The hair at the back of her neck prickles and she shudders in the biting night air. She knows, at that moment, that she's no longer alone. A 'what if' fic. Naruto is taken from the village at an early age but something goes wrong. mostly alone, Naruto grows up in the wilderness. Narusaku. Mostly AU. Feral!Naruto.
A/N: You may or may not notice but a portion of this chapter if from Forever, which is part if the Shiver trilogy. Some ideas like Naruto's outfit are also from Mononoke. This is because my inspiration has come from Shiver along with Princess Mononoke along with my desire to write what i think feral!naruto would be like.
Disclaimer: I do not own Shiver, Princess Mononoke or Naruto nor do i claim any of their work as my own
The forest was so, so quiet.
Darkness smothered the world like a blanket. Dust hung in the air of the nighttime wood, the moonlight made constellations of the particles where is creep-ed through the branches overhead.
The only sound is a faint whisper of breath, inhaled slowly through bared teeth. The air is cold over his canines.
A dry stick began to pop under his foot.
Pause.
Wait.
He moved slowly, taking a long time to lift his weight off the stick. His breath flowed into a stream of moonlight, curling and contorting eerily under the light.
There is a live, rustling sound nearby drawing him closer, catching his attention and holding it. His stomach is tight and empty.
The panicked animal is close by. 'A deer?'. The noise of a creek fills the long moment with its muttering gurgle. 'How large is the animal? Is it injured?'he could smell the stench of blood thick in the air along with the smell of humans. There must have been another battle.
Something brushed his shoulder. Soft. Tender.
He wanted to flinch.
Wanted to turn and snap it between its teeth.
But he is too quiet. Instead he freezes for a long, long moment, and then he turns his head to see what is still brushing his side with a tender touch.
Red. It's floating in the air, drifting in the breeze. Steel dull in the night. His mind bends and burns, trying to remember. 'What was its name again?'
ah... 'Hitai-ate'
It must have been lost in the fight. Beyond it, scattered among the trees and littering the undergrowth are items imbued with a metallic, hostile smell. This time he knows straight away what they are.
He circles around, lip curled, avoiding the sharp-edged weapons like he has so many times before and there, suddenly, is his prey.
Only it's not a deer.
It's a girl. She's kneeling in the dirt, hands gripping the long-dead body of her teammate, whimpering strange noises while water runs down her cheeks. Where the moonlight touches her is is easy to see the red against the stark-white of her skin.
Blood. His nostrils are full of the smell of it. Already uneasy he slinked further back into the darkness.
The night conceals his presence and he leaves no trace. Come morning the ninja won't even realize he had been there.
"Wh-who's there?!" The girl is trembling.
He freezes
She's looking right in his direction but he knows she couldn't see him. She can't see him. This is his forest.
"Come out!" She lowers the body down to the earth and he can see the stab wound to the body's chest now. He stays silent and still
"I can sense your chakra!" her eyes are steel, defiant, even as her shaky hand and white knuckled grip on her kunai betray her.
He tenses, but it's too late, she's taken a step forward and can see him now. She stares. The hair on the back of his neck prickles. Danger hisses in his ears.
He bares his teeth at her, trying to ease backward. 'Why isn't she attacking?' They always attack. 'Why isn't she yelling?' They do that too, and then they chase him.
In return he kills them.
She's just staring and he doesn't know what to do. He will not turn his back to her. He can not!
His belly brushes the undergrowth as he crouches, growl starting so slowly that he feels it on his tongue before he can hear it.
The girls eyes are on him still, challenging him, holding him.
"H-hey" she takes another step forward. Her eyes have stopped leaking. Now they are wide.
His growl turns ferocious and he snaps at the air, warning her. 'Don't come closer, don't come closer'.
This whole situation is just so wrong to him. She's not reacting the way the others did on the rare occasion he encountered them, she's not poised to attack, nor is she running away. 'Why?'
"Who are you?" Her voice is stronger now, her eyes narrowed. They're green, he realizes. Like the forest during spring.
Blood rushed through his ears as he tried to back away again, wanting to escape the girl and her scrutinizing eyes.
She stepped forward.
He stepped back.
When his back leg hits a tree and he almost whimpers in surprise. Instead he tenses, ready to leap and attack if the girl even twitched.
Somehow she notices his change in posture and backs away again. Her grip on her weapon loosens.
This is what he's been waiting for.
Before she can even blink he is on top of her, teeth dangerously close to her face, ferociously growling. She is sprawled underneath him, frightened eyes watching back, kunai lost somewhere behind her
He snaps at her neck, drawing a trickle of blood. Her body goes limp with defeat.
Then he is gone, branches clawing at him while he escapes. The red hitai-ate is fluttering like a leaf on the branch as he passes it. This time he pays it no mind. His mind is shrieking at him to 'run!' To 'Get away!' So he does.
He runs until the scent of blood no longer tickles his nose. Until the normal noise of the forest returns, drowning out the screaming silence that surrounded the battlefield. He runs until the girl fades from his mind.