A Cage of Clouds
A/N: I apologize for not updating my other stories. I've been having some family things to deal with, and I ended up lost on the road of life... No not really. Still, I couldn't really think up the next part of my stories, much less write them, so I'll be taking a short break from them until I have a bit more time.
Meanwhile, here's my new story. I like it, as it's the first one I've wrote where no one has any clue about the future or insane powers. I have to warn you though, the first chapter will be more story-telling, not descriptive battle scenes, or major plot twist suspense madness. Sorry. You'll just have to wait. (Evil laugh)... On with the story!
Don't own Naruto.
Summary: Kumo no ori, a cage of clouds. Like a bird, Naruto Hyuuga seems to be stuck, hated in his own village and disowned by his family. When a shinobi from the cloud kidnaps him instead of Hinata, how will his life change? Will things finally look better in a village that understands the plight of the jinchuuriki? Caution, Naruto will not be dark or vengeful! Smart!Naruto, Juuken!Naruto. Pairing will most likely be Yugito.
"Speech"
Jutsu
"Demon/summon speech"
'Thought'
'Demon/summon thought'
Flashback
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Chapter 1- The Power of Fate
Fate.
Fate is what made the Hyuuga clan into what they were. The branch clan was fated to serve the main house until the end of their days. Whether it was by domestic servitude, guarding, or staying away, the branch clan had always done what was asked. To protect the secret of their legendary dojutsu, the Byakugan, a seal was put on the branch members so their dojutsu would be destroyed upon death. It was also a cruel way to induce painful punishment for disobedience.
Fate was sealed for this clan. One path to be followed for the entirety of their days. Without wavering, without doubting in their purpose.
A five year old boy looked at his clan from the branch of a large tree. They knew he was there, just outside the walls, but each of the Hyuugas tried to ignore him. Why? The small boy with spiky blond hair and pale white eyes was supposedly a bastard child. From the day the boy was born, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure, had kept his parentage a secret. It would have been dangerous indeed if Iwagakure or Kumogakure had found out that Naruto Hyuuga was the son of Konoha's Red Death and the Yondaime Hokage.
No one knew Minato was the son of a Hyuuga shinobi and a Namikaze kunoichi, since they both died before he could be raised. The Namikaze had died in the hospital, without a soul knowing of the father, who died himself on a mission weeks prior. It was a tragic twist that the orphan, now named Minato Namikaze, had blue eyes, thus could never use the Byakugan to honor his father.
With the ability to conquer all obstacles, Minato lived through his life, eventually becoming the Hokage and meeting the woman of his dreams. They day they had a small, pale-eyed child, a masked man ripped the Kyuubi from his wifes seal and attacked Konoha. The pair of them gave their lives to keep the village and their son safe.
The clan heads were not told of Naruto's parents, leading the Hyuuga to think he was illegitiment.
And poor Naruto didn't know better than to believe them. To the blond Hyuuga, he was a freak, demon, and a shame to his clan. From his tree branch, Naruto looked down at the branch house holding his cousin Neji.
He met Neji when, after he was kicked out of the orphanage, he snuck into the clan that rejected him, searching for someplace to sleep.
Flashback
Naruto was running away from the orphanage as rain poured down from the heavens. Tears flew from his eyes as he wondered why the hated him. 'I'm a demon!' he shouted in his mind, 'no one cares for me! Hiashi-sama doesn't even let me stay with the other branch Hyuuga... why?'
The world seemed at odds with the blond. Though he already had his Byakugan, the clan wouldn't acknowledge him. Once, when he had visited the clan, as he did twice a year, they didn't even let him have a scroll detailing how to use his dojutsu. He could barely even activate it!
While he was running from the orphanage, he forced himself to think back on happy memories. His Jiji, the Hokage, was always nice. He always cared, and he even got Naruto presents for his birthday! Oh, how he hated the extra shunning he'd receive on his birthday. NO! He tried to go back to the better thoughts. He tried his best to stay on track, but the dark, dreary night kept bringing back his failure of a life.
He made it up to the wall by the clan compound, deciding to go see that one kid he met last year. Neji Hyuuga, he remembered. The boy lived in which house? Naruto seemed to remember it as the one with the small training ground near it.
Seeking the house of his fellow clansmen, he expertly scaled the wall. 'If anyone can understand me, he should be able to,' Naruto reasoned without any logic at all. He just wanted a friend.
After much avoiding the people in the compound, none of them used their Byakugan for everyday purposes, he found the house. He was happy that no one training their eyes caught him in the act of sneaking in. Sneaky as he was, the blond jinchuuriki climbed the wall to what seemed to be a bedroom.
He slid open the window and jumped inside the house. On the bed, a boy shot up, started.
"Ah!" Neji yelped, too quiet to draw attention from his father.
"Hey Neji," Naruto commented with joy at finally finding his somewhat-friend.
"Oh, hello Naruto. What brings you here?" Neji readjusted the bandages on his head and sat up at the edge of the bed, looking at the still-standing blond.
Naruto looked down. "I was kicked out of the orphanage, and I don't have enough money for an apartment."
"I see." Neji's look of surprise slowly morphed into indifference. His cousin in front of him may have experienced bad things, but he wasn't a bird caged, tied by fate.
"Why do you have bandages on your head?"
"They gave me the caged bird seal..." The six year old in question turned away. "Why haven't they sealed you as well? You aren't even a real member of our clan."
"Hey!" Naruto shouted, still too quiet to wake anyone up. "I'm a Hyuuga, just like you!" The boys didn't know the reason that Naruto didn't have the seal. Hiruzen made the Hyuuga elders promise not to, under punishment of death. The Kyuubi was too powerful of a bargaining chip for the already influential clan.
"Hn. Fate must have a reason that you don't have it."
"What is it with the fate stuff, Neji?"
Naruto looked at his cousin expectantly, arms crossed over his stomach. There seemed to a great deal of tension in the air, mixing with the sadness radiating from the two boys. "Our paths are laid out from the beginning. I was fated to get the seal, just as you were not. I am to serve the main branch, while you live your painful life free of my cage." The younger boy chose not to mention that he had no idea what the caged bird seal was.
"You're in the Academy this year?" The jinchuuriki asked. The topic was growing too dark and depressing for his usual happy-go-lucky mood.
With uncharacteristic happiness, Neji replied "Yeah! My teacher is..."
Their conversation went on for a good deal of the night, then Naruto took a position on the floor to sleep. By morning, Hizashi came into the room, startled to see both boys sleeping on the floor. Hizashi was the only man to notice the resemblance of Naruto and Minato, seeing how he was close friends with the later. He was fully aware that Minato's girlfriend, Kushina, was about to have a child very close to the time the blond was born. He smiled at the two of the them, then left to make them a quick breakfast.
End Flashback
Naruto now remembered that time from a month ago with both joy and depression. Now he knew it was his fated to be despised, but on the bright side he met his cousin. The members of the branch family unknowingly lived lives similar to his, where no one inside the main branch would acknowledge them, and they were all treated like trash.
He had noticed this connection for the few days he spent with Neji before he was ratted out by another branch family.
Full of fond memories of his cousin, Naruto leaned back against the trunk a bit more and decided he wouldn't go to his apartment (His Jiji had given him a small one). Sometimes, on beautiful nights like this, he would look at the clan and then the stars and just think. Both seemed great from the outside, but how much freedom did stars have to move around?
'Sometimes I wonder, Konoha, are you caging me like Neji? Is it my fate to stay hated and ignored?' Naruto pondered for hours on end in that spot. Usually, the Hyuuga wouldn't bother him. Some of the more arrogant branch member would continually make fun of his supposed heritage, though a few of the more normal ones only ignored him. The only person to visit him on multiple occasions with good intent was Neji.
Neji had seemed to lose more an more of his positive attitude and became absorbed in the concept of destiny. Naruto didn't mind, he had a friend like he always wanted.
It was December, two months after Naruto's birthday, and one month after he was rejected from his home to live on his own. That month had gone by fast, yet Naruto never seemed to do much. Mostly meditating on his situation and sometimes proclaiming he would be the Hokage in front of civilians. He needed to prove them he could overcome their hate and not be ignored.
Meanwhile, Hiruzen Sarutobi stared through his crystal ball with a sigh. What was he thinking? Telling the council about Naruto's jinchuuriki status and not mentioning his parents. The Byakugan was a shock to the old Kage, though everyone knew what those pale white eyes meant. It was just a matter of time over the years to see when Naruto would unlock his dojutsu.
The former god of shinobi remembered when the boy was four, and he came in the office yelling that he was seeing funny. Hiruzen laughed when he saw that Naruto was subconciously using the Byakugan, not yet having control over the kekkei genkai.
As a peace-loving man, Hiruzen cared that Naruto was treated right. But he couldn't be too public in his support for the boy, otherwise the Hyuuga could wind up at odds with him, and the civilians would hate him too. 'I'm way to old for this. They should all just get along and deal with Naruto. When you get past the hyperactiveness and depression, Naruto's a great kid. So why do they only see the Kyuubi, or a fake Hyuuga?'
The paperwork on his desk called his name, plucking his thoughts from Naruto. He now had to deal with a whole host of new things, the first and most important of which was a peace treaty with Kumo...
"Raikage-sama!" A jonin stood in front of a ripped man, waiting for his instructions. 'A' was a tough Kage, and he needed a way to increase the villages power. They had almost no kekkei genkai, and only two jinchuuriki to offset that.
The Raikage was a tall man with bulging muscle. Other than his white hat, which he wore somtimes, his upper body was void of clothes. He had two golden-colored cuffs on each arm to help conduct electricity for his Raiton taijutsu. The man always wore black pants that miraculously weren't too tight.
As brutal as he looked, the man was utterly serious about their military strength.
"Kiroshi, I have a job for you to do at the peace summit." 'A' felt slightly disguested that Kumogakure's success was going to come down to stealing bloodlines. The Kage had a heart, and a true respect for family. After all, the Raikage lineage was all family, and he would endure endless torture for his brother, Killer Bee. But some things just had to be done.
The man in question tilted his head full of straight black hair at his kage. With a curious look in his brown eyes, the jonin asked "What is it, A-sama?"
"The Hyuuga's Byakugan has been avoiding us for some time. No matter what, the damn seal destroys all of the eyes of the dead we recovered, so we need a Hyuuga without the seal. A live one."
"You want me to abduct the Heiress?" The man asked.
"No, there is a much easier target."
"Without the seal?" The jonin's eyes were full of disbelief. The Hyuuga were insanely protective of their bloodline.
"If my spy information is correct, an illegitimate Hyuuge by the name of Naruto Hyuuga still lives." 'A' slid a mission file stamped confidential, S-rank across his desk. "You will use the peace treaty as a cover to get in and get out. No one can know for sure who did this or why. Understood?"
"Hai Raikage-sama!"
Aaaaand, cut. That's a wrap people, good job. Freddy, I want you to start on next scene. That one will be about Naruto's kidnapping and the initial reactions.
I'm sorry if I portrayed either Kage as a dick, they are politicians after all. They have their village to worry about not just one kid. Neji will probably not be as arrogant, but he will be a fate-sucker like cannon. Until someone gets to him. Sorry, for Hizashi lovers, he's still going to end up dead in some way. The man just plays too big of a role in Neji's character to stay alive. Maybe if there are enough protests he won't die.
No, Naruto is not going to hate Konoha!
No, Naruto is not somehow going to be better at the juuken than Neji (at least until they meet in the chuunin exams).
No, the Raikage doesn't somehow know Naruto's parents or that he's a jinchuuriki.
Thats all I'm giving away here.
Until next chapter...
Stay troublesome,
~Waffles