AN: I just needed a break, a short break. So, this is what my melted brain (completely cooked by the Texas heat) came up with.
Summary: In a split second, a rock collided with his skull, shattering his sense and ability to live a normal life amongst others. A year later, a disabled Naruto still suffers the result of the aftermath, all the while, a patient Iruka cares for the shell of his former student.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
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While burdened with Naruto as a new student, Iruka had taken the advice of previous teacher's before him, who'd been given the short straw regarding the placement of Naruto, and decided to simply ignore the boy.
Ignore his pranks, ignore his tricks, ignore his voice, ignore his presence, ignore his soul, ignore him, he'd learned to ignore Naruto Uzumaki in hopes that the class would do the same. That the boy would become nonexistent, that the problem, the demon would finally disappear.
Words were tortures tools, and silence was a stealth like killer. A killer that he prayed would end the nuisance and the monster sitting in the back of his class.
And after a while, it worked, Iruka found it almost relieving. Like expected, students followed his example, many fearing punishment if they acknowledged the boy, or his recycled antics, they'd have hell to pay once Iruka-Sensei accused them of association.
Things were perfect, and Iruka finally had the kyuubi under his fingers, instilling his revenge on the boy slowly and painfully, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, Iruka ignored the boy, ignored his cries and ignored his eyes.
His eyes that told all.
So with little to do, with little to live for, Naruto became a faceless student, no longer reverting to pranks, bothering the teacher or bothering the students.
They only brought pain in his opinion, no one payed any attention to him anymore, no one laughed at him, no one even acted as if had existed.
Desperately Naruto wanted to protest, wanted to cry, wanted to tell someone, anyone.
But the hardest part to realize, the hardest part to comprehend was that no one cared, no one would listen. And when Naruto realized this, a whole new fear had befallen him.
The fear of being forgotten, the fear of losing himself.
It started in the classroom, and out of fear of invisibility, Naruto learned walk alone in secluded areas, to avoid walking in the crowded streets, avoid waking where villagers were large in number. They may have seen him, they may have not. But each meeting and each regard promised pain, spoken and unspoken.
He confided to the newly found voices in his head, voices that were his friends and voices that cared. Voices that developed when he suddenly became transparent to a group of children, to a single teacher, to an entire community. Voices that told him to walk alone, only because people would do the same, continue to simply ignore him.
Voices that whispered schizophrenic, but only so Naruto couldn't hear.
They told him he needed a new identity, a new mask, that with them, he wasn't simply Naruto, he was many. No longer lonely; A head full of souls, a head full of societies.
He became familiar with them.
They screamed at times, yelled, cried, laughed and giggled, they told stories of destruction, being consumed by a fox, being trapped in it's belly. That was why they were there, they had claimed, that over the centuries, a monster had consumed their souls, trapping them in it's body forever. And as a result, they could speak to Naruto.
He found the stories infringing, amazing, so he talked to himself, he talked to them.
He'd talk to himself (to the voices in his head) in his apartment, talk to himself on the walks back home. He'd talk loud proud, laughing and arguing, unaware that he was being followed, that he was being stalked. People stared, people noticed. They were scared, they were fearful for themselves and their families. The Uzumaki was speaking to himself it had seemed, or had he spoken to the fox? He spoke often, and they only concluded (amongst themselves) that he was conversing with the beast, conspiring with it.
He hadn't paid any mind to them though, he was too absorbed in thought, too absorbed in conversation.
Infact, one day he'd been so distracted by the voices, so unable to chose for himself, that right after school, he ran out, dashed out, excited to get to his apartment so the voices, his friends (the only ones that loved him, acknowledged him) could tell him another story. So he ran and ran and ran, finding a shortcut, one he'd never taken before.
Into an alley?
He guessed.
He made his way to turn around, realizing he was trapped.
And suddenly, shadows filled the open gap, closing in on him, evil smirks plastering their dark faces.
They lifted their hands, rocks balancing in their palms.
Naruto tilted his head, the voices remained unnaturally silent.
And the first stone was hurled, it hit his arm.
Still confused and slightly disoriented , he brought his free hand to his arm, only to be pelted in the thigh, again by another stone. By this time the voices started up once more, loud and protestant, but Naruto was overwhelmed. He was scared, and so were they (the voices), so scared they yelled uncontrollably, in turn, causing Naruto himself to scream.
"FOX, DEMON, MONSTER," they had chorused, rocks hurling one after another, fast and potent.
The collision silenced him, silenced them all, as a stone pelted with his head.
They paused momentarily, perhaps fearing they went too far.
CRACK went his skull. The lights flickered off and the voices went away.
They'd done what they needed to do, and for a monster like Naruto, they believed overkill was a necessity.
The stones continued to pelt the boy.
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Passive, right.
Hope you liked it. My take on Naruto's childhood, had to do something that was believable, because the manga is getting dumber by the chapter. I'm so disappointed. Anyway, I think that Naruto, realistically, could have gone insane, so this is what my brain came out with. Please review, next chapter will have Iruka in it (YEA! :D)
On a side note, so you who don't live in Texas know what i mean when i say "HOT" weather. I can't even leave my dog outside. Picture Africa with it's burning temperature, bring it to America to a place called Texas, take away the breeze and erase the clouds and turn it up a few degrees higher and you've got Texas. A big ass state with some big ass temperatures. From standing outside for five minutes, I got suntanned TO THE EXTREME. And to make matters worse, my brain is melting. Aside from the stress of Junior year ( i fear for my SAT scores), I have teachers who don't know what the hell they're doing! :#$ $ ! $$% Whatever cuss word that means. Anyway, have a nice week, God bless (:D.