I'm back from the dead to re-write the first chapter of this story. I didn't really like how I wrote the original, so I'm changing it around a bit.
The past year has been really hard on me, between being semi-poor, moving around and staying at family friend's houses, the love of my life breaking up with me, etc etc. Anyway, I'll be trying my hardest to update some of my stories on a semi-constant basis.
Story key:
Paragraph(s) of Italics:
Flashback/Dream
Singular word/sentence in italics: Emphasis/strain on that word/sentence
"Happy birthday, Naruto-chan." The old man in robes and a large hat said with a smile, handing an oddly shaped package to a small, blonde girl with bright, blue eyes. She couldn't be older than four, considering how short and tiny she looked, and wore simple clothes: a short-sleeved, blue shirt and a pair of black shorts. The girl smiled happily and energetically tore open the packaging, revealing a instrument case made of wood and metal. Blue eyes widened as the girl unclasped the latches and opened the case. A small gasp escaped as she laid her eyes on a beautiful guitar. The acoustic guitar was a light red color, with black swirl designs like the ones on the jackets of the ninja she's seen. An orange strap was attached to it so she could hold it while standing up easier.
"Oh, thank you so much Jiji! I love it!" She exclaimed with tears in her eyes, rushing the old man for a hug. Taking the small girl in his arms, he laughed and rubbed her back as she cried tears of happiness.
"Just be sure to learn how to play, so the entire village can hear the beautiful sound of your imagination." The girl nodded with fire in her eyes, making the man laugh again. "I can't wait to hear your first song Naruto-chan, be sure to come and have me listen when you are ready to play it."
The little girl shook her head. "Nuh-uh, you're gonna have to come and buy a ticket to my first concert like everyone else Jiji!" The old man laughed again and ruffled her hair. He left shortly after, saying he had to go back to work, leaving the girl alone in her room in the orphanage.
Only a few days later, the little girl was kicked out of the orphanage, left with only her clothes, guitar, and the injuries the matrons inflicted.
Ocean blue eyes opened slowly, their owner groggily regaining her senses. The fleeting memories of the dream had already left, though the sunken feeling that came with it remained briefly. It had been five years since the events in that dream, and the now nine-year-old Naruto lived in her own small apartment. It wasn't much, just a living room, kitchen, and a bedroom with attached bath, but it was her sanctuary from the glares of her fellow villagers. Not that the small blonde knew why she was glared at, but still.
She opened her eyes fully and took a thoughtful glance at her wall, which was littered with instrument stands and instruments themselves. The acoustic guitar the Hokage had given her five years ago, along with a few new instruments she had gotten through various means, usually her birthdays.
As a contrast to her light red acoustic with black spirals, her new Bass guitar was a deep blue with off-white wave patterns running down the neck and body. To its side sat an average drum kit, which looked a bit beat up. She had pulled it out of a trash bin and fixed it up with some help, then painted it a dark, almost black, purple. Despite her fixing, the cymbals were scratched up and the membranes on the drums were noticeably worn. A small ocarina sat on a shelf along with a flute, both colored in the same dull green color, reminiscent of weathered copper. To the other side of the bookshelf was a case that had a trumpet in it, which she had just learned how to play.
She could play every instrument she owned as well as the others. The Hokage himself said she must have lots of natural talent with music. A whole lot of good that did her, considering she really wanted to be a ninja! Music didn't help her much in that respect, though playing for her classmates seemed to lessen their hatred by a tiny amount. Every once in a while she would bring one of her various instruments to the ninja academy to play during breaks, or to play out in the hall on the occasion in which she was thrown out of class – quite literally – for the rest of the day.
Shaking her head free of its wanderings, Naruto threw back the covers and crawled out of bed, unconcerned of her tanned, naked body as she stretched and made her way into the bathroom. Her window and blinds were closed, and no one would purposefully spy on her anyway, as far as she knew. After taking a quick, and a bit cold, shower, the blonde dried her hair and put on her usual clothes. A dark orange t-shirt with a dark outline on the back of the same spiral she wore on all her clothes, a pair of dark blue pants, and a clip in her hair in the shape of a musical note to keep hair out of her eyes. Her hair was at that annoying length where it would constantly get in your face, so the clip was very useful for her training. That, and it was a gift from the only people who treated her properly besides the Hokage: the Ichirakus.
Speaking of the Ichirakus, Naruto's stomach growled lightly and she decided to pull on her shinobi sandals and get breakfast at their ramen stand. She was running a bit late anyway.
Naruto sighed heavily as she sat on the swing outside the academy. She had gotten thrown out of today's lesson for some made-up reason she didn't bother remembering. That wasn't what she was sighing about, however. No, she was quite used to that by now, as morbid as that sounds. The music-inclined blonde was simply trying to decide how to put her musical talent to use. She could play all those instruments very well, but she was only one girl. And she was hated for some reason, so she couldn't just ask around and pull together a band. Her Henge no Jutsu was spectacular, but all she would be able to do alone is play on a street corner and hope for spare change.
"I'm learning how to be a ninja," she muttered to herself. "Ninjas can use all sorts of jutsu, even clone jutsus. The real question is, how would I learn a solid clone technique?" She knew that there were all sorts of different clone techniques, that much was fairly obvious. But she was still just a young academy student, there was no way she would be able to learn any of them without guidance. She couldn't get into the shinobi library, she didn't know any ninja besides the Hokage, and he was
much too busy to help her out with something like this. "Agh," she groaned, flipping expertly backwards on the swing to lay on the warm dirt under the tree the swing was attached to, "I should be able to figure this out, dattabane!" She suddenly scowled at the verbal tic that had escaped in her frustration. "Dammit..."
"Maa, maa, that's no way for a lady to speak," a voice called out cheerfully from behind her. Startled, the blonde jumped a bit and sat up, turning to look at whoever was talking to her. To Naruto's surprise,
it was one of the Anbu operatives she had noticed around her occasionally. The rest of his body was the same as any other Anbu agent, dark shinobi clothes and a lean body. However, this one had a shock of silver hair that seemed to defy gravity as it poked out from his dog mask.
"Inu-san?" Naruto said surprised, her tone slightly formal as learned from the Hokage, as she blinked a few times. The Anbu in front of her waved lazily, and she could almost feel the laid-back visage he was making behind that mask. "Err, what are you doing here?"
"My job is to watch you. It was never stated that I was unable to converse with you," he said in a tone like he was talking to a small child, much to the irritation of Naruto. "I overheard your little rant, Naruto-chan, and I decided to be a good ninja and help you out." He leaned in conspiratorially and whispered into her ear, "I'll be changing jobs soon anyway, so I might as well get a little practice before I do, ne?"
The small blonde blinked before staring up at the Anbu in awe. "You'd really do that for me Inu-san?" He shrugged lazily and nodded, as if to say 'sure, why not?' The Anbu was caught slightly off guard as the girl he was talking to suddenly scrambled up and started hugging him tightly, her arms wrapped around his legs due to how short she was. "Oh, thank you so much Inu-san!"
The masked ninja merely chuckled and waved her off. "I'll come by your house tomorrow after the academy, alright Naruto-chan? I've got things to do. Ja ne." And with that, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving the nine-year-old alone in front of the academy just as the classes were let out.
The next twenty-four hours went by quickly to Naruto, especially since she went to sleep much earlier than usual. She got up early, took a shower, put on her clothes, and make a light breakfast of eggs and nearly burned bacon, barely saved from a scorching fate. She went to class after saying hello to Teuchi and Ayame at the ramen stand, and sat through class, eagerly awaiting for when it was over. Her prayers were answered as the teacher glanced up at the clock and let them out five minutes early, the students gathering their things and leaving the building.
The blonde ignored the glares and smattering talk aimed at her as she rushed to her apartment. She was nearly scared out of her mind as she opened her door, only to see the dog masked anbu from yesterday sitting in one of her chairs, lazily waving at her.
"Yo."
"W-what are you doing in my apartment, Inu-san? You could have just waited outside!" Naruto exclaimed in exasperation, closing the door behind her as she set down her bag. Inu merely shrugged it off as usual and stood up from his seat.
"Now then, you said you wanted a solid clone jutsu right? Why don't you show me the regular Bunshin first?" Upon seeing Naruto's bashful and annoyed look, Inu tilted his head to the side and bluntly asked, "You can't do it, can you?"
The blonde shook her head and sighed. "I don't know why, but every time I try to make the three clones like they tell us to make, it just never comes out right. They look pale and dead!" Inu seemed to nod to himself and snapped his fingers almost ironically.
"You, Naruto, have a lot of chakra. The teachers there must not realize it for some reason, but I'm no sensor and I can easily tell you have loads more chakra than anyone else your age. To be honest, you have so much chakra that you may never have the control to do such a jutsu as the normal Bunshin technique. So, with that in mind, I'm going to teach you Kage Bunshin!" He lectured her lazily, before cheerfully announcing that last part. "Now, the Kage Bunshin is supposed to be forbidden because of its chakra cost, but I think you'll be fine..."
An hour or so later finds a panting Naruto standing proudly in a group of twenty shadow clones, with Inu nodding happily at them. After some explaining of the finer aspects of how to perform the jutsu, Naruto had taken it extremely well. "I think you learned that faster than anyone else I know, Naru-chan."
"Haa, really? That's awesome, dattabane!" She scowled at her excited slip, much to the amusement of her impromptu sensei. "Thank you so much for helping me out, Inu-sensei. I really appreciate it!" She smiled brightly, a real smile full of innocent happiness, unlike her fake mask around the village.
"It was no problem for me Naru-chan. Besides, I'm going to be changing jobs soon like I said, so I should be thanking you for giving me some experience in teaching, ne?" He waved lazily before checking the sky. "I've got to go report to the Hokage now, so be good Naru-chan!" And with that, he disappeared again.
Naruto turned to her copies and smiled to herself with a gleam in her eyes. "Alright girls, let's go practice!"
It was nearly a month later before Naruto decided she was perfectly ready to do a performance for a group. Most of that time was spent making and practicing songs that the blonde delved deep into herself to make. A week ago she had gone to the Hokage and, after a childish greeting and some laughs, asked him if there was a place she could do a concert for extra money.
"Ne, Jiji?" Naruto asked innocently after she finished laughing from the old man's joke. Hiruzen motioned that he was listening and the small girl continued. "I'm ready for a full-blown concert now. Is there any place I could have a small one? The allowance you give me is only enough to live, I want some extra you know!"
The aged Hokage laughed, but internally winced. That money should have gone a long ways, not just be enough to live. "Yes, yes, Naruto-chan. Next week there will be an opening in reservations for a small auditorium that the public uses for events like that. Just keep practicing and next week you can show off, alright?"
She shook her head from the memories, her stomach tingling as she prepared herself for the crowd. It was about twenty minutes until her performance was scheduled to start, and Inu had made a short appearance to surprise her. Apparently, the auditorium was much more than halfway full. Three-hundred seats available, and around two-hundred-and-thirty tickets had been bought. She was so shocked that she didn't even know the Anbu had left her alone for a few minutes.
But now was no time to get nervous. Only a few minutes before her performance started. She had used Henge to transform into a teen version of herself, sans whisker marks, wearing a purple shirt with orange wave markings everywhere and a burnt orange skirt with matching purple waves. Behind her, two clones were similarly transformed into different people. The bassist was a tall brunette with a simple black shirt and pants. The drummer had her purple hair in a long, wild, spiky ponytail, almost looking like some kind of a tail. The only thing the same about all the clones and the original was their bright blue eyes and their shinobi sandals. Naruto herself had her acoustic guitar, with a small jutsu on all their instruments to amplify the sound enough to cover the auditorium equally.
Her head snapped up and her eyes fired up determinedly as she heard someone announce her band, and she and her clones prepared themselves.
"Please welcome Konoha's newest addition to entertainment, the Sirens!" The announcer called out energetically, hyping up the crowd as he walked off the small stage and the curtains lifted. The spotlights from the ceiling lit up the stage to reveal the three girls, all looking out into the crowd with nervous grins as the lead guitarist, the one with blonde hair motioned for the other two to get ready.
The blonde guitarist lead off with strange, warbling notes before the spiky haired drummer lead after her with beat notes, the purplette bassist supporting the melody with modified notes to create an electric effect. Then, the blonde started singing, similarly to rap which had just gotten somewhat popular.
"Dead of the night we go into the world unknown
Just let us go
I know that I'm breathing slow, inhaling smoke
I just awoke
A bottle of pills I'm choking down
With dancing demons all around
But I'm hearing sounds
And I know I'm hearing voices now
With all the buildings crashing down
It's Armageddon again
I'll drink the poison from the crown
And make a toast to the end
For all the kids and all the ones and even some
Who've just begun to feel the pain
'Cause they can't stand to stay awake!"
The blonde smirked and focused more on her playing as the bassist behind her took over and started singing in a energetic but strained tone.
"I see the streets burn every time I fall asleep
I'm losing all my sanity
I can't hide from the voice
That speaks inside of me."
The blonde played those warbled notes again to the pleasure of the crowd as they unintentionally flaunted their instrumental playing, the drummer nodding her head to her own beat as the blonde guitarist starting rapping again.
"I saw you walk into a room
I saw a face I thought I knew
And all along, it was true
It was me, it wasn't you
I asked myself if it's the truth
A guilty conscience isn't proof
A finger print, well, what's that do?
'Cause gasoline can burn that, too
So hide your knives and save yourself
It's just you, there's no one else
Will I change? The time will tell
I cannot dream, what is this hell?
So maybe I should stop this time
And draw the line, and see the light
But it's too late, I can't this time
I lost my mind, so save the night!"
The bassist took up the chorus again to give the blonde a slight break, singing out in that emotionally strained voice.
"I see the streets burn every time I fall asleep
I'm losing all my sanity
I can't hide from the voice
That speaks inside of me.
I see the streets burn along with all my memories
I'm losing all my sanity
I can't hide from the voice
That speaks inside of me."
The warbled notes came again as the bassist prepared herself for a more somber tone and the drums stopped for a bit.
"If I lay my head down would you admire
The way I can close my eyes tonight
And burn my conscience for the choir."
The drums took over and the lead guitar silenced for a bit before the drummer took over in a fierce voice as the guitars resumed strongly.
"Who's to judge who's insane?
Watch it all wash away
Save us from what we've made
It doesn't die, it only fades
If I can't feel, there isn't pain
Another day, it's all the same
I always pray, I never change
It seems to me, we're all to blame
Push your matches, no more rain
Burn this fucking world today."
The bassist quickly took with enthusiasm.
"I see the streets burn every time I fall asleep
I'm losing all my sanity
I can't hide from the voice
That speaks inside of me
I see the streets burn along with all my memories
I'm losing all my sanity
I can't hide from the voice
That speaks inside of me."
The warbling came back as the three girls finished strongly, grins on their faces as they played the last notes. The crowd, which had been mostly silent besides the clapping to the beat, took a second before erupting into cheers and applause. A few seem nonplussed from the lyrics, but still clapped along for the band as they chatted amongst themselves. Much to the three's surprise, the Hokage himself was smiling up at them from the front row with a few Anbu, including Inu.
Naruto and her clones, all still transformed, cheered loudly and waved out at the crowd. After getting all that tension and excitement out, it was much easier to play the rest of the songs they had scheduled for that night before retiring to her apartment. The blonde's eyes were shut happily as she hummed to herself, placing the cash she had earned in a safe, hidden spot under her floorboards. All her instruments were cleaned religiously then put back into their rightful places, and she stripped herself of her clothes before crawling into bed and drifting into a fitful sleep, her dreams plagued by the memories and thoughts deep inside her subconscious that created such a strangely morbid song.
Alright, review and stuff. If I made a mistake, or you have tips on things I can change, that'd help me out a bunch. See ya.