Typhlosion8 here, with my first Naruto fanfic. I posted it on Ao3 first, and it's a bit longer there by a few chapter, so if you don't mind searching, i go by ShadowsIntoLight over there, you're welcome to check it out. It's the same story as here, just different site. Although I love the tags function over there, it helps out a lot as a warning to those who are looking for something else.
So these are the most important tags you should know.
Rating: M
Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence
Added Tags: Torture, Aftermath of Torture, Flashbacks, Kidnapping, Young Naruto, Mental Instability, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Basically, this is a young Naruto kidnapped and then returned home, and how he, and the rest of the characters, adjust with him. Enjoy!
He remembered the look on his face. The shock, the surprise. The disbelief. He remembers his own face, grinning despite the horror that grew and the sourness in his stomach. How he laughed and laughed and laughed-
He remembers the blood, as it poured out of his eye, like a dam had been broken and the water behind it surging to escape; he can recall the vivid bright red of it, the way it shone from the single lightbulb that hung from the ceiling. He remembers the sharp cutting edge of the stone as he pulled it out of his eye and then stabbed it into his throat, as he stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, until the blood had stopped flowing and grew dry and brown; it coated his hands while he worked and he wiped them on his jumpsuit-
He can see the room easily, the dark grey walls, the striking shadows the surrounded him. The smell of earth, of soil; the stench of decay from the last victim that was partially decomposed, the reek of vomit afterwards. The plate and chipped cup that sat just too far for him to reach, the buzz that was emitted by the lightbulb as it flickered - day and night, day and night - how he heard the thunk of footsteps as he came down the ladder into his room.
The bright shine of the silver instruments in the dark, the sharp pain that he felt when they sliced through skin like tissue; the dulling of the pain that came with the sleeping pills he was fed-
He remembers how he grew silent in the room. How he went from laughing to hysterical to sobbing to silent. How it played over and over and over again, over and over and over-
"Come on brat, let me hear you scream."
He can't stop remembering.
ANBU Hawk saw his teammate slow down, and signalled the leader to halt.
"What is it Rat?" he spoke quietly, his eyes watching their surroundings cautiously. They'd been searching Fire Country for a few days now, in a rotation with other ANBU.
"I smell something. Coppery, a bit sweet. Definitely blood. We should investigate." Rat replied. Hawk nodded, and their team leader Wolf urged Rat to follow the smell. Rat was an Inuzuka after all, and even without their dogs to help, their senses were unlike any human's own.
Rat led them towards a small clearing filled with overgrown grass and other plants. It would have probably been dismissed by ANBU normally, except for the fact that today they noticed a small indent in the earth, with no patches of grass growing on it. Bending down, Wolf tapped on it, resting his ear near the earth. He curled his hand into a fist, and tapped a second time, this time a bit harder.
"It's hollow. This isn't ground." he said, and began digging at it. The soil easily shifted away to reveal a metal latch built into the ground.
Rat sniffed. "That's definitely where the smell is coming from."
Wolf turned to Hawk as he pulled his radio out of his belt. "Hawk, investigate. Rat, cover him. I'm going to call for some backup. This could be dangerous."
Hawk nodded, and pulled on the latch of the door, grunting as it slowly lifted to reveal a rusty ladder leading down into a dark hole in the ground. Hawk went first, with Rat ready to follow.
The ladder lead to another door, and although there was a keyhole, he opened it with ease. Rat recoiled as it slowly opened. "The smell is really strong in there. Overpowering."
Holding out a kunai, Hawk looked into the room, taking in the scene.
A body lied on the middle of the floor of the small stone cellar, with a vast amount of dried blood around it, probably from from it's head and neck wounds. And curled in on themself was a child, covered in a lot of the blood, not moving.
Signalling Rat, he walked slowly towards the child as his partner went to look at the body. The kid was filthy and scrawny, his bones showing through skin. Hawk decided to speak.
"Kid, are you alright?" he said softly, but the child didn't move a muscle, not even to acknowledge his voice. Hawk slowly moved his arm out, taking a risky step.
His fingertips had just grazed the child when his eyes were met with blue ones, and underneath all the grime, even Hawk could recognize the whisker scars on his cheeks.
"Uzumaki Naruto, right?" The kid we've been looking for.
Naruto said nothing to him, just looked at him with wide eyes.
"We're from Konoha. We're here to find you." Hawk said. Behind him, Rat made a sudden hand seal, and the body went into a scroll.
He reached for the one of the child's hands, the fisted one. He gently pried it open to grasp a small piece of rock, covered in crusty blood from the body on the floor.
Using his other hand, Hawk gripped Naruto's back, and after pocketing the weapon, used his opposite hand to lift under the boy. He was stopped by the clink of a chain. It was a cuff, wrapped around the child's skinny ankle and attached to the wall; made of iron, but a quick slash with the blade of Hawk's kunai broke it easily.
Rat went ahead of him, up the ladder, and Hawk channeled chakra to his feet to stick to the ladder rungs as he carried the child towards the surface.
When he woke up, he was still in the room.
Except the walls weren't grey. They were blue. The room didn't have blue walls.
And there was lights on the ceiling. Long ones, that stretched vertically across the ceiling. Not lone light bulbs. These ones didn't flicker.
And he wasn't on the floor anymore, no longer shivering. Instead, he was covered by a blanket and the room was fairly warm.
He wasn't in the room anymore. Where was he?
Just as soon as he noticed it, the lone door in his room swung open to reveal a woman in a white uniform. She held a clipboard in her arms, and smiled when she saw him.
"Hello Uzumaki-san! Good to see you're awake."
In that moment, the walls bled grey, and he was back-
-in the room, alone. He couldn't remember how he got there, just that he woke up there. And the door opened and shut just as quickly, slamming closed. A tall man walked into the room, smiling. He could only watch as the man stepped closer to him, in his hand a small blade, a shinobi weapon.
"Good to see you're awake, brat."
He shook as he came closer, but he was afraid; afraid of the man, afraid of the room, afraid of the shiny weapon in his hand and the man bent down into a crouch to look at his face.
"Like the sky, those eyes are. So hopeful. So innocent."
In a swift movement, the blade sliced his cheek, and he felt a flash of pain. His hand reached up, and came away sticky with red.
"I'm going to make you scream."
And he began to scream, eyes wide as he gasped and choked in fright, backing up as far as he could until he touched the headboard of the bed and couldn't go any farther, as the grey walls of the room closed in on him, as the lights flickered, and as he began to hear the laugh, that horrible laugh as it echoed in his mind, and he wailed.
The laugh was his own.