OooOoOooO
Title: Sun-Kissed Sky
Author: Avis Maxima
Characters: Uzumaki Naruto, Rookie 12
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Slight Angst, Adventure, Friendship
Word Count: 2,724
Rating: K+ (that could go to T depending on the language)
Type: Alternate Universe
Date of Release: 12/01/2012
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto is used to being alone. When he becomes a ninja, all he thinks is that he now has a job that pays his bills and he can be more useful to his village. Then, why do people suddenly keep appearing and interfering with his life?
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
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Prologue: Listen
At Age Five
"–as if she will listen to me." A customer was complaining to the ramen chef and a five year old Naruto listened avidly with open ears. "I kept telling her that it wasn't really me that she saw in that bar! I was with Shibuki at work during that time so why the hell wouldn't she believe me?" The man ranted angrily as he slammed his bowl on the countertop.
"Anou, you could ask Shibuki-san then to tell her you were at work." Naruto shyly suggested, wanting to say something helpful.
The man paused and glared at him.
"Who asked for your opinion?" He sneered at the blonde boy who shrunk away from him. "As if I would want to listen to a brat, especially someone like you." He spat the last word venomously, as if some kind of poison and Naruto couldn't help but flinch. He had just wanted to be helpful as to at least prove to someone that he wasn't really a bad kid like the other villagers had labelled him as. But the man hadn't even considered his words, just that it was Naruto who had spoken of them.
"'m sorry," Naruto murmured dejectedly instead but the man just ignored his words, going back to his rants to an exasperated Teuchi.
The blonde went home, more aware of the malevolent glares than usual.
XooXoXooX
At Age Seven
Sarutobi massaged his temples as he tried to concentrate on the paperwork.
There was another scuffle between chuunins at some local bar and one was suspected to be a spy. Then there was the financial statement required for the Academy this year, more supplies for books and training equipments. Jiraiya had found some lead regarding some suspicious activity in Rice Country and the report wasn't even that forthcoming. All of these were starting to give him a headache, especially the boy who kept pestering him at the moment.
"–think I can sign up for the Academy early, jiji?" Naruto finished as he looked at the old man he had looked up to.
When those tired but exasperated eyes landed on him, the boy instantly knew that Sarutobi hadn't been listening to a word he said. He felt a painful sensation in his chest but ignored it as he stared hopefully at the man. Please ask, please ask, please ask.
Just ask what I want to say…
But the Hokage didn't and just patted his head almost distractedly.
"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, but I am a bit busy right now." Sarutobi replied absentmindedly, gently pushing the boy away. "Come back some other time, alright? I'll treat you to ramen tomorrow."
The blonde held back his tears, nodded, and smiled, before running out of the office.
Even the old man didn't even want to listen to what he had to say and he wondered when the Hokage didn't have time for him just like anyone else. Most people ignored him and didn't acknowledge him that he sometimes preferred the glares. Even if he spoke, no one would even listen. So what's the use of getting their attention if he knew that they purposely and intentionally didn't want to notice him?
On the next day, Sarutobi forgot to bring him to Ichiraku's.
XooXoXooX
At Age Eight
Akita-sensei stared at the class.
No one raised their hand.
"Who founded Konoha together with the Shodai Hokage?" She asked again as she gazed at the uninterested and blank faces of the students. This question would be tackled next year but she wanted to see if some students had decided to read ahead.
Even the studious one, Haruno, hadn't and was looking back at her with guilt-stricken face. Her brown eyes wandered around the class and she felt exasperated.
No one raised their hand.
Except him.
And Naruto just watched as Akita-sensei turned her back on the class and started the lesson. He had even stated the answer aloud but the sensei patiently ignored him. After all, he had seen how the woman had tensed at his voice but had refused to acknowledge his words.
So he just lowered his head and listened since people never seemed to when it came to him.
He never raised his hand in class again.
XooXoXooX
At Age Nine
Gensuki Soujiro scowled as he glared at Miragawa Satoshi.
"What chance do we have against him? He's the top of our class for a reason and he's an Uchiha! Why did Mizuki-sensei have our team against his?" Soujiro gritted out angrily as he glared at the amused-looking silver haired chuunin. While Satoshi sighed self-consciously beside him, his brown eyes staring at the annoyed Uchiha Sasuke. Beside the dark haired boy were his temporary 'teammates', Kitamori Juno and Inuzuka Kiba.
They were on survival training at the large courtyard behind the Academy.
And they had to go through it in groups, thus, they were divided into groups of threes. They were to be a team until the end of the exercise and the goal was to steal the flag of the opponent team's. They had been pitted in the manner of one group versus another in the span of twelve hours each. Six groups had already had their 'battles' and three teams had moved on with their victories. So here they were, lamenting the fact that they had to go against Uchiha Sasuke's team.
"We could go for Juno, she's not that adapt in Taijutsu and I could distract Kiba with Akamaru while you could lure Sasuke to a trap." Naruto, their third teammate, hesitantly suggested, voice so quiet that they almost hadn't heard him.
"It's not that simple," Satoshi patiently stated as if he was talking to a dense person. "We're going against Uchiha-san." He emphasized the name as if it should be a big deal.
Naruto's eyes narrowed in slight frustration.
"But it's not our goal to beat him in a fight, it's to steal the flag–" He tried to explain before he was cut off by Soujiro who shoved him away with a glare.
"No one asked you, deadlast!" The red haired boy glowered at him. "And why would we listen to someone like you?"
The blonde boy pursed his lips and remained quiet throughout the whole day. Not a single sound leaving his lips, even if Kiba had ordered Akamaru to bite his shin or when Sasuke simply plucked the flag from the wooden bin behind them smugly, all the while his supposed 'teammates' kept talking aloud about how they all did the work and the 'deadlast' didn't even give any effort for them to win. They had effectively pushed the blame on him if the annoyed glares were anything to go by.
That was the day he stopped trying.
XooXoXooX
At Age Ten
Shikamaru eyed his blonde seatmate.
The reason he never complained about Naruto being his seatmate, no matter what other kids said about him, was because the boy was quiet. Too quiet, sometimes. He could hardly remember when he last heard his classmate speak. Others even speculated that the blonde had gone mute or was just too stupid to even say anything. But Shikamaru believed that it wasn't the case. He had once asked the blonde about something in class but all the boy did was shrug back.
Naruto didn't speak even if Iruka-sensei had started yelling at him to answer a question or even when Mizuki-sensei decided it was alright to humiliate the blonde in front of the class. The boy never retaliated just stared back with those hesitant blue eyes. But never spoke, not a single word.
When Naruto accidentally left his notebook, Shikamaru had reluctantly picked it up and sifted through the pages lazily. Though he felt his eyebrows rise at the words–the subject they had been discussing a while ago–and noticed that it had been Iruka-sensei's word-for-word lecture. There were also some indecipherable scripts, as if hesitantly written that it had been mostly crossed out, at the sides and were additional ideas to counter some of the theories and strategies that were explained in History class.
Some of the ideas were still lacking but would be workable if certain things were added.
Shikamaru was impressed since he was absolutely sure that none of his classmates had studied their lectures as intricately as Naruto had proven right now. And he was sure that the drawn structure of loops and lines at the back of the notebook had been part of the discussion about the basic of seals last week–he recognized the epicentre of the seal that was supposed to belong from an explosive seal. Now that he thought about it, that was the only class that Naruto had excelled in. Though, it hadn't been enough to get him to rise from his 'deadlast' status.
When he returned the notebook the next day, Naruto had looked so horrified and embarrassed, face almost as red as a tomato.
The blonde never sat beside him after that.
XooXoXooX
At Age Eleven
Naruto discovered his first crush in Yamanaka Ino.
At first, he had thought that it was Sakura since the girl had been nice to him on their first day in the Academy. He had even defended the girl from some bullies. But then, the girl had bluntly told him after that Sakura's mother didn't want her associating with him. He had held some hope but Sakura either ignored him or vent her frustrations out on him unnecessarily when he tried to talk to her. At nine years old, he had stopped altogether and nursed his wounded feelings at night. Now, he avoided the rosette as much as possible since he had a hunch that the girl was a bipolar and he never really liked being bashed on the head.
It had been lunch time when Ino had come in the classroom sulking, apparently, Sakura had managed to ruin the bento she had made for 'Sasuke-kun'. All of his classmates always went out to the courtyard during break-times and Naruto only took advantage of that knowledge by reading about Fuinjutsu–the only subject that he seemed to be good at.
The blonde girl had glared at him and demanded for his lunch.
Apparently, the bento that Sakura had ruined was supposed to be shared with Sasuke-kun. And the girl was left with no lunch since she couldn't find Shikamaru and Chouji and the other girls were still busy offering their food to the Uchiha. He had reluctantly given her his box of self-made onigiri with sweet natto filling (something Ayame had been too happy to teach him to make). Ino had grudgingly commented that it was good.
The next day, she saw the same onigiri and this time, uncertainly asked for one.
She also asked for another the following day, until it became customary for him to make some for her despite the difference in his lunch. He began to notice that she seemed friendlier to him, always polite and smiling despite the fact that they weren't friends. She no longer mocked him like their other classmates but never stood up for him either and that was enough. She was still bossy and it always showed through when she practically ordered him to make the same natto-filled onigiri.
Sure, they weren't friends but she treated him like she would to normal people and strangers. Not with scorn and mockery.
And Naruto liked her for that simple reprieve.
XooXoXooX
At Age Twelve
"Don't hurt Iruka-sensei!" Naruto tried to yell but it came out slightly raspy.
Iruka could only stare at his student in shock. This was the first time that he had heard the blonde speak. At first, when Inoue Akita had told him that he had a mute for a student, he had waved it off. He had started teaching the blonde's class only two years ago so he had no idea what the former sensei really meant. It wasn't until he saw the hunched figure of the student seated at the back in too large orange hoodie with downcast eyes that he realized something was wrong.
He had seen the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki before he started teaching. He had initially disliked the kid. But during that one time he had eaten at Ichiraku's, he saw that same dejected blonde boy so desperate for the attention of the chef and his daughter–so eager to please despite how many times Teuchi had tried to ward off the boy.
Suddenly, the image was replaced by a young brunette boy who was also too eager to please his teachers, because he already lost the parents who would provide the attention he had took for granted before.
And Iruka decided that he would get to know the boy first before judging him readily.
Uzumaki Naruto never spoke. No matter what happened. Even if most of his classmates had mocked him repeatedly and almost cruelly, the blonde never said a word and only stared with those sombre, uncertain blue eyes. He had talked to the Hokage regarding this problem but the Sandaime would only sigh as his features aged a few more years with guilt. So Iruka had tried his best to get a word or even a sound out of the boy, even yelled at him some times, but Naruto remained quiet.
There were even times that he almost thought that Naruto was mute.
The boy was also hesitant in doing things but always pushed through with determination in the end. He was easily flustered but he wasn't timid like Hinata, just wary and overly reluctant. As if the boy was squinting at people through tinted glasses to get a good look at them first. While he was shy like Hinata, Naruto didn't back away from people like she did, if anything, he always stood on his ground despite what people threw at him. Almost stubborn, even.
And now, that same reluctant student was glaring angrily at Mizuki, eyes burning with determination and newfound courage.
"I heard enough," Naruto murmured quietly, almost inaudibly.
"What are you going to do, deadlast?" Mizuki mocked the boy and Iruka felt the bubble of anger rising within him. He would never forget the resigned look in the boy's face earlier, an expression that no one that young should have. When he first got the message that Naruto had stolen the forbidden scroll, he had cursed and tried to figure out why Naruto would do something like that. Then he discovered Mizuki's involvement and had seen the defeat and exhaustion that was written in every line of the boy's body. Naruto had known what Mizuki had been planning all along and had surrendered himself to the consequences.
Iruka had never realized that the boy was that desperate to escape his miserable life. So now, as he saw the determination and courage shimmer persistently like a wildfire, full of life, he couldn't be more proud than he already was. The boy hadn't given up and that was enough for Iruka.
Naruto had created three kage bunshins and sent them to attack the silver haired chuunin. The brunette man never noticed it but somewhere along the fight, Naruto had somehow managed to attach some exploding tags on his clones and blasted Mizuki off his feet unconscious.
"Come here, Naruto," Iruka had motioned to the blonde boy.
Naruto did so uncertainly, almost shuffling his feet as he met Iruka's eyes with that same reluctance that the boy was known for. But now that he thought about it, Naruto never seemed to have a problem in maintaining eye contact.
"Close your eyes," He instructed sternly, ignoring the momentary pain on his back. The boy gave him a wary but assessing look and wordlessly did as told. Iruka almost smiled since the blonde never followed instructions so readily before and always seemed to evaluate him first before doing anything.
It was a sign of trust.
He carefully tied the hitai-ate around the boy's forehead while gently cradling the green goggles in his hand. When blue eyes opened, he simply grinned.
"Congratulations, genin." He simply uttered and watched as the boy smiled widely, somehow managing to convey his gratefulness in the bright shine of his eyes and the determined posture in his body without speaking a single word.
But that was enough, Iruka understood.
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To be Continued...
Inspired by one of the KHR fics I have the pleasure to read.
Author's Note:
Whew, I know I am not supposed to post a story but this account is shared between my cousin and I. We're still fixing some details regarding the 'For Better or Worse' and especially the 'Tracking Backwards'. And I want to share this idea with the others. This is a What If story again.
What if, with the scorn, people really ignore Naruto. No glares or insults or dark looks. And that he is aware of it even from a very young age and he tries to understand and integrate with other people only to end up pushed away every single time (coupled with the unintentional ones from people he looked up to: Sandaime, and people who would be mentioned later on). I know that he pulls pranks in the manga to gain attention (even if the negative kind) but I think that unintentional let downs from people he trusts will spur it to this road, my fic. Not sure, but... please review.