Ten Thousand Promises

by lirance

Oneshot. Naruto's childhood was never going to be anything other than strange and bloody and wrapped around broken shapes, and his adulthood's not much different, but he carries on anyway. He always has done.

Ten Thousand Promises

Naruto's childhood was never going to be anything other than strange and bloody and wrapped around broken shapes.

But there is no one left to care.

But his parents died on a hot, dark night in October, so hot that the air was bitter and bleeding, and something like bloodlust and the absence of kindness had clung burning and bright in the air when he took his first breath.

But the Sandaime looks down at a shape of pale hair and lights up his pipe and has to lose himself in other things, because he has ten thousand other lives to save and a million other regrets and an infinity of twisting promises.

But Jiraiya is on a distant road in some other place, almost some other time (in his head, at least), and he can't look back.

But Iruka is still just a child himself, for all that he has learned the poetry of broken hands and bloody mouths and an empty house, a poetry written on a scroll so thin that the red shines through, and doesn't even know the first name of the boy that killed his parents (for he is too young to make what is to him at this point an over-fine distinction).

And when a kid with too-bright eyes and uncombed hair and a cup-ramen for lunch turns up on his first day at the Academy-

And when a kid with too-bright eyes and a new hitai-ate and a belt full of kunai turns up for the first day of Genin training-

And when a kid with too-bright eyes and a spasming nerve in his left hand and blood in his eyelashes turns up for the first day as an ANBU-

They think nothing of it, because they're always going to be twelve years and ten thousand promises too late.

A/N: So, uh, I looked at my profile page and realised that I haven't actually posted anything since 2009 ^^; Er, whoops? Sorry, I really didn't notice! So here's my apology fic to make up some of the shortfall. My first Naruto fic, incidentally, so I hope that it's not too odd. If you notice any mistakes, don't be afraid to let me know ^^

I'm also posting a less depressing (aka emo) Naruto-childhood fic called Dango, if anyone's interested (whorewhorewhore).