(Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything pertaining to it.)

The Layers of Me

StrawberryHatter

Chapter One

Introductions aren't always nice

I guess I should start off by telling my name. Of course I should, well anyways, my name is Namikaze Naru, I'm a seventeen year old, kick ass, artist, who happens to have a huge overactive imagination. To add more to my fascinating life, I have a twin brother named Minato, a perverted Dad, a crazy drunk Mom, a cousin, who looks as though any minute she might break-down from the stress my Mom gives her, and oh, let's not forget my brother's boyfriend Kyuubi, who I consider as another addition to the family. Oh, and did I forget to mention we all live in the same house, yep, a very small, four bedroom house, that barely has enough room for all the junk that we own, and not to mention, has little privacy for any of the occupants that resides within it, especially when they want to get a little freaky; let's just say I learned to use earplugs at an early age.

We may not have been the ideal family but I was perfectly happy with what I was given, especially in this shitty neighborhood we so unfortunately live in. But, lucky for us, Dad, just got his 'special' books signed into a very large company. Along with the enormous cash savings, we were given the chance to move away from this hell's kitchen of suburbia, and into the nice convenient town of Konoha.

So that brings use to where I am as of now; packing my stuff into huge boxes. I scanned over my claustrophobically small room, and move towards a pile of blank canvases and oil paints. Picking them up gently I set them in a box and tape it shut, before turning to the last remaining pile of fabrics and sewing supplies. Everything clothing, and furniture wise had already been sent into the moving trucks, and was on it's way to our new house, so all that was left was to collect all the rest of the junk.

Sighing to myself I folded all the fabrics, up neatly and placed them in the final box along with the rest of the objects in the pile. I made sure it was taped nicely before putting it on top of my art supplies and carrying them outside of my room towards 'Gama-san'. And before you ask Gama-san is our family van; Mom had won it back when me and Minato were still kid's, which is surprising, since she never wins anything. Anyway the van had been a stark white before I had begged Mom to let me paint it, finally she had caved and I had twisted the dinky white vehicle into a moving work of art. On top of the van was a huge reddish-pink demonic frog that had a huge scar stretched across his left eye, the frog stretched across the roof and onto the left side where he was poised as if in mid-leap, his black haori swaying in the breeze as one of his amphibious hands held up a giant Katana. The rest of the van consisted of various people dressed as shinobi positioned to look as though they were about to fight the beast. To say the least, my family had been awestruck, and Dad had mentioned something about one of his pet frogs being named Gamabunta when he was young, so I had decided to name my prideful creation Gama-san.

Back to what I was doing, I loaded my boxes into the already crowded trunk and shut the double doors as I looked up to see everyone else exiting the small house and walking over towards me and Gama-san.

"You ready Gaki?" My Dad smirked over at me, shaking his shaggy silver hair as I glared at the nickname, but I nodded all the same and got into the middle seat next to my cousin Shizune, while Kyuubi and My brother got into the back, and Mom and Dad settled themselves into the front. My eyes started to drift shut as Dad started the ignition and Gama-san roared to life.

Dreamscape

Warm. I open my eyes to find myself to be surrounded by clouds. Off in the distance there was a huge tree with purple leaves. The tree gave off pulses of energy that made me feel all warm an fuzzy. 'At least I know where the warmth is coming from.' I began to walk, or was I gliding, yeah, that's it, I was gliding. Well I began to glide towards the tree which began to pulse faster and faster as I began to near it. Suddenly the tree gave a rather violent pulse and I seemed to start floating away as my vision faded into a huge ball of light. There was one last pulse.

Dreamscape

My eyes shot open as my body was yanked to the right. I groaned before swinging my fist into whatever had been shaking me. My knuckles collided with what felt like someone's jaw line, there were a couple loud swears which I soon realized had come from my Dad. I blinked and rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I looked over at my silver-haired father.

"Damn Gaki, you hit just like your mother, next time I'll have your idiot of a brother wake you up, you might just knock some sense into him. I regret asking Tsunade, to teach you two how to fight now, if this is the thanks I get." By now I was looking at him, waiting for the reason for his rather violent jerking. He finally stopped ranting under his breath and pointed to something behind him. "We're here."

I yawned again before nodding and unbuckling myself. I hauled myself out of Gama-san and groggily trudged to the trunk which was already half empty save for the rest of my stuff. 'Humph seems like they left me out here for a while, bastards.' I pouted and stacked my boxes picking them up with little trouble. I closed the trunk doors with my foot and started walking back up to our new house. Peeking around the boxes, I almost dropped them as I gazed at where I would be living from now on.

It was a three story house, that was painted a nice crème color, complete with nice elegant windows, a balcony on the top floor, and a huge yard. I walked up the drive-way and shook off the dazed expression before walking through the open door. Once again I almost dropped my stuff. This house was amazing! The furniture had already been moved in so I was pleased to note that we had plenty of room for all of our things. Anyway, in front of me there was an open doorway which led to what looked to be the kitchen, to my left there was the dining room, and to my right there was what looked like the living room, judging by the couches and chair set up neatly. I smiled to myself as I walked up the stairs to the next floor. There were only three rooms on this floor, plus two bathrooms, one being on opposite ends of the house. I peeked into the room to my left and My mom smiled back at me.

Her blonde hair was tied back in pigtails, and she had on a tight purple tank top which did little to hide her enormous bust which unfortunately for me I had inherited. Thankfully though I had an overprotective, brother and father to keep the perverts away. I smiled and walked out of the room and down the hall to the next room. Just taking a glance at the boxes on the floor I could tell this was Shizune's room, not wanting to stress her out anymore I turned to look at the last room on this floor.

At that very moment I wish I hadn't, because apparently my brother and his boyfriend don't know the meaning of closing doors. Coughing lightly I tried to break up their heated make-out session, when that didn't seem to work I huffed, and readjusted the boxes in my arms which were starting to get heavy. Giving a sigh I turned to the final staircase which twisted up in a spiral pattern to a medieval looking door. I turned to look back at my mom who had walked up behind me.

"We figured we'd give you the top floor, which is just a huge room, we thought you'd like the space to work on your art, among other stuff." She smiled fondly at me, and I fought off the prickling sensation in my eyes.

Giving her a heart-warming smile, I then turned and started to make my way up the spiral staircase. Setting down the boxes with a soft thud I reached for the brass doorknob and twisted it gently. The door swung open slowly and once again I was slack jawed. I mean it was like I had my own freaking apartment up here! My bed was stationed underneath a huge window with a nice view of the backyard as well as the sky above it. On the opposite side of my huge room, there was a bathroom, yes my own personal bathroom! Walking past the bathroom I took in the room itself; the walls were stark white, which I imagined had been kept that color for me to paint, the floors to my enjoyment were hardwood. On the farthest end of the room, there was the balcony I had spotted when I took in the house for the first time. Walking to over to it I opened the glass doors and inhaled deeply.

Turning to the boxes piled around the room I began to unpack, setting up easels and paints at one end and a sewing station at the other. Maybe I had forgot to mention earlier, but in case your wondering, I make my own clothes seeing as we never had enough money to buy anything nice, and even now that we did, I didn't feel like stopping. Getting all of the boxes out of my way I stacked them up in a pile for later use, and started on sorting out my wardrobe. I began folding and hanging up clothes for what felt like hours, and pretty soon the sun had begun to set, and I heard my name being called from downstairs.

"Coming!" I shouted before stretching my muscles and closing the balcony door. I then yawned while rubbing my tummy, as it began to growl. Not wanting to deny my hungry stomach anything I happily skipped over to my door, and down both flights of stairs and into the dining room, where everyone was already eating. 'Bastards, can't anyone wait for me around here!'

Scowling to myself I, trudged over to table and pulled back a chair sitting down Looking down at the bowl in front of me I was happy to see it was ramen. Just as I dipped my chopsticks into the bowl I looked up at my brother who was looking back at me. I smirked and quirked an eyebrow in a silent question. 'You ready?'

In return a shit-eating grin was plastered on his face and somehow I think his spiky blonde hair got spikier as Kyuubi sighed next to him. "One, Two, THREE!" With that we were off practically inhaling the ramen. It seemed at first that he was winning but pretty soon my bowl was finished and I shoved my hands up into the air enthusiastically.

"WHOO I won!" Everyone at the table sweat-dropped except for Minato who started pouting, but that was soon wiped off his face as Kyuubi leaned down and took Minato's bottom lip between his teeth. I grimaced slightly. "As hot as that may be, you two freak me out with the way you manage to do that no matter who's watching, I think I'm done for tonight." Sticking my tongue out at the couple who just remained oblivious to me I stood up from the table and picked up my bowl.

"Oh Naru, before you head on up, I want to tell you that I got a job as a nurse at the school, you, your brother, and Kyuubi will be attending, oh and Shizune, also got a job as a secretary there." My eye twitched.

"Damn it old Hag, you did this to purposely stalk me during the day didn't you?!" I pointed my finger at her accusingly. A vein visibly pulsed on her forehead before I managed to dodge a couple plates, but unfortunately for me, a bowl managed to whack me smack dab in my nose, and I yelped before clutching the abused appendage. "Shit, Old Hag, what the hell was that for?!" This time it was a fist upside the back of my head. Apparently while I was screaming in pain Mom had materialized beside me.

"Who you calling old Hag, you ungrateful brat!"

"Who else!" I giggled wickedly before dodging her punch and running up the stairs towards my room. There were loud swears and laughter following after me but they remained downstairs as I shut my bedroom door. I sighed gently and made my way into the bathroom, closing the door behind me as I walked over to the shower and turning on the water. Taking the time to wait for the water to warm up, I shrugged off the baggy black shirt I was wearing along with my jeans and undergarments. I stuck my hand into the water to test it, and satisfied with the temperature, I got in.

Closing my eyes, I had to bitw back a moan, as I relaxed my muscles and slowly washed my hair. Deciding not to hog up all the hot water, I hurried through my hygiene steps and turned the water off making sure to ring the water out of my long blonde hair. Wrapping a towel around my body after I had dried off properly I walked over to the mirror and studied my reflection.

Staring back at me was a tan girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Slowly my eyes trailed over to the scars on each of my cheeks, I grimaced at the reminders of my not so great childhood. Slowly my mouth set into a small smile as I reached for the brush and began to brush the knots from my hair. Grinning wildly as I finished I walked out of the bathroom and made my way to the balcony. Opening the glass doors I walked out into the night air and leaned against the railing closing my eyes. A soft breeze blew past ruffling my damp hair and sending delicious shivers down my spine.

Suddenly, a felling of being watched washed over me, and I looked down over at the street at the end of the drive way, where a group of people had all stopped to stare. I looked down to realize I was still clad only in a towel, but I let it slide as I really didn't care as long as I wasn't naked. But still it seemed as if this group of people just couldn't get enough with the staring and it was starting to get on my nerves.

To top it all off one of the group members went as far as to wolf whistle as me, I mean come on wolf whistling how lame could they get. I started twitching as the group decided to step into the light of the driveway. I could make out, blonde, a couple black-haired teens one of which had some weird orange mask, a weird blue man-thing that oddly resembled a fish, a silver-haired teen, two redheads, some ugly looking guy with stitches, and a blue-haired figure which looked faintly female.

The silver-haired one broke away from the group slightly and called up to me. "Hey sexy, why not try taking off that towel and have a little one on one time with me." He then chuckled darkly as the other people in the group either chuckled or snorted, or did whatever they did I didn't really give a shit.

I scoffed, really sometimes, men had no dignity. I flicked him off. "Hey shit-face, here's an idea, it's called hide-and-go-fuck-yourself!" The smirk was wiped off his face as he glared at me. There were a few snorts behind him.

"Why you little bitch, you just wait I'll catch you and beat the shit out of your pretty little face."

I gave a hearty laugh. "I'd like to see you try Douche bag." I then looked at the clock in the corner of my room which read 11:30. I sighed to myself, I didn't really feel like getting an ugly wake-up call because of some shit-faced pervert. "Well, as nice as this has been I gotta go to school tomorrow, so regretfully I can't watch you fuck yourself, goodnight!" I smirked as I heard yells, of 'bitch' and 'whore' before I closed the balcony doors and walked out of view. Dropping my towel I walked over to my closet and slipped into a pair of pink panties with a black bow, and before you ask, I do happen to sleep with my bra off, because sleeping with it on is just uncomfortable. I then walked over to my bed where I slid beneath the blankets.

Just as I closed my eyes a thought drifted though my mind. 'Wow, my life is great.'

(Well that's it for the first chapter, I'm sorry if it's a little lagging, but it will get better I promise, the second chapter should be up soon, depends on when I get up. Well Ja Ne!)

StrawberryHatter