Warning!
This story is a slow read, its written, and will be written in a manner some might not appreciate The style i used emulates classic scifi meaning slow detailed writing and varied perspective shifts. Some might not l Like it, i realize that much. I understand that much and i can appreciate you not liking it.
I decided to work on this instead of farmer Naruto. When this is released ill get started on farmer Naruto. I also got me a graphic tablet, which means I've been working on a farmer Naruto title image. Ill change it when I think it's complete.
ANYWAYS!
This story sorta focuses on what drives character, hence the tile "drive". It focuses on motivation, and as the story progresses I plan to expose you to the deep intracasies that drives the various characters of this story I introduce some important story elements early on, and the characters introduced here will be taking the center stage for the next few chapters. I hope you like this story.
READ AND REVIEW!
xx-xxx-xxx
"Tell me, sweet wife...what are we thinking?" His words came out solemnly, slowly, and nearly inaudible. Those seven short words, whispered in the quite mid-morning sun expressed far more than appeared. They expressed the completion that was them, the fact that they made each other whole, and her thoughts were his, and vice versa. Despite his she heard, and her smile drove home a sense of fulfillment and joy he knew he would never quite feel again once she was gone.
"I feel like the dead." She chuckled at her own joke, her voice-a sympotheney of sweet bells- accenting the innocence of her laughter. For her he smiled, but on the inside he felt a deep pitted anguish, a spiteful hole that seemed to get dug deeper at her words. At first when her sickness had first appeared after the birth of his second child, it had been a joke. A light hearted jab at her sickness when it was still thought she could be healed, but as time went on, as she got sicker, as the brilliant flame of a women he had married slowly dimmed, and it was obvious a cure couldn't be found, the joke stopped being funny to him, and in a way stopped being a joke to her. Now it was a thinly veiled resignation; she was dying and both of them knew it.
She recognized his half hearted laugh as disdain and tried to change the subject.
"We husband, are thinking of our first."
His first, Hinata, his eldest child, already at the age of four the girl was a near clone of her mother, he could see her soft lips, her lush black hair, her pale lavender shaded eyes.
"Tell me what do we think of dear Hinata?"
"That every day she grows more like me, that when I'm gone you'll resent her for being me, yet not me." Her words hit home; a strike across his face that had even more impact because he realized the truth in her words. Already he could recall moments in which he shunned his daughter because of her uncanny similarity to her mother. Shame filled his heart. His wife-his other, perhaps better half-noticed.
"Fret not, even without me I'm sure you will love her, all I ask is your treat her kindly, she's gentle and Hyuuga way of life far from favors the gentle. Now tell me Husband what do we think?"
Haishi pondered her question and, for a few moments, delved into the pits of his mind.
"We think of you, and of us, and of the whole that we are, and what we will be without you. That dearest wife, is what we think."
"Of us? Do we think of love, or passions of the flesh?"
"I think of our completion. What is a man without his wife? Incomplete, a mere half of a whole."
"You were whole without me.."
"I was not, i was half yet i considered myself whole because I knew no better. Yet, now that I know what it is to be whole, I will feel empty, a void where my other half should be."
At this his wife smiled, and he in response smiled as well. They settled in a comfortable silence, he listened to her raged breathing as he watched her. Even in sickness, even as her brilliant radiance dimmed to a dull flame she was still beautiful. Truly, Haishi noted, his wife was a thing of beauty, an act of workmanship by the Kami and a light unto humanity that came once in a lifetime. This silence, and his love filled adoration was interrupted by the patter of small feet. He smiled, his eldest, only she had the audacity, and right, to interrupt the tempered silence that surrounded them.
As she approached the sound she made lessened, and eventually faded as she walked as slowly and quietly as she could to the door. A quick rap on the door notified her wish to enter.
"Please enter Hinata, you mother wishes to see you."
The girl rushed in as silently as she could, relatively speaking-for one of her age-she was completely silent. He noted her, this miniature version of his wife, this tiny mixture of both him and his love. She held in her hands a small flower, its ornate beauty a strange mixture of red and blue, yellow, and purple, its stem a light leafy green.
"How pretty, did you bring that for me?"
"Hai Kaa-san, I saw it and it reminded me of you, cause' it's beautiful."
"How sweet of you, come give your Kaa-san a hug." The girl rushed forward, and wrapped her small arms firmly around her mother's neck. The women moved deeper into the hug, feebly she attempted to lift her arms to recuperate. She failed and fell back into a fit of coughing.
For a moment she stared deeply into her daughters eyes. "Be...strong for me Hinata."
"Kaa-san Im sorry! Did i hurt you?" The child's voice held a quiver.
"Be strong..."
"Hinata...i think it's time you leave."
"Okay Tou-san, I love you Kaa-san." Her only response was rampant coughing from her mother.
"Leave Hinata."
"But Tou-san... Kaa-san didn't say she loved me back."
"Leave!" Regret filled his heart as the shout left his mouth and his daughter, tears streaming down her face, ran out the room. He let out a deep sigh as he turned his attention back to his wife. Her coughs were blood chilling, loud pain-filled things that took with them speckles of fresh blood.
"Haishi...kiss me."
He looked down at her, her face strained, blood peeking past her lips, her hair now in disarray, and frowned. How, how, just how could someone so close to death, so close to the edge death, look at him with such beauty, and capture his will so? It was almost sinful.
"Of course." He kissed her, and would forever hold the last memory of his wife as the iron tainted taste of her lips on his own.
xxx-xxx-xxx
Sapphire orbs of blue watched with vapid interest, their owner - a small and frail child with sunny blond hair, and an inquisitive mind that seemed to forever seek for answers- had never seen a funeral before, and the entire operation was something of great interest to him. So, with a vapid, almost twisted sort of interest, he looked on.
They were walking morbidly, slowly, towards a cemetery. Between them-meaning the four, long obsidian haired men- they carried a mahogany colored thing. Perhaps the body was held within, he wondered.
He noted the people walking along with the box. There was a small girl, she was garbed in all black and as she walked her face was a mask of torment, tears slowly fell down her face. Next to her a hard faced man walked as well, he looked strikingly like the girl; maybe he was her father? He too was garbed in all black, and the air around him seemed to be twisting and turning, shaping itself into a morbid form of depression that infected all he seemed to walk by.
Briefly he turned his attention back to his ramen, quickly he slurped up the instant noodles and grabbed a piece of shrimp to pop into his awaiting maw. Naruto liked ramen, the food was easy to make, easy to carry, tasty, and perhaps more importantly easy to understand. The concept of Instant ramen came easily to him; the noodles were partially cooked and then placed in the cup, the shrimp and meats were dried and preserved as were the vegetables, the seasoning was a combination of rosemary, salt, chicken bouillon cubes, along with a few other he couldn't quite remember.
He liked to understand, and had a rather fanatical dislike of not holding knowledge to a particular question that was dogging him.
Once again his attention was back on the funeral, the party was closer now, his sharp eyes were starting to pick up details he hadn't quite noted. Like the fact that almost everyone in the funeral had no pupils, clear cream white eyes that seemed to stare boldly, almost defiantly into the space surrounding them. These people, Uzumaki Naruto decided, interested him. His decision was made before the thought even started to occur to him he would follow these people, see how this funeral ended and then, with part of his question answered approach these strangely similar folk and get his questions answered.
Quietly the four year old blond shifted into the shadows of the surrounding Konoha streets. His eyes all the while watched the continuing progression.
Ten minutes later the progression had reached Konoha's Cemetery grounds. The place was split into a number of sections and subdivisions, and the progression was moving slowly and steadily towards the clan section. He allowed a small frown on his face, then that frown quickly morphed into a smile as he realized this would be a challenge. He enjoyed challenges.
Quickly-far faster than expected of one of his age- he slipped from behind the building wall and slid into one of the many trees that surrounded the Konoha cemetery. Quickly moving from one tree to another he followed the funeral to an dug hole just inside a dual gated fence some ten yards away from him. Despite the distance he could pick up the faint sounds of a man speaking, and see the surrounded people, all with heads bowed.
"A mother...a wife...wonderful...loved..missed dea-..."
Then the box was dropped into the hole and the people started a slow and somber move back. He followed the dark haired man with the small girl for some time, slowly they progressed through Konoha, moving from the business district, and slowly arriving at the residential district. He followed sliding from building to building as the man took a turn, suddenly the man-and his daughter- was gone. He let out a silent cure...he's lost them.
Then the world shuddered, for the briefest of moments his mind seemed to fold into itself, he wanted to curl up into a ball and hide away from the world. He wanted to disappear, hide, die, anything to get away from this feeling. It was overpowering. Then it came with a voice.
"Boy, why are you following me?" It was the man, his face just as hard, the aura of depression replaced by a muted anger. Next to him the crying girl firmly grasped his hand.
"I was interested." The answer seemed obvious to Naruto, he was interested, he wanted to know...so he followed. Now this feeling, this depression, this oppression he seemed capable of inflicting on him made him more interested.
"Interested?" The word confounded Haishi, such a vague term. Was the funeral of his wife interesting? Or perhaps this boy was interested in something else? His eyes flashed quickly to his daughter and a protective anger flared briefly into his mind. "In what?"
The boy stopped at the questioning, his face taking on a hard contemplative look. He smiled as he reached a realization, as if a sudden thought had occurred to him, and this thought would completely answer Haishi Hyuuga's question.
"Everything!"
"That answer is far from satisfactory boy. You've answered nothing I've wished for you to answer. Again, child,"Haishi stressed the , "give me a reason why you're following me, and a reason I shouldn't take you to your parents to have your hide stripped raw."
The boy looked contemplatively. "I don't understand," and he earnestly didn't. Uzumaki Naruto lacked the knowledge, the vocabulary to speak, to convey into words his ideas. It would be years before he could explain all things interested him, that the entirety of the pantheon of existence, from the smallest insect, the greatest of mountains drove him with a subtle and insatiable madness, in a quest for answers.
"I can't explain why I followed you," he stopped for a moment, "but I will find a way to explain to you. I promise." A broad toothed grin spread on the boy's mouth, and Haishi couldn't help but to smile-in his more subtle fashion- along with the child. "And as for why you shouldn't take to to my parents it's cause I have none."
Haishi was surprised at the blunt simplicity of the boy's statement. He noted the boy's small frame, took the boys words to realize he was an orphan, and truly set his gaze upon the child. The boy was small, scrawny even, his body was wire thin, he had long blond locks the color of liquid sunlight flowing down his face. Garbed in a white shirt with a blood red spiral placed atop it. His shorts were simple and green, adorned with a few pockets. His eyes were a deep inquisitive blue that seemed to be forever searching, forever looking for something. Those eyes held brilliance. On his face were three horizontal markings. Hiashi suddenly realized who he had been talking too.
The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, the host of the greatest of all the bijuu. A seemingly inquisitive child, who by a series of events he had no control of, was doomed to ostracization for more than likely the rest of his life. It was somewhat sad. Despite the fact that his face remained impassive, Haishi couldn't help but feel a touch of compassion for the boy.
"Fine then boy, I'll leave you today...but the next time I see you i expect an answer." He started to walk away once more.
"Wait! I never found out..."
"Found out what child?" Hiashi looked at the boy, his cream eyes taking a tentative look at the child. "Why did you bury the box the way you did, how did you make the air change, how did you make me so scared?"
Haishi looked at the child, an eyebrow raised. The boy was interesting, when he felt a sudden pressure on his palm he took a careful look at his daughter. The girl was hiding behind his leg, though her constant stream of tears seemed to have stopped.
"I'll answer one of your questions boy. When you figure out how to answer mine I'll answer your others. Agreed?"
"Yes."
"The answer as to how i made you scared is simple, its called intent, one uses one's chakra in order to send one's emotion, in this case my willingness to kill you to another."
"Wait...what's chakra?"
Haishi smiled down at the boy. Such a thirst for knowledge, such a shame it was going to waste. "That's two questions we agreed to one. Good bye boy."
Naruto pouted in childish disappointment as Haishi walked away.
xxx-xxx-xxx
The Fates are peculiar, strange mistresses that make the simplest of connects, the briefest of conversations have far reaching implications. Had Haishi Hyuuga's wife never spoken to him during her last moments in life, had her last act not been a desperate iron tainted kiss, had Uzumaki Naruto's innate curiosity risen just a few weeks earlier or later-or god forbid never at all- the world would have changed. Hyuuga Hinata would have spent her life in a shell, a mere glimpse of what she could be coming up only occasionally. Uzumaki Naruto would have spent his life ignoring the beauty of the world, the complex intricacy of the universe. Wildly fumbling, his potential only partly realized, Uzumaki Naruto would have fought his battles, won his wars, lost friends and loved one. He would have died fighting an immortal Uchiha, and died. His bijuu would have been extracted and the world enslaved.
But the fates were fickle, their weave for the tapestry of time was eccentric, the length of the strings they wished to use strange and existing as both short and long as t the same time. Because of this Hyuuga Haishi's wife did have those words with him, His last memory of her would be a bloody kiss, Uzumaki Naruto's innate curiosity was awoken at the right time. The fates in one flip of the wrist had chosen to weave this into their tapestry. And lives were changed.
xxx-xx-xx
He was crouched carefully over the small creature. It was a squirrel, small tiny and inconsequential. Its fur was brown, yet a pure white stripe ran up the middle length of its body. The contrast between was sharp, and even more defined by the droplets of blood that surrounded the small animal. Uzumaki Naruto looked between the small kunia held in his hands and the live animal restrained on the ground. He needed to know what made it tick, and so with some ingenuity,and a hastily constructed trap, he had caught one of the stupider of Konoha's nut harbingers.
Already he was carefully dissecting the creature. First he had slowly shaved away the creatures chest fur, then after carefully brushing away the fur he had started his work. Again he applied his kunai to the creatures tiny chest, slowly he ran the knife down it's abdomen. With a flick of his wrist the creatures tiny-rib cage was revealed. He smiled. It had taken quite an effort-and quite the number of squirrels and similar rodents-to get that technique down. He looked at it's tiny rib cage, the thin membrane of remnant muscle and thick applied veins beating up and down.
Up and Down.
Uzumaki Naruto's mind drifted away, as his small delicate hands worked at further dissection. The man-he'd never gotten his name-had given him a funny enough question. How he to say with words what was was nothing more than inexplicable emotion. How was he to convey his need to know? He needed something that had nothing but words. Like a bolt of lightning his mind made connection.
"The old man!"
His hand strayed, blood spurted out, and he cursed a loud curse. He looked down at the small squirming creature beneath him. He hadn't hit any of the inside bits, everything was fine, but he had placed a shallow cut on one of its back legs. A wide white toothed smile grew on his face, he hadn't killed it-he just wanted to learn not hurt things- and now he had a good portion of its layer of skin pulled back. He looked intently at the beating heart, the rising and falling lungs, the tiny yet plentiful intestines that coursed. The tiny kidneys tucked neatly next to the intestines and the adjacent liver. He looked down to his feet, he picked up a gray bout booklet-a gift from the old man-and a small worn pencil and started to sketch.
After a full ten minutes he had a relatively accurate, yet sloppy, sketch of the animal. He picked up the kunia once more. With a flick of his wrist he killed the small animal, ending its pain and suffering. Once he had tried to fix one of the animals. Sewing it up, the wounds had healed, but the animal had managed to get an internal infection and it suffered terribly before it died.
So now, he killed them with one clean slice. It was cold, cynical, and though he didn't know it showed signs of burgeoning sociopathic behavior.
He stood up from his dead crouch, stretched his limbs and smiled.
"I'll go talk to the old man, he'll know what to do."
xxx-xx-xxx
Droplets of red fell to the floor. Tiny droplets, thick with the smell of rusted iron, dripped of her fingers. Her small hands were balled into fists, tightly bound from her self-contained anger.
"Be strong"
Her mind trailed to her mother's words. Those last few moments, those two whole words, now defined her. Now drove her. She would be strong. She would be make her mother proud.
She pulled her hand back, and with a flurry of her wrist drove her palm into wooden post across from her. She gasped in pain as her hand splintered as sharp jagged edges of bone protruded from her skin.
"Hinata-sama that's enough."
She gripped her splintered hand, her face was a turgid mixture of agony, anger, and sadness.
"I have to be strong. Kaa-san said I have to be strong."
"You won't get strong if you cause permanent harm to yourself Hinata-sama." Her watcher looked down on her, a look of concern temporarily breaking the man's usually impassive face. "Let's take you to the hospital and get your hand healed."
"I have to be strong…"
xxx-xxx-xxx
"This," the elderly Kage swung his arm in a wide swinging arch, "this is troubling news Jiraiya. We far from ready for this. The Kyuubi's attack was ill timed, coming far too soon after the war. We haven't recovered, the next generation isn't ready, and the current is weary and tired. We need time Jiraiya, we need resources, and we have none."
With a worrisome frown the Kage looked down at the gathered information report.
"We have a few years' sensei, two to three at most, and that's only if we're lucky."
"Graduation age will have to be dropped again." The Sandaime mournfully, slowly, stated.
Both men got quite. A sudden oppressive atmosphere overtaking them. Soon, they'd be taking children, babes just fresh from their mother's teat, and sending them to their deaths. Soon they'd have to ask their people to send their sons, their brothers, their mother and fathers, their sisters and daughters, out to their deaths when he'd asked them for the same only a few years before.
"I have contacts in tea country, and my ties with Iron are still strong we ca-."
The door burst open, and a rambunctious blond burst into the room. His big blue eyes ignored the toad sage, and bored into the brown pools of the elderly Kage.
"Old man!"
"Naruto-kun, right now is quite an inopportune time, I'm in a meeting with one of my students. Why don't you wait outside until I'm done, okay?"
"But Jii-san…," the boy's voice droned out. "I need to ask you something."
"Naruto-kun, come now, be more sensible I'm in a meeting of-."
"It's quite okay, sensei let the brat ask his question."
The blond youth finally turned to face the white haired sage. His grin grew as he noticed the man. "Thanks old man!"
"No problem brat, but ask your question as quickly as possible. Me and sensei, were speaking on something very important."
"Jii-san, I need a way to…," the boy stopped for a moment, "I need a way, to say things, I can't say."
The old man stopped for a moment to quandary the boys' words. "Agh, I think I understand what you mean, what you need is dictionary my boy." The old man stood up and walked purposely to an adjacent wall, he grabbed a scroll from a shelf, and slowly returned back to the boy.
"Here you go my boy. This may help you in your pursuits, now why don't you leave. I have adult matters to speak off."
The boy smiled a wide grin. "Thanks Jii-san." Just as suddenly as he had rushed in, he quickly rushed out.
"He's got Minato's looks, but Kushina's personality it seems."
"More than you know, he's inherited the trait."
The sage frowned at the news. "How advanced is it?"
"At the beginning stages, so far. It's still easily manageable. Let's get back to the topics at hand."
"As I was saying, my ties in Iron will allow us to start importing weapons to supplement our own supplies, we can import rice from Tea, and we already have a strong relationships with Waterfall, they could act as a buffer between Stone and ourselves, at least for some amount of time." The old kage drawled out, he stopped as he observed his students serious expression.
"Jiraiya, what is it?"
"I wish to take the boy with me."
Silence reigned throughout the room. Both men said nothing as they each pondered the statement.
"Wars coming, and he inherited the Uzumaki trait. I need to prepare him, train him guide him."
"I simply won't send him out to battle until he's ready."
"Don't lie to yourself sensei." Silence fell over the two once more.
"Fine you may take him."
The two settled down into a comfortable silence.
xxx-xxx-xxx
Man, I finished that. This was 4k words, that's surprising in and off itself. The lenth was sorta insane. Anyways I got to do what I wanted in this chapter. I introduced certain characters, laid the foundations for their mental states, and started moving things around in the world. The first major change is Naruto himself, and his so called "trait." Which will be elaborated on later in the story. I don't plan on any time skips. So don't expect too many if any at all. The second major change was a war. I made a war a pretty early thing. Whatever.
I hope you all liked my story, and as always please review.