Disclaimer: I OWN NOT THIS MANGA NOR ITS ANIME NOR ANY COPYRIGHTS TO ITS MERCHANDISE. I WRITE THIS STORY FOR ENTERTAINMENT, NOT FOR PROFIT IT IS ONLY A FANFICTION.
WARNING: I WONDER IF YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN EXPECTING THIS MESSAGE SINCE I STOPPED FREQUENTLY POSTING CHAPTERS AND EVEN NOW AS I WRITE THIS MESSAGE I'M WINCING AT WHAT I'M GONNA SAY. I'M NOT DROPPING THIS STORY- I'M JUST RESTARTING IT… AGAIN... BEFORE YOU LEAVE LET ME EXPLAIN. I'VE FINALLY GOT DOWN A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR THIS STORY. IN OTHER WORDS I'VE WORKED OUT HOW MAGIC WORKS IN THIS UNIVERSE AND IT MAKES THINGS JUST A LITTLE EASIER TO WORK WITH THE STORY. I'VE ALSO WRITTEN DOWN A LOT OF THINGS THAT HELP ME O FIGURE OUT THIS STORY SO IT SHOULD BE EASIER TO MOVE ON WITH THE PLOT WITHOUT EVENTUALLY COMPLETELY CONTRADICTING MYSELF OR CONFUSING YOU WITH HALF EXPLANATIONS THAT SERVE AS A SORT OF DISTRACTION TILL I CAN CLEAR MY HEAD AND COME UP WITH SOMETHING BETTER.
PS: SORRY, THIS WARNING WAS UP FOR TOO SHORT A TIME BEFORE I DELETED THE ORIGINAL STORY SO I'M GONNA PUT IT UP AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS CHAPTER. I'M SORRY ONCE AGAIN. GOOD NEWS IS THAT THE NEW CHAPTER TWO SHOULD BE OUT BEFORE THE END OF NEXT WEEK. THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME SO FAR.
SR
SPIRAL REFLECTION
'Move, move!' An old man shouted as he tried to pull the cart that carried his merchandise to safety.
'Will you watch where you're going?' another voice shouted in the distance.
'Get out of the way!' an aggressive voice shouted and was soon followed by the loud wailing of an upset child.
The scene in the town was chaos as its inhabitants struggled to get to cover and away from the impending storm.
Oppressive grey clouds gathered over the small settlement and a flash of lightning was often shortly followed by the rumbling of thunder. There was a storm building in the air and the natural instincts of the people told them that it was so much more than a rain storm. Hence, everyone was rushing to get cover.
On the outskirts of the town where no one lived four figures stood fighting a midnight black wolf that would have completely faded into the shadows despite the fact that one of its paws was enough to destroy the whole town, but it did not fade as it would have because of its bright red eyes that could easily be seen.
Unlike in the town a storm was not just threatening but was raging: Fierce winds bellowed and the sound of lightning was more of a roar than rumbling; The rain came down in torrents, crashing harshly against the skin of the figures and all other surfaces; Below their feet the ground often crumbled and from time to time a fire would suddenly and violently come to life beside one of them before it died down or was put out by the rain.
It was in these conditions that the four figures tried to completely subdue the beast who had the ability to temporarily fade to shadows and to sometimes disappear and reappear in another spot.
Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and a voice that was easily drowned by the rain came from one of the figures: 'We've got it!'
Luckily her companions who had both seen what had happened and had been carefully listening for these words heard them and they immediately moved into position. From the cage of light that trapped the beast several brightly lit lines spread out forming into weird shapes around the general area. Most people would not have been able to follow the full array if they were not viewing it from above, the villagers would not have known what it was: but the four figures knew and moved quickly to their positions in the rune circle.
Three of them moved into kneeling positions in different circles at different points: the two women were expending all their power to keep the prison of light standing; the man used all of his power to keep the rune circle active. The last person in the group, a man, stood in a circle in front of the cage. His eyes were purple and had several black rings surrounding his pupils, the minute his eyes locked with the beast its struggled lessened significantly though it never completely stopped.
Keeping his eyes fixed on blood red eyes of the monster he began to form his hands into weird shapes, all the while mumbling some words under his breath. Finally he finished and slammed his hands into the runes around him shouting out loud the words: 'Splitting sentient prison sealing technique!'
The creature roared out in pain as a white light formed in its chest. The light grew as did the struggles of the monster and then there was a burst of light that even more than the fierce storm, completely blinded them all.
When the light cleared the beast was no more, instead in ten different circles there were ten different mists that all seemed to be glowing but had a dark shadow in their middle that pulsed.
Even as the four figures watched with a sense of growing elation that their plan seemed to have worked the mists twisted and twisted… and seemed to grow…
The towns people who had before all been in a hurry relaxed as the atmosphere lightened somewhat and the grey clouds gave way just a smidge to allow a few rays of sunlight to show through.
When Naruto Uzumaki was angry things tended to get destroyed one way or another.
There was the incident at the age of three when Naruto had snuck away from the orphanage to attend a certain festival. He had ended up at a small shop that sold masks. The owner of the mask shop that opened only on certain festival days had refused to serve the small boy and had instead humiliated him in front of a large crowd that had gathered to sneer at his misfortune. As Naruto had defiantly glared back at them, without any apparent stimulation, every single mask in that crowd, including the ones in the shop, begun to crack one by one until they were all in pieces. At that time a ninja had had to intervene to prevent the boy from being attacked by the angry mob. Naruto had not understood what was going on but he still felt that they deserved it for bullying him- because that without a doubt was what they had done. The shop owner had demanded restitution for the damage to his goods; Naruto and the ninja had both denied Naruto's involvement; the Hokage had believed them; said merchant got zilch.
Then there had been the time when the matron at the orphanage had refused to feed him lunch or dinner because of a certain fight that had taken place that was not his fault and in which his only participation was to try and defend himself- he was still only three and the youngest bully in the group had been three years older than himself there was really not much he could do. For the remainder of the day Naruto was simmering and whenever the matron had tried to switch on any cooking appliance it exploded.
Then of course there was the incident which had gotten him thrown out of the first orphanage he was in: the matron had tried to lock him out of the building during one stormy night for one thing or the other- really the little boy was not even sure what he was being punished for this time but he knew it was unfair- and had found herself unable to get back in the house as she had been chased by lightning. The lightning seemed to have fun striking at all the places where she could have been and had been and the matron had gotten more exercise than she had in years! Naruto had been amused at the sight and had let out a small chuckle; the lightning immediately seized. After that frightening experience the matron's survival instincts had been sharpened and she was able to connect the pieces and link the lightening to the small blond. A startled Naruto had been all but dragged back into the orphanage and locked in his room. Before dusk the next day he had been moved to a new orphanage.
After that Naruto had been moved around from one orphanage to the next in quick succession. The longest he had stayed at an orphanage was three months; the shortest was a little under fifteen hours- arrived late one night and was gone before lunch the next day. In the short span of approximately one year Naruto Uzumaki had lived in six different orphanages.
The incident that got him thrown out of the second orphanage was much less amusing than the first but no more astounding seeing as how the building which served as the orphanage was partly sunk into the ground. At the fourth orphanage every single window had simultaneously shattered when Naruto threw a tantrum after his favourite and only toy was taken from him by an older child and the head was ripped off from the already tattered teddy bear. The incident that had finally gotten the Hokage to relent and get the young boy his own apartment at the tender age of four was an incident that had put the citizens of Konoha on edge- the orphanage had caught on fire; the matron had been severely burnt and a few children had been hurt as well. No one really knew what had happened but everyone at the orphanage- Naruto included- knew one thing- he had been the cause. Naruto knew it; he felt it and he felt guilty about it. Even if the Hokage had wanted to place him in another orphanage no one was willing to accept him.
The council had immediately used this as an excuse to try and control the boy but the Hokage had fought for him and had gotten them to back off for the moment. Still, he knew that this was far from over: the council of Konoha was nothing if not persistent. From the moment that he moved Naruto to his own apartment the Hokage had been walking on needles. He could not fight off the feeling that something was going to go wrong.
And it did.
Almost three weeks had passed since Naruto had moved into his new apartment block when it caught fire. Luckily no one had been hurt but the citizens were outraged. It became obvious to them that they had been right in calling for the boy's death. After all that the demon brat had done it was even clearer to them that he was a hazard and that anyone that could not see that was blind and incompetent.
Naruto spent the following morning sitting in the Hokage's office and colouring pictures or playing games, unable to leave. He could not comprehend what was going on but the old man looked tired and Naruto wanted to put off disturbing him as much as possible: after the first time he had asked and the old man had kindly (but wearily) told him he could not go outside to play he had obediently and unconsciously played as quietly as possible so as not to stress out his grandfather figure.
Sarutobi noticed Naruto had toned down his noise levels after asking if he could go play outside and being denied. Sarutobi let out a fond but sad smile at the boy. He had lived long and in that time he had realised that children were more insightful than most adults gave them credit for.
He watched Naruto gravely for a while before he turned back to the set of papers on the desk which he had been considering for a while.
These were the papers that Kushina had specifically deposited with him asking him to please take care of them because she did not want anyone to get their hands on them. Apparently she had received them from Mito and Kushina did not want anyone of those greedy Konoha merchants to somehow get wind of the documents. Sarutobi had felt that her fear was somewhat justified at that time seeing as how Kushina was a jinchuuriki and many of Konoha's richer and more well established merchants were bigoted fools with hearts colder than ice and harder than diamonds. After seeing the piece of property in question he had felt that she was more than justified enough in her worry- it was amazing!
The Hokage had gone with Kushina to visit the home once when she was pregnant with Naruto and she had felt it only proper to show Minato. The Hokage had tagged along curious about the ancient home that had once belonged to Mito and which now belonged to Kushina: he was not disappointed.
The house, a two story building with an attic and a basement, was western styled and painted in tones of cream and soothing brown; the use of a glass like substance, that proved to be much sturdier than glass, was freely applied in the upstairs corridors and in the rooms instead of having walls and allowed a good amount of sunlight to filter into the house; the curtains and rugs that filled the place while of an obviously high quality make were not gaudy in a way that emphasized too much wealth but instead showcased a quiet elegance; and the furniture though heavily covered in dust appeared to be in good shape and were obviously placed for their functionality as much as for the their beautiful craftsmanship; portraits as well as several other curious and beautiful ornaments were present throughout out the house and demonstrated a cheerful sort of personality mixed with good taste.
It was a house that had been made not only to be shown off but also to be lived in.
But that was not all. The house was also surrounded by an extensive amount of land and trees and several small other buildings that had long been abandoned. Small bodies of water and a miniature forest as well as extensive gardens had been present in the compound. The place was a treasure.
Curiously enough, an aspect that very much awakened the curiosity of the scholarly Hokage, was the fact that nothing from the house was visible or even seemed to be in existence once the compound had been locked down. Before Kushina had applied a drop of her blood on the required seals nothing had been present and after she had locked down the compound the Hokage had walked around on the now empty land and had confirmed that there was nothing left there from the Uzumaki property.
Minato had been intrigued by that and had, with the permission of his wife, begun to study the seals involved. As far as the old Hokage knew, the young man had not made any progress before his death.
The aged leader gave a weary sigh at the reminder of the premature loss of the life of his successor. He looked up at the yellow haired child that quietly sat on the floor drawing pictures of his uncomplicated view of everyday life in Konoha and he let a soft smile onto his lips. He was fond of the boy, very much so in fact, and did not want Danzo or the others getting their hands on him. He had done many things in his life which he regretted and he did not feel himself to be a good man or an evil one really- he simply did what he could to protect those he cared about. He would have repeated many of those same decisions that sometimes came back to haunt him because they were decisions that protected those he cared for.
Was Naruto really a danger to anyone? The answer was 'Yes but only when he's angry' because 'at those times the world seems to tense up and listens to his whims'. Those had been the words of the ninja that had been placed to monitor Naruto since his strange abilities had cropped up.
'…the world seems to tense up and listen to his whims.'
That had been another thing about these events. The ninja had said that Naruto had not used chakra but he had still been, after some time spent constantly watching the boy, able to tell exactly when something would happen because the world around him seemed to shift. What exactly changed- he could not tell but he could feel it.
The Hokage sighed; he had been doing that a lot more recently. The most recent incident had not been Naruto's doing because that had been traces of chakra left behind and the incidents instigated by the small blond never made use of chakra. This was a setup.
He pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. Such an attempt had been dangerous and badly planned and had resulted in a lot of unnecessary, extra paperwork for him! If he could he would have like to send the moron who had done it to Anko and let the woman have her fun- irritating, manipulative, old windbags!
As it was he had no solid proof and so would not do anything- yet. Oh no, for now his top priority was Naruto. He looked through another file that lay on his desk- a file that contained the anbu under his command. He planned to find those that were most loyal to him and hopefully understood just how much the child had been forced to give up for people that hated him. Many of the anbu who had also had to do some unsavoury things found that they could empathize with young Naruto's situation. From those he would choose a few who could help with the clean-up of the Uzumaki mansion which was to become the boy's new home. Hopefully with Naruto no longer being a direct threat to any of them the villagers would calm down and Naruto would have a bit of quiet.
He looked at the pictures in the file carefully. Hopefully with a bit of guidance as Naruto grew older he would learn to control this ability, whatever it was, or it may become a problem in the future.
He stopped absently flicking through the file as a certain face came up to stare at him. A small smile was on his lips as he studied the file of the anbu: there also happened to be current need for a guardian who would stay with Naruto.
That settled he looked up at the boy and a gentle smile came to his lips "What do you say we get an order of Ichiraku's for lunch?" he asked the small child and his question was answered by a bright smile and a vigorous nod of the head. "Then I'll have Ayaka pick up some," he said as he pressed the button to summon his secretary. As he did so he noticed the smile of the child falter just a bit and he had to hide his grimace.
Trapping the child in the office had not been his plan but right now, no matter how much Naruto may want to, nothing could convince the old Hokage that it was alright to let the boy outside.
The small blond turned back to continue his drawings and Sarutobi had to repress his sigh. He really wished that Minato and Kushina were here right now because he was honestly getting too old for this job.