Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Naruto; Masashi Kishimoto does. Good thing too, cause my drawing skills are awful (just look at the paint image I made for this story). Hope this story interests someone enough to review and tell me what's good, and more importantly, what's not.


"Character talking"

"Thinking"

"Kyubi talking"

"Kyubi thinking"

Naruto: Koori no Kokoro

ナルト:氷の心

Chapter Two: Mask of Ice - Part 2


Kakashi was scared.

He couldn't deny it in any shape, way or form, but he was definitely scared.

The last connection to the Yondiame Hokage, his last connection to his sensei, was blind.

And it was probably the village that worshiped his sensei that caused this… incident.

He understood as well as anyone that Naruto was a boy, not a demon. In fact, he probably understood it better than most, since having a genius fuinjutsu expert as a teacher generally lends one to understanding the principles of sealing jutsu.

That wasn't his reason for never talking to the boy.

It wasn't because of any hatred, but grief that caused him to stop at only protecting the boy's body. He couldn't bear to look into those piercing blue eyes, and see a loneliness that never plagued the face of his surrogate father, Minato.

The last thing he remembered his sensei asking him to do was care for Naruto.

"I have cared for him! I always volunteer to be his ANBU protection whenever I can!"

But he knew his own motivation far too well to lie to himself like that.

What if looking into those now pale cerulean eyes led him to believe that he failed Minato.

He found the boy, so what?

The boy was blind.

Kakashi was scared.

xxxScene Breakxxx

Hiruzen Sarutobi placed a hand over his face and wept.

The Sandaime Hokage was appalled at the nature of the depravity his villagers deemed appropriate to expose a young, scared boy too.

Naruto was recovered from an abandoned building on the outskirts of Konoha three hours ago, and he was relieved to hear that the boy was okay.

That relief was short lived, as the boy was brought to the ANBU medical staff (the only medics who were completely okay with the demon container) and they discovered that his eyes were now completely blind.

Flashback

"I'm going to be da hokage! And den you'll be able to relax jiji! Believe it!"

Flashback End

"How will you accomplish that now Naruto? Will you even want to be a shinobi of Konoha after this?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Shinobi no Kami, wept.

Of course, his ANBU guards looked away. Their respect for the aged shinobi before them was far too high for them to entertain thoughts of intruding upon his personal moment of weakness.

And so, for all intents and purposes, the hokage was alone, to express his sadness in such a way as he hasn't in five years, after learning of his wife's death.

Sarutobi removed his hand from his face, composed his emotions into a blank wall, and prepared for a council meeting that for once, he called.

Someone was going to pay for hurting his surrogate grandchild.

Heads will roll.

xxxScene Breakxxx

Naruto was lying on a cot in the ANBU hospital, eyes still closed.

"Whats the point in opening them now?" he thought

He thought back to his meeting with the Kyuubi no Kitsune and started laughing at how "nice" the kyuubi was while crying at his misfortunes.

"Who would've thought that the most powerful entity in the elemental countries was sealed in me?" he thought, remembering their conversation.

Flashback

"Where am I" thought Naruto, hearing echoes of water droplets falling all around him "did they toss me in a sewer now".

He slowly worked his way in one direction, walking with his left hand trailing a wall, until he reached the base of a large column, from what he could figure.

"What is a column doing in a sewer?" He mumbled to himself

The voice that answered mildly shocked him "A column? Ha! This 'column' you speak of is one of the bars imprisoning me"

"What the hell!" exclaimed Naruto "Who the hell are you! And how big are you that a column taller then me is part of your jail!"

"Odd" thought the Kyuubi "I don't believe that he could recognize the size of my jail without sight. Hmmm…. Maybe…."

"Gaki!"

"Um, Hai?"

"How could you know the size of my cage?"

"Eto…I tapped it remember? The echo gave off a very low sound, so I thought it had to be very big"

"This gaki, he could be interesting. Maybe I'll lend him a simple gift, and see if he is worthy of having more…"

"Gaki, I have a "gift" for you. However, you should first figure out what I am"

"Nani? What do you mean? You say that like you're not a person. Shouldn't you say 'who'?"

"This, this gaki is fascinating! The only other who thought of us as beings was 'him'"

"Hmm… boy. You have graduated from 'gaki' in my eyes. For now I'll call you 'kit'"

"Like a fox?"

"Yes. Because that is what I am. I am the great KYUUBI NO KITSUNE! BRINGER OF TSUNAMIS, DESTROYER OF NATIONS, AND THE MOST POWERFUL ENTITY ON THIS PLANET! Can you accept the fact that now, we are within your body? That I am jailed not just behind bars, but within you?"

Silence ruled the sewer for a long time, until Naruto finally said

"Yeah, so what now?"

That was quite possibly the one response that the kyuubi was expecting the least

"You dismiss my claims? Do you think I'm a liar? Explain yourself kit!"

The kyuubi was actually angered, thinking that the aura of power in his voice should have been proof enough of his claim.

"No, I believe you. I just don't care that you're the kyuubi."

Naruto explained himself further to the fox –

"If you remember properly, you might remember that the hokage was just too…weak? Maybe the better word is limited in finding me, wherever the hell I am. You said it yourself; you are the strongest person in the world. I don't want to rely on humans, but I will trust that if you are the strongest, you can help me the most."

The kyuubi mulled that over for a while

"I 'see' kit" Naruto winced "eh, I guess I'm sorry?" Naruto shrugged it off

"I'll eventually need to get over this anyways right? Especially now that my goal has changed."

"You no longer want to be the hokage little kit?" the kyuubi was surprised

"I will become hokage. But now it is a stepping stone to what I really want. I want to be so strong that this will never happen to me again, or to my 'precious people' like the Ichiraku or my jiji. I may not believe in his strength like I used too, but I still care for him."

Mulling that statement over for a while, the kyuubi eventually laughed

"A fine goal then. But there is one last question I have for you. Why do you not hate me?"

"I can't find it in me to hate you. You obviously were coerced into the attack."

The kyuubi actually growled at that

"How the HELL is that obvious kit? You've never acted so smart before."

"I wear a 'mask' for lack of a more appropriate term. I pretend I'm happy and stupid normally, because it means that the villagers will avoid me or call me names, instead of attack me. As for the reasoning I have for you not trying to destroy Konoha, it's rather simple; if you truly wanted to destroy Konoha of your own free will, you would have done so before. I mean, from accounts you appeared out of nowhere, and then fired an attack, but you have never been attributed to teleporting, so someone else with a massive space-time jutsu must have forced you to attack."

The kyuubi was absolutely shocked at this deduction. Without even a tenth of the whole story, the boy pieced together a scenario close to what happened.

"Kit. I have decided. If you swear to kill the man who took control of me, I will lend my aid to you."

Naruto agreed.

"Then the pact is made. I will explain my gifts to you when you awaken, as it seems someone non-hostile to you is close."

Flashback End

Chapter 2 End


A/N So, was it interesting? Any glaring grammatical errors bothering you guys? I tend to write in sets of three, but that'll change as the story progresses an I write more in one setting.

Naruto is going to be quite OCC to new people (hence the ice title), unlike the Canon!Naruto, but will still be pretty charismatic.

he's just going to kill/maim most of his enemies instead of talking to them

I will try to have some banter though

Next chapter will have him meeting kakashi, learning of his "gifts" (there's going to be a couple of those, but they wont be attack based, so it won't make him OC), and Sarutobi is going to remind the council of the fact that he is the god of shinobi.

Next, next chapter will probably introduce my planned OC whose going to be Naruto's love interest later on, and Naruto's temporary sensei, who is going to teach him a new jutsu to deal with the blindness like a NINJA (I'm saying it right now, credit for the jutsu should go to kenchi618, I'm basing off one of the jutsu in his story "Better left Unsaid")

Hope this was enjoyable!

BPLP123 out