It was not a friendly place, no not with its cheap wallpaper covered in mold, no not even with its many occupants of children. It was actually quite a miserable and gloomy place, despite supposedly being a place that brings happiness to all families sterile or not all across the country.
The poor unsuspecting people who wanted a child from there would only come to see a depressing place holding very few actual children but more teens then you should ever see in an orphanage, the teens who lived there reflected on the environment like mirrors all sad and depressed as they were
The only person under 10 was 8 years old and still a little older than what most people looked for, and was ignored just as much as the others. This poor child seemed to be the worst out of all the children, in terms of personality that is, always alone he distanced himself from everyone.
He was a weak child refusing to eat more than a couple bites and never exercising and it showed seeing as it really took its toll on his nutrition intake and physical state. Usually you would find him studying in the shadows with a large book and shrouded in darkness.
He never did like crowds even before the accident happened he had always liked the quite serene sort of places, he was an energetic child at first with so many friends and knew everyone but he still hated crowds even then, it was just far worse now.
He, or if you were to call him by his proper name, Naruto Kitsune Uzumaki Namikaze, adopting both names at birth he always made long introductions because of it, of course that was when he used to talk to people.
It doesn't mean he stopped talking or was a mute, just barely talked saying few words that carried the burdens of the rest of the sentence. He was far too serious for someone his age, with his hardened blue eyes that used to be bright like the sky now hardened and looked more like a dull grey, sickly pale skin which was once a healthy caramel tan, and his hair that once bounced up in all directions shining like a beacon of sun on the darkest of days limp and more like a scratchy hay.
He had been in the orphanage around a year after his family passed away in the explosion, when he first came here, after the long period of time where he was passed along lawyers all fighting about where he should go, he had been approached by the others with open arms all fussing about how he was so cute. But after a while they learned to stay away from him with his crazy mumbling about how to play the game.
Why you might ask, why was he always studying? Well the answer was simple, first off he may've been considered a bright kid but after all that happened he missed almost a full year of school and so to catch up he studied hard every day, secondly he could ignore people with the premise of reading and working.
It was still a week before he would go to school again, Fourth Grade he would be turning 9 in a couple months, it was funny that it was only a little bit ago he noticed with the calamity he had missed his own birthday, he didn't really think of it as a day of celebration anymore, only as another day he had to live without his family, his oh so wonderful loving family.
He flipped another page, the mindless text not really registering in his mind as he'd already read through all the large books at least twice. He just really didn't like dealing with the others asking him to play with him outside in the great weather, all of them trying to get out of the gross building. Looking up for a moment he surveyed the room and noticed the energetic ones were out at the moment.
It was strange how he the youngest one there was the worst out of all of them, what a crack up right. Getting up out of his perch in the corner he didn't care to stretch just started shuffling on the carpet with his bare feet towards the small library which was really just a couple of shelves stuffed messily with books situated in the corner opposite of him, maybe he could find some entertainment with one of the books he hadn't read, like a murder mystery or something.
Too bad his life wasn't a murder mystery because then maybe a great detective could've met them and saved them by noticing what they didn't the fact that the overhead light had a crack in it and was practically a ticking time bomb ready to be set off and kill them, but there wasn't and the bomb had gone off.
He knew that it wasn't normal for someone his age to have these thoughts, especially the suicidal ones he'd been having lately, one time he actually had a knife in his hand right next to his heart, but could never bring himself to do it, he was too scared, not of death but facing his family in the next world. Plus in a way he still carried bravery by knowing that his family wouldn't want him to die, especially his brother who tried his hardest to get him out of there despite knowing that it would cost him his own life.
Reaching the makeshift library he started to shift through the covers, Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, Kogoro Akechi* nothing really caught his attention and noticed he'd already read most of the other books, in all of his time ignoring the others. Sighing he was about to sit back up until he noticed a pile of papers stuffed in with the other books.
It was fairly old paper yellow and frail with age. It had large black print across the front along with black and white pictures; he noticed what it was immediately, newspaper, and old ones at that. They were all from around the late 1900's it was obvious enough because it had dates on each one but he noticed the pictures had stuff that wasn't made till after World War II.
Grabbing one he brought it up to his face and decided to nestle into the crook between the two shelves that stood there. How had he not noticed them before, the newspapers, they were actually interesting talking about things that had actually happened and weren't sugar coated they were actually telling the truth for once, not like newscasters or journalists did nowadays.
He read through article after article particularly liking one done by a younger journalist that had shown up in the later articles, it was done by Jirayia Sannin, he thought the name suited him** seeing as he talked about everything with gusto and a booming personality that showed even through the paper.
It seemed as if he found something that he could appreciate and actually smile about, finally.
So what did you think about this chapter, I decided naru-chan really needed something to be happy about so I decided on the newspaper idea, it doesn't mean it's a happy stage of the story yet though, no no no no he still has to go through a lot to get the happy ending. It's not as if I want to torture him but it is an angst fic.
Please review, no hate but constructive criticism is accepted with open arms. Oh and as a side note, I don't have a beta so I may have some mistakes in grammar or spelling.