BH: Hiya! Go back and read the first chapter, as I have replaced the old with the new! I hope you like it!
Also sorry, I'm splitting up Naruto's chapter, because the following scenes are going to be really involved. And the POV won't be as 'deep' as it is in this chapter.
Hidden From Sunlight
Chapter Two: Maelstrom
He liked to fill the bathtub to the top. Sitting chin-deep in the warmth gave him a sensation he sorely lacked. He had seen a child his size stand in front of a woman once. He had raised his arms and the woman picked him up, gifting him with ticklish hugs.
Naruto had run up to that woman and mimicked the child. But the look on her face told him he wasn't a boy, but a mangy rat.
Another reason he liked to fill the tub so high; When he pulled the plug, he liked to watch the water get sucked down the drain till it turned into a ferocious vortex.
He liked to imagine he had washed his manginess clean. He liked to believe that it could be that easy.
"Bye bye."
Konoha has a few places to play for people his size.
Naruto went to the nearest one from his apartment, but it was a bust. So he went to the next one, the one with the swingsets and sandbox. But the swings were never open, and the sandbox was overcrowded. The third one was like the first: full of picnics and parents. They'd never share their food, let alone their kids.
So here he was now, at his fourth shot to have a good day.
No parents. Thank god.
There were the same amount of kids as he had fingers out on the grassy field, kicking a white ball around.
Naruto walks backwards towards them, checking over his shoulder every now and then. He doesn't want to be obvious. They might get spooked. Like pigeons.
He pretends to play with a stick.
But how does he play with a stick?
No, how does he want to play with a stick?
He pokes the ground. He makes dots. Then lines. Is he drawing? He doesn't know. It doesn't look like anything. That disappoints him. He begins to earnestly try to draw something.
Oh wait! The kids!
Naruto checks over his shoulder. They moved further away! Heart hammering in his chest, he runs a circle around them, stick in hand. He gets closer, but he's not obvious about it.
They've got these funny looks on their faces, though. Naruto doesn't think about it. He's going to draw something while waiting for them to invite him to play.
A few squiggles and he thinks he's made the same mountain range the Hokage Monument has been carved into. He glances back up and his heart drops. The kids have moved further away. Again.
He realizes that he's been too subtle.
He drops the stick and approaches them.
They freeze mid-play, staring at him. They glance at each other. And they begin to walk away.
Naruto follows them.
They look over their shoulders.
Now they're running.
But why?!
Naruto runs after them until one boy stops and shouts. "Stop following us!"
His friends shush at him frantically, a chorus of quiet screams.
"What? I had to tell him! It was already obvious we didn't want to play with him. Hey! You think he might be stupid?" The boy runs off. They disappear over the hill.
Naruto is like the stick he had abandoned. A broken off piece of detritus with no purpose. It's not a very good instrument to draw with, he learned that much. Maybe the only thing that ever got excited to see a stick was a dog, but even then the stick had to be thrown away. Sure, dogs bring them back, but both dog and owner only want one thing from the stick: To go away.
Another summer had passed. The extra long days where he had determined to make friends had dwindled with the sunlight. Fall had its festivals, but he found the red glow of the lanterns and the esoteric joy on the villagers' faces oddly suffocating. Nobody let him play games anyways. Didn't matter the Hokage gave him a little extra pocket change to win a goldfish.
Now the world was white. Frosty, biting and blank.
Gripping the stiff rope of the swing, Naruto stared into the yard of the Ninja Academy.
He's been reading lately. At the Hokage's office. The old man has been letting him take a shot at performing some basic jutsu. The first time he summoned a shadow clone had been the single most exciting moment of his life. To create something out of thin air, the puff of smoke causing an erratic drumroll in his chest, it set his imagination on fire.
It made him believe.
He could do anything!
The sound of an ambush drew his attention away.
"You think you're too good for us, huh?" said a lanky boy with black hair. He was taller than the other two.
"Hyuuga's are all snobs. Just like you," The middle boy in the red cap bent forward, hands on his hips, and Naruto got a good look at who they were antagonizing. "Man, those eyes are creepy. Are you a monster?"
"Ha! A monster! You're a monster!"
Naruto clenched at the rope. She didn't seem particularly upset, as her gaze slid side to side, like she were sizing up her prey. But their words, their attitude, it burned him up inside. No one should be called a monster!
"Do you have something against monsters?" She cocked her head to the side, a strand of dark hair falling across her small face.
Amazing! She was talking back to them! Oh no, wait!
The red cap grabbed her by the scarf, holding her up enough that she was dangling, if only barely.
Naruto grit his teeth. He definitely wasn't going to let them do whatever they wanted!
"You're s'pposed to cry, tiny."
"Like this?"
Naruto released his grip. It felt like butterflies were tickling his stomach, he tried not to laugh at the ridiculous expression she was making.
"I'll get you to cry for real!" He cocked his fist back.
"Whoa, hey! That's going too far!"
Naruto flew off the swing, fists ready to swing. No wait, there were too many of them. He would need back up! He would need shadow clones!
He halted as he watched the red cap fly backwards and land none too gently on his back. She dodged a fist and used the taller boy's momentum against him, sending him face-first into the snow. She spun and struck the husky gum-chewer in the gut. He clutched his middle and sank onto his side.
That was way too fast.
Naruto watched her take her scarf back from the red cap boy. He watched the way her long, dark hair hung off her pale skin like a silken sheet, how her tiny mouth was probably pinker than usual because of the chill.
She secured the scarf around her neck, hair tucked in and bunched up around her face. She had this confidence in her stare that he'd never seen before on anyone. It twisted the emptiness tighter in his heart, as if a vortex might open up inside him, too.
She was his age, clearly. She had to be. But she also… felt like an adult. It was weird and more than a little difficult to explain.
And then she saw him.
His chest seized. He tried to save her but he didn't need to. Boy, that was another awful feeling to add to the seemingly bottomless list of awful feelings.
She looked away and marched for the school. As if he were nothing more than scenery.
Alrighty. He would add this feeling to the list as well.
Hands in his pockets, Naruto scuffed his boots along the muddy dirt road. The snow had been trampled to death, leaving barely any untouched pockets of white along the sides.
His stomach's been growling. The sun's been down, too. He wasn't for sure on how long, but he counted seven hunger pangs too many.
Then the familiar aroma met his nose before the familiar sight did, and his stomach started to churn and twist, anticipating the moment it was filled.
Naruto grinned to himself, his steps picking up. He paused, sheepishly glancing around his surroundings. There were a few people milling about, but it would probably be okay.
He cupped his mouth and aimed his voice away from their eyes. And he murmured, because this was just for himself. "Naruto! Time for dinner!"
"Alright, I'm starved!" He jumped into a run, straight for the Ichiraku.
Because no one says this to him at home. And because restaurateurs only say one thing.
He bursts on it, too short to reach the noren, and both Teuchi and Ayame greet him.
"Come on in!"
What good is an alarm clock if it doesn't work?!
His whole body is on fire as Naruto sprints through the streets. He barrels through the academy entrance. "I'm here! I'm here! I'm hereI'mhereI'mhere!" He slips on the polished wooden planks and crashes past his classroom, catching the barest glimpse inside. Everyone had surprised looks on their faces.
He hopes he is a good surprise.
He climbs to his hands and knees and scrambles on his way in. "I'm here!"
"You're late!" Scolds his sensei, his nasal scar wrinkling in distaste.
"But I'm here now!" Naruto doesn't move. Everyone's seated, and they're barely looking at him. Maybe he's a bad surprise, after all.
His sensei is pinching the bridge of his nose as he sighs. "This is your only warning. Please be punctual from now on. It's bad to waste others' time."
His heart feels like a open book tentatively closing itself shut. He scuffs at the floor. Should he apologize? He didn't mean to waste other's time, but he feels like he needs an apology instead. "'Kay."
"Go take a seat."
Naruto approaches the seats. They're divided into two sections, with two sets of stairs, one to the left and in the center.
He's taken aback when he sees the girl from that time when he was on the swing. She's sitting so proper, back straight and head held proud. He thinks what it'd be like to brush that strand of hair out of her face. He also thinks about her eyes, which are steely but also large, simultaneously piercing and wondrous.
She still doesn't look at him. He's still scenery to her.
His gaze pans over to the right, where a shriveled blossom personified is sitting. She's crouched forward, shoulders hunched up. She's hiding beneath a mane of choppy pink hair, and he can see her frightful green eyes.
Compared to the brunette beside her, he thinks 'That's a face I can definitely protect'.
He moves on. The first two rows are filled. So is the second and the third rows. Then his gaze falls upon a familiar face, and his lips pull into a grin.
That boy in the navy shirt, with the spiky black hair and abyssal black eyes, he had been sitting on a riverbank at sunset last summer. Naruto had been strolling on his own, as if he oft does, and the boy had glanced up at him.
Naruto raises his hand and waves at the boy. Because they had shared a smile that evening. And that meant they were friends, right?
Those black eyes flicked in his direction. Then their attention returned to whatever was occurring outside the window.
Naruto's grin dropped. So did his hand.
Whispers rose up around him, sneers and smirks poorly hidden behind their hands as they side-eyed him.
Naruto's chest burned. Then his neck burned. Then his cheeks, all the up way to his ears. Searing.
Okay. He took another survey around the room. All the edges were taken. The students sat a part so evenly, it didn't look like there was a place to sit.
He marched up to the very top, and sat on the landing.
He glanced to his left, and they looked away. He glanced to his right, and they looked away, too.
He just didn't feel like he could ask them. Didn't feel like he could talk to them.
Iruka-sensei completed roll call. He began his first lesson with the most rudimentary of overviews covering chakra, its various elemental forms, how many chakra points exist in the body, et cetera, et cetera.
The more he listened, the more he strained to understand. One fact eclipsed the one before it, and when he was asked if he understood so far, and he sure wished he hadn't been asked that, he jolted alert and straightened his back. He stammered. "No?"
The class erupted into laughter, and the insult sloshed on him like when he bumped his drink cup into his table.
"Alright. Meet me during lunch and I'll go over this with you again."
A girl with asymmetrical violet hair thrust her hand up. "Sensei, can I get special lessons, too?" The girls next her broke out into snide giggles.
Iruka didn't look impressed. "Yes, Ami. You can get extra special lessons after Naruto. Let's focus on the lesson now, okay?"
Naruto had been bouncing his leg, trying to distract himself from twisting, sinking, aching that threatened to subsume him. But when Iruka smiled at him, Naruto felt the anxiety drain away, down, down like the water in his bathtub.
He was thankful. So grateful that the vortex didn't take him down, too.