A/N: Thx to my first two reviewers! Glad that some people enjoy my story :)
Second chapter, 2k and hopefully setting the standard for future chapters. I'm writing some of this for camp Nano, so there'll be a fair bit this month but less frequent chapters afterwards! Hope this is enjoyed tho- oh, and I added more to chapter 1, so go check that out if you want. Not essential, but might be helpful
"And stay out, you bakemono!" the woman yelled at Naruto, watching with satisfaction as he sprawled on his back outside the shop.
"Please?" the small boy pleaded, holding out a small purse with money and looking longingly at the apple that the civilian held.
"No! This is people food!" she laughed incredulously, and slammed the back entrance closed.
"Imma person…" Naruto muttered sadly, looking down at his knees with a sigh. He ignored the dirty alley that he was now sat in, far too familiar with them to be bothered anymore, but shifted slightly so he was no longer soaking his limbs in the filthy puddles that lined the edges of the 'street'.
"One day…I'll show them all," the blonde boy whispered to himself, the tone weaker than usual but the intent still there.
He grinned at nothing and stood up tall, only to be knocked back down to the ground again. Naruto looked up in anger, ready to yell, but was immediately sidetracked by something strange in front of him.
It was material, right in front of his eyes, but not just any old material. It was fine, rich clothing that didn't fray or wear down easily, but instead was embroidered in a navy blue and occasional dots of bright red, patterns that Naruto had never seen before and desperately wanted to see again.
It looked soft to touch as well, so the boy obliviously put out his small hand and stroked the fabric, gripping hold of it to see if it was elastic-y in addition to everything else and-
"Get off my trousers," the tall person snapped, pulling the material away from Naruto before glancing down at the mucky child.
"But- they're so pretty!" Naruto gaped at the clothing, open mouthed. He'd never seen anything that fine before, not even amongst the rich side of the village.
"Hm. Of course they are. I made them," the man said snootily, and swept on past.
"Woah…" the small boy's mouth dropped open and he stared up in awe. "How did you do that!?" he exclaimed, and the man finally deigned to look down at the child, and his eyes narrowed at the state the other's clothes were in. Naruto was, due to no fault of his own (aside from the mud), dressed in a faded white t-shirt and too big denim shorts that fell down whenever he moved, so he'd tied a knot in the side to make it stay up. The materials were coated in a thick layer of mud and dirt, and were also damp from the puddles Naruto had fallen into at various intervals that day.
The man pursed his lips, but didn't comment on it.
"…It's a long and arduous process. It involves copious amounts of time, dye, thread, material and money," answered the taller one.
"What does that mean?" Naruto asked.
"It means you should leave me alone," he responded, dismissing the little orphan from his mind and turning away.
"But you're talking to me!" the blonde protested with a pout.
"You aren't listening," the man cut off curtly.
"I am! I just…don't understand the words you use," Naruto admitted, scuffing the ground lightly with the tip of one of his boots.
"Well then, come talk to me when you learn how to talk," the finely dressed man stated in a tone of finality.
"Where do you live?" the jinchuriki responded immediately, knowing that he wanted to come back and talk to the nice man some more.
"My shop is in the second alley off the high street, by the greengrocers," the man told the boy with a smirk, as if thinking that nobody was going to bother to go to a shop to chat to some random person they bumped into on the street.
"I'll be there in a month!" Naruto grinned. "I'll go to the library and sneak out a dictionary to learn from! You'll see!" he promised, and the man looked down at him again with a hint of surprise.
"I'll be seeing you then. Good luck," Naruto's new friend wished coldly, and stepped away with a brisk stride, but the young jinchuriki had one more question.
"Wait! What's your name?"
"My name? I am called Leiko," he allowed, nodding very slightly at the child, then swept away, leaving Naruto behind on the edge of the pavement, but the boy was by no means unhappy.
Naruto grinned, and punched the air. He had a friend!
"I can do it," he whispered determinedly. "I'm going to do this,"
"Why…" Naruto moaned to himself, a mere three hours later.
He was in the alley behind the library, clutching a small pamphlet of something (it was religious; Naruto was uncertain what it was talking about. He was only using it to learn to read a little faster anyway, he wasn't particularly interested in the meaning of the types of words it used)
"Why did I choose to do this?" Naruto asked himself again, pouting unhappily at the leaflet and slumping against the wall. "I could just go play in the park…" he argued with himself, trying desperately to get out of going into the library.
Unfortunately, he was unable to argue himself out of it. Naruto had given his word that he would learn more words and Naruto was a boy who always kept his promises, no matter what.
"Why did I promise?" he whined again, hitting his fists into the ground next to him then cringing away as he realised he had accidently punched a puddle, soaking his fist and causing the water to fly up towards him and spatter his clothes with the dirty muck.
"Oops!" he yelped, jumping to his feet and trying to brush the liquid off of himself. "Oops!" he yelled again as the stain not only didn't come out, but also became bigger.
"Uh…" he said with wide eyes, looking at the magically growing stain, then deciding that the best course of action was probably just to ignore it and hope it went away.
It wasn't like anyone would yell at him for that anyway.
Naruto looked at his clothing, then down at the dirty ground he sat on. He slowly picked up his useless leaflet, placing it on top of someone's dustbin with a quiet sigh, then straightened his back and lifted his chin, showing the world that he was ready for it.
"Okay," he told himself. "I can do this. Walk in, find a book on reading, and walk out," he nodded firmly.
If Naruto had been a little bit older, he might have thought to himself about the irony of there being a book on reading, but Naruto was still a young child and so he didn't even consider what the issues of his chain of thoughts were, let alone what name they could be given. Unfortunately for a certain giant fox, one day Naruto would be the type of person to absent-mindedly comment on it and give the old and possible wise creature many headaches that would cause the demon to curse the day Naruto learnt so much about life.
Luckily, said giant fox was currently asleep and so would remain oblivious for a little bit longer.
He stepped out from the alleyway, back onto the main street and ignored the dirty look he got from a blonde woman that he sort of stepped on the toe of, and marched towards the library doors.
They opened automatically ahead of him, a thing which Naruto found pretty cool but was not going to deter him from his goal, and he walked right on to the desk at the front of the library. The entire space was cool and painted with light brown, almost beige paint and gave of a feeling of calm neutrality, whilst the desk in front of him was a dark grey that caught the eye, but didn't overtly distract one from the books that surrounded the small area.
"Um…hi," Naruto whispered, suddenly shy as he approached his goal.
The person behind the desk looked up slowly, long brown hair obscuring their eyes, and Naruto shrank back in fear that they too would reject him.
However, Naruto was in luck this time.
"Hey there, little one. What can I do for you?" the girl said in a friendly manner, and he relaxed as he noted her cheerful grin and warm eyes. The blonde's mouth fell a little open at the latter, seeing that she actually was willing to talk to him, and maybe wasn't even just tolerating him?
No, he shouldn't hope for too much.
"I….I was looking for a book?" he began softly, looking down at his feet as the warm eyes became too much to look at.
"You've come to the right place," she smiled back at him gently, and gestured to the bookshelves that stood all around them. "Any particular book?" the teenager asked again, and the blonde winced awkwardly as he realised he didn't really have a clue what he was looking for.
"A book on…well…I was looking for a book to teach me how to read," he admitted shyly, peeking up at the girl through his long bangs as he hoped she wouldn't find it too out of the ordinary.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, sounding a little surprised, and Naruto knew that that was it. He wasn't going to be allowed to stay here with the friendly librarian. "I'm not sure that we have any books on how to read…it sort of defeats the point, you see?"
He bit his lip. "Sorry," Naruto apologised, and turned away, but the librarian called out to him.
"Hey, how about you come over here and I'll teach you a little bit?" she offered, pulling a hair band off of her wrist and pulling her long brown hair up and behind her. He glanced absent-mindedly at her outfit; a pretty red dress with a green vest pulled over the top, and Naruto suddenly realised that she was a shinobi.
Why was she being so nice to him? Was she going to hurt him if he went near? That was surely the only reason she wanted him to actually go near her- nobody wanted him near them. She was surely as old as the adults who glared at him, not even one of the children that he could play with sometimes when there was no one else in the park, so what was she thinking?
She was going to hurt him.
He stepped back quickly at his realisation, heart pounding, but the blonde forced himself to be calm.
"Really?" He asked suspiciously, and she beckoned him forwards again.
"Really," she promised, and smiled again at him.
"I don't believe you," Naruto hissed, seeing through the fake smile to the weapon that flashed dimly in her pocket, and he knew he was right.
"What do you mean?" she pretended to be confused, and Naruto growled lowly.
"You can't trick me! I know what you want!" he cried, and she glanced behind them to smile apologetically at someone else in the library, clearly stopping them from investigating the situation, although he didn't know why she bothered. The other would have surely just joined in with the punishment.
"What do I want?" she mocked, red eyes flashing in a foreign emotion.
"You want to hurt me!" he accused, and she recoiled as she was found out
"No! I would never hurt you!"
"Liar," he hissed, and turned away from her.
"Look…I don't want to hurt you. I could-" the other began, and Naruto sniffed derisively at whatever tactic she was trying to use to get him on her side of the desk, but then stiffened as he felt some kind of cold metal at his neck. He looked down nervously to see a knife at his throat, diamond shaped and held by a smooth hand with purple nails, but all of a sudden the pressure was gone.
He whirled around to see the woman right behind him. "What was that for?" he yelled, and she held her hands up innocently, the dagger-type thing gone.
"That was to show that if I wanted to hurt you, I would have already. I don't want to hurt you," she explained, and Naruto looked up at her, scrutinising her open face.
"You promise?" he asked, and she nodded firmly.
"I promise,"
"And you aren't allowed to break promises!" he added, slowly turning back towards the desk.
"Of course not," she smiled softly, back behind the desk, and he began to smile slightly back.
"Thank you…I'm Naruto," he blurted out. The boy flushed awkwardly as he realised that he had chosen to wrong time to introduce himself, but the other didn't seem to mind.
"Nice to meet you, Naruto-kun," she grinned. "I'm Kurenai. Do you want to come sit here and I'll see what I can teach you?"
"Okay…sensei," Naruto grinned mischievously, and she smiled down at him.
"You're welcome,"