Masked-Writer-In-Disguise: Hey, guys. I just need to vent because I've had a very traumatic week what with switching schools and having to send my iPod (my main escape from the idiots of the world) for repairs for who knows how long, so I need to write something… something vaguely depressing revolving around an iPod… so I give you this bit of drivel… don't really care much if you all like it, but it's part of my It Takes a Village series thing… Yeah, very emotional right now.
By the way, not all of the fics in this fic dump have to do with Naruto and Minato, but rather the village it takes to raise Naruto, and Minato isn't always alive in them, just in most, but they are all AU. And the title for the entirety comes from the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child."
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not Naruto nor the right to iPod, but I do own (maybe) this plot-ish thing… if there is one…
Inspiration: My shitty week… and the 'sickness' of my iPod…
Warnings: hints of past child abuse…
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The Gift
By: Masked-Writer-In-Disguise
The seven year old slumped against the wall wearily, in pain, cold (it was early October), and sighed. He couldn't go to Iruka's; Iruka-sensei was out of town on one of his rare missions he was required to take. He couldn't go home; it was too far to walk. At this point Naruto was ready to scream. He hadn't even done anything to those men, just walked by, and now he could barely walk and he was bruised and ready to fall over and sleep. Naruto was still only a child and the instinctive thing for a child to do at this point was to seek out comfort, but he had no one from which to seek comfort that was home. His sore back slid down the wall and his breath began to come quickly, too quickly; panicky.
What kind of grown man got off on beating a defenseless child? Naruto knew. Just about every grown man in this village… Well, they got off on beating him. Why? The child didn't know. He didn't know anything, he couldn't because nobody would tell him. He just knew he was young and hurt and hated and scared, and he desperately wanted a hug and a warm place to sleep and a good meal in his belly. Tears added themselves to the mix and Naruto found himself experiencing his first panic attack. He couldn't breathe and his chest hurt and he couldn't stop crying and his nose was clogging and no more air and this all made him cry harder. He couldn't stop, and he saw black rimming the edges of his vision; Naruto knew he was either going to pass out or die and there was nothing he could do about it and there was nobody except Iruka that would care.
The world seemed to fall out from underneath the boy, but then there was a voice, a gentle, caring voice, telling him to breathe in; let it out. Breathe in; let it out. It never even occurred to Naruto not to listen to the man. The man said he knew it hurt (and it did; oh gods, it did, burned, seared, tore, screamed at him to inhale but at the same time prevented just that from happening), but Naruto needed to breathe; in, out, in, out… he could feel the big chest against his ear and he tried to model his own frantic breaths to match the steady rise and fall of the man's and soon Naruto was breathing again, easily as though there had never been a near death experience. There were warm, safe, strong arms wrapped around his small body and the ground really wasn't underneath him anymore. Naruto was being carried, gently, like he meant something to this man, and the boy didn't even question it. He knew he probably should, but it really didn't matter right now. The man had saved him, and Naruto, usually a pretty good judge of the people around him, felt he could trust this man.
When Naruto finally opened his eyes, he found himself lying on an old, battered sofa, a large dog watching him with big brown eyes. Slow, calming music drifted though the air. Naruto sat up slowly, noticing that the cuts he'd had on his lip and on the backs of his knuckles had been cleaned and bandaged. Deep blue eyes darted around the room suspiciously and landed on the man in the kitchen, sitting at the table. Well, maybe he was still only in his late teens, but that hardly mattered to Naruto; everybody bigger than him was a grown-up. This grown-up had silver hair and a mask covering the lower half of his face, his attention focused on the book in front of him.
Naruto sniffed and icy blue eyes darted to him. The boy froze, unsure of this stranger's intentions. Instead of the hate he was used to seeing in the eyes of the people regarding him, Naruto found there was genuine concern and relief in the man's eyes. Naruto stared at the man and waited for an explanation or a smile or frown, shout; anything other than what he received. The man actually smiled at him. Up until that point, Naruto had only ever been smiled at by the Third Hokage and Iruka-sensei.
The confusion must have been present on his face because the man casually marked his page with a torn piece of paper and said, "Hello, Naruto. My name is Kakashi, and you are in my apartment. Nobody will hurt you in here."
"Why do you know me, but I don't know you?" Naruto probably could have figured that out by himself; everybody in Konoha knew him, but he didn't know everybody else. It was just the status quo here, and Naruto had gotten used to it… but that didn't mean he had to like it.
Kakashi's eyes softened. "I've known you since you were born, but you probably don't remember me. You were very young the last time I saw you."
Naruto raised a disbelieving eyebrow, at which Kakashi's strange half smile widened until his eye was a complete crescent. "Believe me, or don't, as you wish, but I would like to give you something, either way."
Kakashi dropped his book to the table below him with a plop and stood up, leaving the room. When he returned, Kakashi had a small box in his hand and Naruto knew immediately what it was; a lot of the older kids at the Academy had them, had an iPod, but until then, Naruto had never thought he'd actually be allowed to have, much less actually be able to afford, one. Inside he laughed because he knew that most other seven year olds didn't have to worry about money and paying the bills and budgeting
The boy automatically looked for the catch. He didn't take it when it was offered because he was never given anything freely by anyone that wasn't Iruka-sensei, and this man was very different from Iruka-sensei. Kakashi seemed to understand his hesitation.
"There's no catch. Your birthday's tomorrow, yeah?" Kakashi pushed the box closer. "This is your present from me."
"Why?"
"Because I want to." Kakashi's face was blank, but Naruto sensed no alternative motive from the silver-haired man, so he slowly took the proffered box. After sitting and looking at it for a few minutes, the blond looked back at the older man.
"I don't have a computer or any music."
"I've already put some on there, but if you want more, feel free to drop by and use my computer," Kakashi smiled. "Do you like rock?"
Naruto let out a little smile and nodded. Kakashi ruffled the boy's hair and said, "You can sleep here tonight, but I have to leave for a mission tomorrow, so you'll have to go home then."
Naruto nodded. "When will you be back?"
"Dunno…"
The boy just nodded; it was an expected answer. Kakashi was a shinobi or Konoha and that life was unpredictable.
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Naruto blinked as he stared at the man that had stuck his head through the door; Kakashi was his sensei? He could suddenly feel the weight of his iPod against his upper thigh, and a small smile started to tug at the corners of his lips. He and Kakashi went way back, the older man actually holding up his end of the bargain in promised music and computer time. Naruto was even allowed to raid Kakashi's book collection (the ones that weren't porn), take them home, read them, and all as long as he showed them proper respect and returned them when he was finished. Kakashi was as much an important person in his life as Iruka and Sasuke were, even if the man didn't quite realize it. Naruto saw him as an uncle, one of the cool ones that the other kids got to talk about; the ones that took them out for no other reason than they wanted to; the ones that picked on the kid, but really, really cared for them.
Instead of letting his excitement show through, he just sniggered that a jonin had fallen for such a simple trap. Naruto met the man's eye and he could see the amusement there even as he called the entire team a group of idiots. Sakura and Sasuke couldn't see Kakashi was just picking on them (Kakashi always picked on Naruto), but Naruto could and didn't take offense to it. He rarely did anyway.
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Masked-Writer-In-Disguise: Well, there you have it. Just some meaningless little thing, or not… either way, I hoped you liked it (even if I said I don't care in the beginning. I need to feel appreciated right now because I'm just feeling down…).