4 Days After Capture
The Third Hokage was a busy man at the best of times. Being a Kage wasn't an easy job, and although he didn't mind reclaiming the hat when Minato passes away, he was still hopeful that a talented successor would show themselves soon. He'd already retired once, and he'd like to stay retired this time.
As overworked as he was, when Umino Iruka approached him on a Thursday afternoon and told him that Naruto hadn't shown up to school since the Friday before and he hadn't seen him anywhere, alarm bells began to go off in his mind. Naruto was a good kid, and he did know that he needed to go to school if he wanted to graduate and become a Genin.
After promising Iruka that he would find Naruto, the Hokage immediately signalled for ANBU, who melted out of the shadows effortlessly.
"Tiger, Mouse, Mantis and Cat, search the village for Uzumaki Naruto. There's no need to catch him, just make sure he is alright." the Sandaime said, and the masked figures vanished.
It was around 10 o'clock that evening when Tiger reappeared in his office. Three of his fellow ANBU were behind him, the same as the ones that morning.
"Mouse, Mantis, Cat and I have searched the entire village. We found no sign of the boy. We did find his apartment, and the door was wide open. There was one styrofoam ramen cup on his counter that wasn't empty, but the broth was cold. There is no recent smells in the house either. No one has been in it for days." Tiger stated.
Sarutobi's face was stony. "Was there any signs of a struggle, or anything missing from the house? Did he leave or was he taken?"
"Taken. There's items strewed around the room as though the child was preparing to leave his house, but the half-finished food and shoes by the door suggest he didn't leave of his own free will." the ANBU in the Mouse mask replied.
The Hokage took in the information quietly, and there was silence for a few minutes, until he sighed.
"Gather two teams of ANBU and send them to search outside the village. Make sure there's a tracker of some sort on both teams and make sure they depart immediately. This mission is an S-Class order. If the culprit turns out to be another village, we could lose our village's-" he said the word with a bitter scowl, "jinchuuriki."
The ANBU present nodded before leaving the room swiftly.
2 Weeks, 4 Days After Capture
They finally found the child. ANBU Wolf had called for backup from Konoha, and returned with not only five other ANBU, but a silent Naruto in the arms of Hawk and a body scroll in Rat's possession.
Hiruzen sent the body scroll to T&I and then followed the ANBU to the hospital where a doctor directed them to a room and left Naruto to sleep. He went back to his office with the ANBU tailing him, and as he sat down in his chair, he felt a sudden heaviness in his bones.
"Alright, debrief." he said.
The tale that unraveled from there left the Hokage with a wave of guilt washing over him. That Naruto had been held captive underground in the darkness for so long, that he'd broken to the point of stabbing his captor to death, and the thought of many unknown horrors still a mystery to them gave him a sharp, bitter feeling of devastation. He'd failed Minato's son.
"Dismissed." was all he could say. And when they left, for a brief moment, he allowed himself to sink into sorrow.
2 Weeks, 5 Days After Capture
When a medical ninja from the hospital came to see him reporting that Uzumaki Naruto had awoken and was in a state of panic, he had prepared himself for the trauma that the child had most likely been subjected to.
When he arrived at the scene to hear a blood-curdling wail, he found himself flinching. The sound was something he hadn't heard in many years, a sound that he recalled coming from the drying throes of his enemies on the battlefield as they were burned alive, among other unfortunate ends.
He hurried into the room to see a doctor frozen in shock, the poor woman not expecting such a reaction from the small boy. Hiruzen propelled himself forward, reaching the form of the boy huddled by the headboard and the source of the terrible sound, and grasped his shoulder, his grip ever so slightly tight.
"Naruto. Look at me."
He tightened his grip a bit, as the boy's eyes seemed to clear a bit. His mouth shut, the scream fading as it became just air, Naruto's chest moving a bit too fast as he breathed in oxygen.
"Naruto, focus on me. Who am I? Where are you?"
The blond finally took in the wrinkled face of the Sandaime, and his blue eyes sharpened a bit as they reoriented with the room. He didn't speak, just sort of shuddered for a moment before growing still.
"You are home, Naruto. You are safe." the Hokage said, and despite the unease that rolled within him, gave a small smile to the boy.
And although he made no sound, Naruto's face became wet as tears streamed down his whiskered cheeks, just looking at the man he considered a grandfather of sorts.
3 Weeks After Capture
As Naruto became accustomed to his room in the hospital, his life began to settle into a routine.
He'd wake up (sometimes in the middle of the night from dreams that haunted him), stare out the lone window in his room (which had the curtains fully drawn all the time; once a nurse shut them one morning since the sun was especially bright and he'd begun to panic again, so they were always left alone), eat his slowly larger portions of food (anything was more than what little he'd been given before, always slices of bread and a glass of water, sometimes something meaty that he couldn't identify), and then watch the window until lunch, and then again until dinner. In between a nurse checked up on him daily, using a glowing green light to study him.
Occasionally he had a visitor. The Hokage came as often as he could, which made Naruto a bit happier. The Third was the closest he could recall to a guardian, he'd brought him sweets and treated him to ramen while listening to Naruto's stories about his day when he had time, or more recently, his tales of the Academy. Now the Hokage would just sit with him, or tell him about the hard work he did all day, or even a tale of his adventures as a shinobi.
Sometimes, Iruka-sensei would see him as well. His teacher, who he didn't know too much about yet, was the one who first got worried about him and was how they started looking for him. The first time he visited, he brought with him a stack of homework, a take-out bowl from Ichiraku's (he couldn't finish it, his stomach didn't feel good) and a book about chakra. Every time Iruka visited, he would talk to him a bit, and read to him from the book. It was something Naruto looked forward too.
Once, and only once, a man with long blond hair came to speak to him. He had a sharp face, and green eyes, with his hair in a ponytail. He sat down in a chair near the bed and asked Naruto a few questions.
"Your name is Naruto, right?"
He gave a stiff nod at the question, and the man seemed to realize that he wasn't going to talk, so he took a different approach.
"My name is Yamanaka Inoichi. Can I ask you some questions about what you remember from when you were gone?"
Naruto didn't want to answer questions, because he knew answering anything would only lead him to thinking about memories he didn't like to dwell on. He frowned and shook his head quickly.
"Alright. Can I ask you why you're looking at that window so much? I have an old friend, Shikaku Nara, and he looks at clouds for fun. Are you watching the clouds?"
Naruto didn't reply. No one had asked him about his need to look outside, and he didn't talk to anyone anyway. He couldn't.
"Do you like looking at the sky then? I must admit, it's a very bright shade of blue today."
Nononononono he wouldn't think about that-
Naruto must have shown something on his face, something like displeasure (or maybe fear), because Inoichi didn't talk about the sky anymore. He was quiet for a bit.
"Is there a reason you don't want to speak to anyone, Naruto?"
He couldn't talk. He couldn't. If he did, he knew what he'd start talking about. He'd talk about the way the blood pooled around the body, the darkness that surrounded him in that room, the way he laughed as he watched him die-
He couldn't hold it in; a small whimper fell from his lips as he lifted his hands up to cover his face, palms digging into his eyes as he tried to stop thinking.
"I-I can't speak anymore." He managed to say, voice pained as he pushed the few words out. Inoichi looked at him, a bit surprised that he had said anything.
But then he pushed him again.
"Why, Naruto? Why do you force yourself to stay silent?" Inoichi said slowly.
The older man had an idea of what was going on; many ninja returned from long-term capture and didn't act the same as they once had; many clammed up and spoke very little or nothing at all, and it would take years of therapy to help, if at all.
Naruto looked up at him, his eyes dark, filled with a terrible pain. His hands were now gripping the bed tightly, sheets scrunched up in his grip.
He opened his mouth like he wanted to speak again, but then shut it, before turning his head away from the Yamanaka man.
Inoichi got up from his chair.
"I'll leave you for now. If you ever want to speak to someone, you can always talk with me. I don't want you to be silent for the rest of your life. You can ask anyone who comes in that you'd like to see me, and they'll let me know. Have a good day, Naruto."
And then he walked out the door, and Naruto was alone again. Alone with his thoughts.
The window was suddenly less appealing.