"Demon!!", screamed the caretaker as she pointed a trembling finger at a boy, alerting every single soul in the orphanage.
The door was burst open. "Hitoshi what's wrong?!", snapped an auburn haired, seventy year old woman.
"He did it again", she hissed as she leaped across the room, towards the door and away from the eight year old blonde. "Red, all over!", the woman was close to tears as she wailed to the mother of the orphanage. Naruto on the other hand stood in the corner, eyes downcast. A twinge of shame stabbed at is heart. He hadn't meant to...
Sho Chinen had been running this orphanage ever since she was twenty six years old. The woman had lived through both the second and the third Shinobi World War, where her orphanage was used to house all sorts of people. She was a strict mother who didn't take any nonsense. She may not have been known for her kindness but she was fair. Therefore now, she had to deal with this nuisance of a woman.
"Hitoshi, get a grip, I've already informed you he often does that".
"He was playing with red chakra", the woman screeched as she frantically thugged at her clothes.
"That's exactly what I told you yesterday, the day you decided to work here", explained the mother as patiently as she could.
"But...but...he..!", Hitoshi sputtered.
"Enough, you will either tend to the boy and tuck him in bed, or you will go and help out the girls in the kitchen".
"He's a demon".
"He's a boy. One more word and I'll have you out on the street. You are a grown woman, now start acting like it", barked Sho.
The brown haired woman flipped her hair and stormed out of the room, refusing to apologize to...to such a monster, she made her way downstairs nonetheless.
The second the young woman was out of sight, Sho's shoulders sagged in relief, at least this one didn't try and throw a kunia at the boy like the last caretaker.
"Boy, it's bed time. Lock away your pet, you can play with him tomorrow", snapped the elder before closing the door.
" 'kay", yawned the sleepy boy, rubbing his eyes. The red chakra which was cloaked around him began to subside and disappear into the black marks imprinted on his belly. Before the last tendrils of chakra could disappear, he grabbed onto it, ignoring the pain as his skin burned.
"...stay", he whispered in his high pitched voice. He stood there for a few more seconds, to make sure it stayed with him, before letting go of it.
Naruto was feeling better now. What little bit of shame he had felt was no longer there. 'It isn't my fault,' he kept repeating to himself, forcing his mind to be happier. Old lady Sho always says it herself. He nodded his head as his breathing became normal and he was feeling okay once more. The only reason he had cowered was because he hadn't prepared himself for the worst when she arrived as he had been told by everyone in the Home that the newcomer was actually nice.
The boy hobbled up to his bed and pulled himself up, that last tendril of chakra grabbing onto the blankets, helping him to hoist his scrawny figure up. He got under his covers and ignored it all. The terrifying howls which came from outside, the gnarled branches as they bet mercilessly against the window, the happy cheers which floated from the other rooms, the sickly smell of mold on the walls, the dull gray wallpaper.
He ignored it all.
After all he still had his 'pet' as everyone here called it. Even if touching it hurt him, even if it always shouted how much it hated him and even if everyone seemed to hate both him and his pet.
"Uzumaki-san, I need your attention here please", the perplexed man said, snapping his fingers in front of the dreamy blonde to get his attention.
"Wha' diyya say?", dawdled Naruto, snapping out of his thoughts. He looked up at the man. A Yamanaka. Also a shrink.
"Look Uzumaki-san every student needs to run this physiological tests, it's for-"
Naruto slammed his hand on the table a silly teasing grin on his face.
"I don't do mind games Yamanaka. Piss me off and I'll let fox boy here tear apart this whole dump", he told the man arrogantly.
"Uzumaki-san this is exactly why we need to run these tests-"
"Mind games", he hissed "all of 'em".
The man kept going on, already used to the boy's taunts "we need to make sure the fox isn't tempering with both your emotional state of mind as well as your inner self-"
"Bullshit. The fox doesn't control me. I control the fox".
Now for the sass.
Getting up from his place on the chair, the chair fell over at the sudden movement. He made his way to the door which he threw open.
Changing his facial feature from the murderous angry one from before he greeted the next person in line outside with a goofy grin, closed eyes, sunny aura and all.
"You're up next, princess",he chirped.
He was immediately greeted with a fist to the face.
"Don't you dare call me a princess, jackass".
Ah, Sakura Haruno. The academy's number one student. Also, the one person Naruto was quite sure led the most craziest lifestyle aside from him in this school. On top of that she was one of the few who treated him indifferently. She was mean to him simply because of his outrageous and trying actions.
Not because of what lived inside of him.
Not because of his parentage.
"What are you looking at, bitch?!", she hissed at a dark haired girl who she'd caught ogling at her. Ever the teacher's pet. Low enough so that the sensei couldn't hear her and high enough that it had the no name girl scurrying away from her and to the back of the line.
In other words she treated him equally. Just like she treated everyone else.
Picking himself up Naruto began to make his way downstairs towards the entrance of the academy. He along with the rest of his classmates, had been strictly told to go back to class once he had finished with his check up. But Naruto decided that he had had enough school for a day. Looking back Naruto wondered if maybe what he had done back at the office was a little too much. Truthfully, he wasn't angry at the Yamanaka, not at all. But when it came to letting people into your mind and heart, even if by a little bit, Naruto had found out from a young for that to be disastrous. Acting stupid and happy got him out of so much trouble, even if he hated putting up this front.
Contrary to popular belief, Sasuke actually did ditch classes. No one was perfect. Especially not Sasuke.
Today was the day of their annual mental and health check up. Something he absolutely detested with a passion. He hated people messing around his head. He hated being asked those suspicious questions. He hated those mind games. Rookie of the year or not, he hated puzzles in general. He liked facts and anything that was logical and kept him anchored to reality.
The Uchiha was currently hiding in the boys bathroom. Ten more minutes and the examinations for the day should finish. Sasuke rubbed his sleep deprived eyes and stifled a yawn. He looked up at one of the many mirrors which hung on the wall. He winced at his reflection.
While rubbing his eyes, he had removed the concealer and now the black smudges under his eyes stood out on his pale complexion.
Digging into his pockets he fished out the small plastic box he had stolen from his mother's vanity table. Opening it up, he carefully reapplied it to hide the bags under his eyes.
Stupid nightmares.
Stupid big brother.
"Detention. ALL OF YOU", roared Iruka as he looked down at three of his students inside of the office.
Yes three.
So what happened was that when Naruto was just about to step out of the school building and go home he had bumped right into Sakura. Somehow their collision had caused them to have a heart to heart fight; biting, hair pulling, scratching and hissing. And so as they rolled around Sasuke had come down with the same intention as the other two; to escape home early. Unfortunately, Naruto had blindingly reached out for something to get Sakura's foot out of his mouth and instead had pulled Sasuke's pants which led him to topple over and knee Sakura in the ribs. Through out their scuffle all Sasuke did was defend himself, Naruto continued throwing his body at them and Sakura kept pulling anything she got her hands on. They had gotten verbal at some point and that was when Iruka sensei heard them, found them, and forcefully pulled them apart.
Now standing in their sensei's office, Naruto stood beside them, wincing as he smiled that face splitting smile, bruises all over. Sasuke was doing his best to impersonate a wall and wondering why he didn't feel bad for hitting a girl. Sakura on the other hand had tears streaming down her face and looked ashamed and guilty while Iruka reprimanded them. But Naruto knew what a real devil she was and Sasuke was starting to think that someone who could hit that hard was definitely not innocent.
Later on as they left the school, detention slips in hand, a strange warm and giddy feeling filled the three children.
She really, really didn't want to do this. Not that she was mad at him or anything, it was just that she didn't want nor did she feel like talking to her husband. Sadly, she had to.
"Fugaku".
"Hm?" On the inside she felt bitter about his response, but on the outside, she had a plain facade. She felt a sick sense of glee on the inside. Wait until he hears what his son did.
"Sasuke recieved detention today".
Fugaku, as camly as he could, rolled up the scroll he was reading and turned to face his wife. Her face showed nothing of what she felt towards the news she had just delivered to him.
Sasuke. Detention. Never in his life has he ever heard of a sentence with those two words together. They didn't go together.
"Sasuke what happened?", barked Fugaku as his son emerged front the kitchen, a bowl full of ripe cherry tomatoes in hand.
"I decked Sakura on the jaw". Sasuke popped a single cold cherry tomato into his mouth and went to stand beside his mother.
Shisui, who had previously been sitting upside down on the couch, oggled openly at Sasuke. He quickly turned the right way over wondering if what he had heard been true or did the blood finally get to his brain.
Frankly, Sasuke was past caring about what happened today. "We had a fight that I was pulled in. It was a threesome".
"You hit a girl? ", asked Shisui quietly while walking slowly towards sasuke. Because this couldn't be real. This was Sasuke, for God's sake.
"She asked for it", no literally.
Shisui stared off dumbfounded. Was this one someone's twisted genjutsu? Walking up the stairs, Shisui put his hands into the ram seal. "Kai".
Fugaku stared off into space for a few minutes. Too fazed, trying to get his thoughts on the same page.
Mikoto's chest swelled with pride. She turned around, intending on finishing that pile of dishes. Only then did she let her face break out into a giddy smile. Her son's first ever detention.
A/N
the red chakra or 'Red' as Naruto calls him is indeed the Kyubi. First of, they are not friends, Kay? I've altered some things around. I think that the Uzumaki clan did not get enough credit in the anime. I mean come on, those people are able to seal such huge motherfucking monsters into others, shoot chains which suck out chakra and immobilize beasts.
