Disclaimer: The world will end in 2012 [Rolls eyes and laughs hysterically] and I will still continue to not own Naruto.
A/N: A huge thankful to my poor beta who was terribly sick but is all better now!!!
Chapter 7: The orange monster
Guruko breathed in surprise as he gazed at the run-down, but beautiful house before him. The house was past the training ground that sat in the shadow of the mountainside to the left of the Hokage monument. In fact, the house sat just within the borders of Konohagakure, hidden inside the dense forest trees. It was of good size, sturdy material and a unique design, fitted with arched doorways and windows along with a rounded balcony that opened up from the living room quarters. Despite all that the windows in every room stood dejectedly with cracked and missing glass and the roof sported many holes and shingles falling to pieces. The paint, a hideous puke green, peeled away in large patches all around the house and various parts appeared to be in deep need of repair.
Naruto landed gracefully on the ground in a crouch from the last branch of a series of trees he'd been traveling by. He gently placed Guruko on the ground as his sight too fell on the building. "Great. Isn't it?" Naruto asked quietly, as if afraid his loud voice would destroy the image before them.
"It needs a lot of work," Guruko commented dryly. Naruto frowned at the dog in annoyance.
"Pessimistic. It does need work but in a few short months I'm gonna own it." Naruto said as he walked toward the house. Guruko limped behind him with a frown on his face.
"Why so far from the village?" Guruko asked. Naruto gave him an 'are you stupid?' look before turning back to the house to which Guruko grimaced and followed him.
Naruto stepped gingerly inside and around the fallen chandelier to stand in the middle of the living room, his eyes wondered the entirety of the placed before settling on Guruko. "I asked Jiji to make sure no one buys it before I'm old enough to. You have hold a job and if you're a shinobi be of the age of thirteen because that's the age that Gennin begin to take up more high paying missions and would be able to make the house payments," Naruto explained as he moved around the place.
"Then why haven't you moved out yet?" Naruto stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Guruko for a long moment. When he finally spoke Naruto chose his words suspiciously carefully.
"I… got behind on some… bills and can't do anything until there paid. I should have it completely paid off in a few short months."
For some reason Guruko found a chill run through him as he remembered the words of the women. "…Then you'll be behind in your bills again… that wouldn't be very nice now would it? Hospital bills, rent and other things…" She asked softly. Naruto continued to cough, the blood coming without stop, tears of pain unwillingly dripping from the blonde's eyes. Did the women know about Naruto wanting the home? Had she hung Naruto's want to be away from Konoha over his head to get what she wanted or was something going on that he didn't know about? Why did she want Naruto to come see her? Did Naruto even go? He couldn't remember Naruto ever mentioning that he'd gone.
"Naruto, shouldn't the orphan's stipend been enough to pay all your bills and for your supplies?" Guruko asked. Naruto stiffened but continued to walk around the dirty, run down living room.
"A lot of times the stipend wouldn't get to me and even then it only paid for so much. Plus, I haven't gotten anything since I've become a Gennin. 'The boy is old enough to pay for everything himself now,' the council had said." Naruto replied as he carefully began up righting a table that lay on its side.
"They wouldn't get to you?" Guruko asked incredulously. Naruto shrugged.
"A Chunin would bring it to me, but a lot of times they simply wouldn't show up. It's in the past now though, before I even got onto team 7 so it doesn't matter." Naruto said. Guruko sputtered.
"How did you pay your rent? Or get food or supplies?" Guruko asked, the dog could feel his brown hair turning gray that very moment, he was sure that he would be as gray as Kakashi before the man returned. Naruto shrugged.
"I've had my job at the bar since I was about ten and my shipping job every weekend since I was eight or nine. I got by…" Naruto said casually with a wave of his hand.
Guruko felt his heart skip several beats. 'Eight?' Guruko thought in horror. "Why didn't you go to the Hokage? Why didn't you try asking for help?" Guruko asked. Naruto ran his hand through his blonde locks, absently tugging at a strand as he looked up at the ceiling.
"When I was younger, Jiji had these people working in the main office of the central building. They would always stop me from ever seeing him no matter what I would do and they would…" Naruto trailed off, as his eyes got glassy.
"They would what?" Guruko asked in a growl. Naruto shook his head and smiled that smile that he put on in front of his team, the fake one that made the dog cringe each time he saw it. "Nah, don't worry about it, it doesn't matter." Naruto said with a forced laugh.
"Any ways, why is it that we're always talking about me? Why don't you tell me some embarrassing story about Kakashi or more about you?" Naruto asked.
"You're changing the topic." Guruko said. Naruto shrugged and smiled teasingly at the dog.
"Jeez Guruko your acting all obsessed, maybe we should talk about your abnormal sudden need to know about someone you've only been hanging out with for a week and a half. I mean, do you do this to all the people Kakashi has babysitting you? If so then I'm gonna have to talk to Kakashi about getting you into some type of doggie therapy." Naruto said, casually placing his hands behind his head and waltzing off.
"What?! Babysitting? Therapy? How dare you…" Subject change was a beautiful success.
Neji Hyuuga wiped the sweat from the back of his neck as he finished his family training session with Hinata and Hiashi as he headed toward the branch section of the Hyuuga estate. The long-haired youth paused as he passed the large kitchen area and picked up a basket of fruit and a set of flowers. It was one of his chores in the household to make sure that fresh food always be placed on the table and flowers replaced in the vase of the dining room that all guests were designated to sit while waiting for whomever they held business with. Just one of the many little things that the Hyuuga clan did in order to keep its title of 'most prestigious and high standing of the clans.' Neji snorted at the very thought, but he would continue with such tedious tasks none the less. No use making trouble out of nothing.
After finishing, Neji deviated from the branch corridor toward the laundry room, remembering that his close should be ready. Neji did not have to perform too many chores due to the fact that he was also a shinobi. Most people in Konohagakure believed that all members of a clan became shinobi, but the truth was that only about one-third of a clan entered the life of a shinobi. This was done for two reasons: the first being that not all clan members possessed the ability to become shinobi, but rather the genetics to pass on the shinobi abilities. The second reason was to assure that the entire clan would not be killed off performing dangerous shinobi duties. Neji found the system to be a fairly brilliant one, one created by the fourth Hokage after Konoha lost three or four of its clans (including the fourths own) to the third shinobi war. It was due to this that Neji could escape with performing only a minimum amount of choirs.
Two women and a middle aged man were in the midst of a conversation when Neji entered the room; he recognized them immediately as three branch members. "…slightly worries me. The lad's rarely, in the four and a half years I've been working with him, ever missed a day of work unless he'd been on a mission. If the boy wasn't on a mission and he's absent… something stopped him from coming." Raji said softly, the middle aged man sat atop an upturned bucket and leaned against the wall with a frown on his face. Neji walked over to the clean hamper and began to pick through them for his clothes, separated from the women's clothing as an act of common courtesy.
One of the women, a short women with a booming voice named Seilla, crossed her arms over her small chest and sighed tiredly. "I think your really over thinking things Raji, there's a million reasons why the boy didn't show up, no need to jump to the worst possible scenario immediately." Neji silently agreed. The other women, a blonde who'd married into the family before he was born, nodded her head in agreement. Raji rubbed his forehead tiredly.
"Perhaps but… something seemed off about him Saturday. Normally he's asking me a million questions about my family and what not, trying to lighten up the work through conversation or some silly story of his but when he came in he didn't say a word to me all afternoon. Then the next day he doesn't show up?" Raji points out.
Neji folded a pair of pants and placed them on the table. That was very suspicious and did warrant some concern. Neji grimaced as he realized that none of it concerned him at all, he was rudely listening in on another person's conversation, admittedly though it wasn't like he was going to go out in the hallway to fold his clothes just because they were talking. "Well," Yuuri, the blonde women, said thoughtfully, "why don't you just go and check up on him if you're that worried." Raji shrugged helplessly.
"I thought about it, but then I realized that I've never asked him even once where he lives. The thought never even crossed my mind." Raji said sheepishly. Neji mentally slapped his forehead in exasperation. Apparently the women in the room felt the same way.
"Well, it is him, isn't it like common knowledge where he lives." Seilla said quietly. Reji frowned at the women.
"Do you know where he lives?" Raji replied, his voice a bit clipped with something that Neji couldn't quite peg. Anger? Irritation? When both women shook their heads in the negative the man hm'fd and then stood up to toss another batch of dirty clothes in the washing machine.
The blonde women absently tugged her hair in back of her and wrapped it in a hair bow, a few loose hairs falling to the side as she wrinkled her nose in thought. "You know, now that I think about it, if I was in his position I'd do just about anything to make sure no one knows where I live." Neither of the women's companions spoke but both nodded their heads in agreement, sharing a weary look between them. Now that was curious, Neji thought, but he would not be like some girl who goes snooping around where he doesn't belong.
Neji finished up folding the last of his clothes and headed towards the door as the two women also got to work. Raji sighed tiredly as Neji passed him and muttered under his breath. " I do hope that Naruto's okay." Neji stopped in his tracks as that name was uttered and immediately turned around to face the man. Neji looked at him in surprise for a few moments before frowning.
"Naruto… Uzumaki?" Neji asked hesitantly. Raji looked up startled, as if he'd not even noticed that Neji was in the room before that moment.
The middle aged man stared down at him, eyes scrutinizing him with fierceness and a severe frown on his features. "Yes," Reji answered after a rather long pause of hesitation. It was well known by every member of the Hyuuga clan, as well as all of Konoha, that Naruto beat Neji in the finals and the man appeared to be debating whether Neji would be angered that a member of clan associated with the boy.
"Naruto is a comrade I greatly respect, I have no qualms over my defeat by him," Neji said steadily. The man visibly relaxed.
"Good. Boy's got enough problems without your help any way." Raji muttered darkly. Neji's frown deepened.
"What problems?" Neji asked with narrowed eyes. Reji burst into fits of laughter and roughly patted Neji's back, the man was not known for his Hyuuga manner that was for sure.
"The question is what isn't going wrong in the boy's life." Raji answered, voice filled with anger. Neji gracefully stepped forward, then around the washing machine to distance himself from his relative.
"Like what?" Neji asked sternly.
Raji snorted and ticked off points. "Big financial trouble, that's for sure, trouble getting food, trouble medically, trouble keeping clothes on his back I mean the list goes on boy. That kids tough as nails though, has to be really, to have gotten through everything on his own." Neji paled.
"Medical?" Neji asked wearily.
Raji shrugged, his eyes looking sad, "The kid's collapsed several times on the job, burning up like you wouldn't believe. Never late and always gets everything done no matter what but I'll tell you that its downright painful watching him. Offered to do his portion of the work a few times, but the kid doesn't trust anyone, won't let no one help him with anything."
Neji shook his head disbelievingly. "The Chuunin Exams expanded over two months and I never once saw any sign of him being sick." Neji said defiantly. Raji shook his head sadly.
"That kid doesn't allow anyone to see him sick. You got to know to look for it. I accidentally found him when he was in a lot of pain and I've been watching him carefully ever since. You simply can't see it unless you're looking for it. Not only that but when I accidentally caught him it was because my right eye activated in response to a falling crate coming towards me. Unlike you, my eyes only react when there's danger, which is why I'm useless as a shinobi to this family." Raji said quietly.
As the man moved across the room with a stack of clean clothes Raji's leg joints cracked. The man grunted in discomfort before turning back to Neji. The young Hyuuga stood there in the doorway deeply troubled by the mans revelation and unsure of what to do. "You should know something about that boy, he's got a good heart and doesn't like seeing other people hurting. He'd do anything to help someone in need but… you got to be careful about ones like him." Raji warned quietly. Neji blinked, confused by what the man meant, which Raji noted with a nod. "No matter how much pain their in, they'll keep it to themselves, people like him care about everyone around them to the point that they would do anything to help them, but won't accept help themselves. They want to carry all their burdens by themselves just so the people they care about won't have to worry. The self sacrificial ones."
When they got to the apartment, Naruto swore Guruko to secrecy before pulling a piece of the floor up, the small plank of wood easily moved to the side. Naruto then pulled out a large, black, metal box. Guruko sniffed it and sneezed. 'Old and smelly,' Guruko thought as he scrunched his nose. That's when Naruto lifted the lid. The dog nearly had a heart attack at the large bundles of money there. Naruto smiled proudly at the dog. "It's my life savings. I've only got a little more to save up before I can finally pay off all my debts." Naruto told the dog as he pulled out a small bound up wad of cash for Sakura's present and slipped it into his pocket.
"Why is this here?" Guruko demanded. "It should be in a bank!" Naruto closed the box back up and deposited it back under the plank.
"The bank won't let me in the doors. It's not like I can henge because they have a chakra barrier around the banks here to protect against shinobi thieves. I tried to get some help but no one had the time or the patience." Naruto said dejectedly.
"What about Kakashi?" Guruko asked. Naruto fiddled with the latch, closing the plank up and hiding the money.
"He didn't have the time to help," Naruto said dismissively. Guruko didn't say anything else about his master, there was no point, he already knew what that meant.
"Why not just pay off your debts slowly, bit by bit, instead of all at once?" Guruko asked the human curiously.
"I have been paying my debt off bit by bit but… the people I owe money to are… manipulative and greedy. They don't know about my extra jobs and they don't know I've been saving up. I want to pay it off in one go so they can't say anything or do anything to stop me." Naruto said tiredly.
"Who are these people and why do you owe them money?" Guruko asked, nudging his nose against the blondes leg. Naruto smiled crookedly at him.
"That, PUP, is none of your business," Naruto said cheekily.
"Pup?!"
When they entered the market place rather than growl at the people who glared he tried to divert the blondes attention through conversation to which Naruto happily went along with. When they entered the shop Naruto smiled at the storekeeper and received a vial glare of hatred in return. Naruto just kept his smile in place as he set Guruko done beside him. The storekeeper said nothing as Naruto stood there, no welcome or hello of any kind, but still Naruto paused waiting for it because that's what Iruka taught him to do when the man gave him lessons in manners.
Naruto continued to smile and decided to skip Iruka's lesson on pleasantries to get strait to the point. He pointed to the necklace he wanted; the silver chain with a stainless steel heart shaped pendent, light green emerald framing the edge with the center empty for an inscription for both sides. He was going to put her name in the middle of it but now he had a better idea.
The man overcharged him for it, but Naruto didn't argue against it, he did refuse to pay for the necklace until he saw it completely finished the way he wanted it. He'd been manipulated and cheated by too many people in the past to naively give the man his money without the finished results in his hands. The man muttered darkly under his breath but didn't say anything more since he was already getting paid double for the item. Guruko openly spoke of his anger of Naruto being charged nearly twice as much as the already heavy price tag, but Naruto quickly quieted him as they left the store with receipt in hand.
Guruko yawned loudly from within Naruto's hold as they walked back to the apartment building. It was nearly six and if either wanted dinner Naruto would have to hurry in order to be at his work by six-thirty. Naruto stopped suddenly causing Guruko's head to jerk forward from the halt. The dog gave an annoyed huff and glared at Naruto to see the boy staring ahead of them. It was the large man who attacked Naruto before. Naruto's grip on the brown wolf like dog in his arms tightened till Guruko could barely breath. The man said nothing as Naruto hurriedly passed, eyes strait ahead, but Guruko looked back to see a snarl on his face before he turned and walked in the opposite direction.
"Naruto, who is he?" Guruko asked the blonde as he closed the door. Naruto ignored him as he walked around the counter and grabbed the dog food. Guruko growled threateningly at the blonde. "Naruto!" Naruto poured Guruko's food into his bowl and set it down beside the table. "Don't ignore me!" Naruto walked into his room, grabbed his clothes and walked into the bathroom, the door closing with a firm thud. Guruko limped to the bathroom door and scratched at the wood but no sound came from the other side so Guruko sighed and trudged back to the kitchen to start his dinner.
A few minutes later Naruto came out, tying his black bandages over his possession marks. "So are you going to tell me or ignore me again?" Guruko asked slowly. Naruto shrugged. "Don't worry about who he is," Naruto said. Guruko sighed in irritation. He knew Naruto would go tight lipped the moment he found out that the dog could talk.
Naruto hurriedly watered his plants before patting Guruko on the head and heading toward the door. "Aren't you going to eat?" Guruko demanded, worry lacing his voice. Naruto grimaced.
"It's already 6:20, I'll eat something when I get back." Guruko let out a low angry growl.
"You barely ate any lunch today! This isn't healthy! You need to eat something now!" Naruto shrugged and opened the door, giving Guruko a weak smile.
"I'll be fine," Naruto said before closing the door behind him.
Guruko wondered into the bathroom, sniffing around curiously. There was a strange smell coming from the small cubicle room. Normally Naruto left the door closed so the dog rarely ever got to go inside. Guruko shook his head in disbelief, there was no mirror in the bathroom. Now that he thought about it there weren't any mirrors in anywhere in the house at all. The dog looked around, noticing that the smell came from the dirty clothes sitting in the corner. Guruko limped over to it and gently tugged at the horrid orange jacket till it lay sprawled across the tiled floor. Guruko sniffed again. Ewww. Old rotten tomatoes. Bad eggs. Blood. Coffee grounds. And… Yogurt?
'What in the world?' Guruko thought as he pawed at the jacket. 'Why didn't I smell this before'? The dog gave the ugly thing a look of disgust and wrinkled his nose. He would never understand why Naruto wore the hideous thing, even more than that, how Naruto managed to go on missions without getting killed in it. Under Guruko's fiddling the jacket flopped open to reveal the back of the inside. Guruko looked curiously as he saw a word sewed in large letters there.
Guruko began to shudder as he read the word. His whole body shook with anger and confusion. Why would Naruto wear something like this? Naruto hated that word more than any other in the world. It didn't make sense at all. Guruko dragged the article of clothing into the kitchen in front of the door and waiting for Naruto to get home. When the door opened at 11:45 Naruto wearily let out a sigh before giving Guruko a smile… and stopping dead in his tracks. The jacket was spread out with both sides wide open, revealing the word sewed on the insides back for the world to see.
Naruto just stood there and stared at it in shock, the word glaring out at him. MONSTER. Guruko's tail twitched angrily as he glared at Naruto. "What the hell is this?" The dog demanded furiously. Naruto slowly closed the door, his eyes never leaving the jacket on the floor.
"Why were you going through my dirty laundry?" Naruto asked weakly as he began to remove his work clothes. Guruko's claws dug into the wooden floor, lines marking it forever.
"Don't fuck around!" Guruko snapped. Naruto flinched, then shrugged helplessly at the dog.
"It doesn't matter," Naruto said tiredly as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Damn you and your 'it doesn't matter' speech. According to you nothing matters! It doesn't matter that someone hurt you. It doesn't matter that you hardly have any food in the house. It doesn't matter that your not allowed to go anywhere because of the people of this village. It doesn't matter that you were fucking raped! What does matter to you Naruto? Will it matter to you if you fucking die? Will that matter or are you just going to shrug in your grave while everyone you care about is hurting and say 'it doesn't matter?'" Guruko took several deep breaths as his anger slowly receded and he realized how harsh his words were. He looked at Naruto whose eyes were filled with a deep hurt. The blonde couldn't say anything, so he just shrugged again, avoiding the dog's eyes.
"How do you think Kakashi would feel if he knew that you were wearing this?" Guruko asked, his voice far softer than before. Naruto sat down on the floor in front of Guruko and gently picked up the jacket, staring at the bright orange clothe blankly.
"You know," Naruto began quietly, "I hate the color orange." Guruko gaped at him.
"Then why…" Guruko began but Naruto interrupted him.
"Shinobe clothing is more expensive than civiline clothes, the shopkeepers demand that you prepay for your uniforms and the academy requires you to have it all done before you enter your last year." Naruto said, his voice fading as he stared at the jacket.
"But… you have the money! I've seen it, so why would you buy that?" Guruko demanded. Naruto laughed but it was bitter.
"I ordered a big black hooded jacket with long blue sleeves and general black shinobe pants that would have lots of pockets. I thought it would look really cool." The blonde's hands clenched around the cloth. "I paid a lot of money for it, put a lot of thought into what I wanted. When I opened the box and pulled this out…" Naruto paused for a long moment, taking a deep breath to steady himself. "The shopkeeper purposely designed it to look like a clown's clothes, he looked me strait in the eyes and told me he hoped it would kill me on a mission, that an enemy nin would find me an easy target. I was so angry. I threw the box at him, we argued, yelled. I demanded my money back and he wouldn't give it to me. Showed me the paper work in my own handwriting with all the orders there and said there was nothing I could do. I don't know how he changed what I wrote and I still don't know how he did it. I left the shop, took the clothes with me, I didn't want him using the material for someone elses order." Naruto's hands loosened and the jacket fell onto the blondes lap.
"I tried going to other shops but… most wouldn't let me in or overcharged me so much that I couldn't afford it and… I didn't want to go through that again. Getting the shinobi clothing was a big grade in the academy for our fourth year. The time came that I either had to wear the clothes I bought or fail the grade and I couldn't' afford having the grade failed. I…" Naruto's voice cracked. "I didn't even know about the word until I went to put it on. I've been called a monster since I can remember, when I was little I thought I deserve the name and when I got older I started to hate everyone around me, so much that I wished they'd just die." Naruto's hands shook and the blonde refused to look at the dog that stared back at him in silence.
"I… I didn't want to let the man know he won so I… I pretended I loved it and walked into class like it was the coolest thing in the world. They all had a good laugh at me, Iruka was so angry and lectured me about it after class. I blew him off, telling him it was the greatest color in the world. He told me I was an idiot and that it would get me killed. That was one of the only times in the academy that I truly wanted to just break down and cry." Naruto said quietly.
Guruko didn't know what to say or do, he just stood there in unbelieving shock. Naruto dragged himself to his feet, leaving the jacket behind, and headed to bed without another word. When Guruko finally willed himself into the bedroom it was to find that Naruto was already fast asleep. Guruko smelt the distink smell of saltwater, as if the young shinobi shed a few tears as he drifted off to sleep. So shocked by the story was he that the dog failed to notice Naruto didn't eat dinner.
"Tsunade-sama," Izumo bowed respectfully before the dark blonde haired women before him, a weary look on his face as the morning rays shifted steadily through the window. The argument between herself and the jinchuuriki the day before had left the women in a foul mood that no sane human beign would willingly tread through. It took all day and through the night for Shizune to get a handle on the female Hokage and only after a heavy dose of alcohol. Whoever it was who'd dared to lay a hand on the boy would be shoved through a peep hole into the seven levels of hell and then down to the eighth level were, Izumo imagined, there would be tiny little replicas of Tsunade with evil grins on their faces.
This particular picture made it only that much harder to not shudder and run away from the women instead of handing her the report he'd received just as he was entering the office. She raised an eyebrow at him for his hesitance and Izumo gulped. "I have a report for you." Izumo began slowly. The women's eyebrow visibly twitched. "Yes," Tsunade drawled, "I could never have deducted that from the piece of paper you have in your hands with big red letters at the top saying 'report.'" Izumo flinched, apparently someone was still in a nasty mood. Izumo straitened and took a deep, deep breath. "It's a report from a civilian about an incident that occurred yesterday afternoon. The women was quite upset about what she saw and wanted you to know immediately." Izumo said, pausing momentarily to mentally prepair himself.
"And why would an 'incident' that has to do with civilines concern me Izumo-kun? Why are you wasting my time with things that can be handled by… pretty much every person within this building and a good amount outside. What makes this so important?" Tsunade growled in irritation as she rubbed her forhead. Izumo shifted his weight from his right to his left foot. "Well… it involves… Uzumaki… Naruto." Izumo finally relented. The women in front of him stiffened. Izumo tightly shut his eyes as the women sprang out of her seat and snatched the report from his fingers. He began to edged toward the door as the women read, hoping to get out before it happened.
Too late. Killing intent filled the air to the point that Izumo had a difficult time breathing. The man stopped moving, it was safer that way now, a moving person in this situation was liable to have an object thrown their way and land them in an immense headache or the hospital. "Shizune!" The small black haired women burst through the doors, hair sticking out of place as if she'd been sleeping yet eyes wide awake and ready for anything. Tsunade thrusts the paper into the younger womens hands. "It happened just after he left this office. Get this man described by a civilian women within this room before the hour is over. I'm gong to go speak with the women herself." Tsunade said as she brushed by Izumo. The Hokage's assitent read over the document, eyes widening in disbelief before anger clouded her features. She quickly followed after her superior.
As both women disappeared from sight Izumo let out a lengthy held breath. Yes, the man who decided to dump his filthy trash out the window on top of the passing jinchuuriki would pay for such mistreatment. He almost felt sorry for the poor basterd. Almost. Ever since Uzumaki Naruto defeated the sand's Jinchuuriki for the village many people's view of the boy changed. Even his indifference to boy turned to a certain level of awe. There was still quite a few people that hated the small blonde though and Izumo felt that it would take a miracle for those to change their hearts. Luckily for the jailer the Hokage herself saw the boy as her brother and those of which she found guilty of hurting Naruto quickly found their way into her clutches.
When Tsunade arrived she immediately replaced all those who worked within the Hokage tower, since the council had been steadily filling the place with their own people and removing the those that the third trusted through carefully planned methods. Lady Tsunade would not allow that to happen though, any person that so much as looked at the Jinchuuriki wrongly was bodily thrown out of the tower, no 'your fired' being necessary.
The Jounin remembered the look on the boy's face the first time this happened with a great amount of sadness. The normally happy and loud Gennin had been replaced with a stunned and confused twelve year old who couldn't seem to understand that someone had actually, willingly stood up for him. It had been a very harsh realization for the Jounin that the kid who'd protected them all from an immensely powerful enemy expected his own people to turn a blind eye on his mistreatment and simply allow it to continue. What really shook the Jounin was the thought that if the same thing had happened before the Sand/Sound invasion, he really would have not even paid attention to it. He, like everyone else, would have let the man shove the blonde into the wall. Would have let the man insult the young shinobi for standing in his way into the office. Would have simply left on his marry way after glancing at the boy, leaning against the wall, staring angrily at the floor.
Instead, Izumo had taken a second look and angrily grabbed the man by his shoulder as Shizune stood protectively in front of the boy and Tsunade let the wrath of hell fall upon the man. Naruto had looked up, shock written on his features, as the two women came to his aide. They'd not seen his face because they'd had their backs to him at the time. Not Izumo though. He'd seen it and felt disgusted with himself. How many times, he wondered, had similar instances taken place and no one done anything? They'd been allowing such horrible treatment for the entirety of the boy's twelve, now thirteen, years of life to take place. It had been so natural to just completely ignore the boy's existence for so long, to not even notice when something wrong was taking place.
Izumo took a breather just outside the office on one of the benches as he thought about the argument yesterday between the young shinobi and Hokage. He, Kotetsu and Shizune had been studiously performing their duties of paper work while the shouting had been going on, certainly not purposefully listening in on the conversation at the edge of the door like some silly academy children would do, the two blondes had merely been talking very loudly. Izumo frowned. From what he gathered the Jinchuuriki had been hiding the fact that he got sick a lot and someone had hurt him pretty bad. Tsunade-sama wanted to enter him into the hospital immediately, but the short preteen had stubbornly argued against it saying that he was healed from the attack already.
When the women insisted that they needed to find out why he was always sick, Naruto began claiming that the third knew about it and that it was no big deal, just something he had to deal with. Tsunade demanded to know what it was and Naruto had called upon his rights as a citizen of Konoha to keep his private life private. It was valid. The boy's guardian had been the third Hokage and since the man had died and Naruto had been within the shinobi ranks before his death Naruto held the right of privacy as long as the sickness did not interfere with his shinobi duties. Currently there was absolutely no evidence to prove that there was any effects on his everyday duties so Tsunade could not forcibly bring him into a hospital without breaking some major laws. Not only that, but since Naruto was a shinobi then he had the right, as an underage shinobi of thirteen, to choose whether a new guardian would be assigned to him or not. Naruto had chosen not to have one and thus was completely in control of whether he had to go to the hospital or not.
Izumo would admit that the kid certainly knew about the law, something that would come in handy if he did one day become Hokage. Hell it was useful for Chuunin. There certainly weren't a lot of new Chuunin who could work in the Hokage tower but Izumo would say Naruto would definitely be ready the moment he made the rank. If Naruto had been ignorant to it, then Tsunade could have simply bluffed the right to bring him in and Naruto would not have been the wiser.
They'd argued back and forth for quite awhile, but Tsunade-sama never managed to get Naruto to tell her anything else. Both she and Shizune had begun searching through the thirds records for any information on Naruto, but as of yet had not discovered anything to do with an illness or much else. Naruto's records were S-ranked after all. Izumo sighed tiredly. That wasn't to say there wasn't any information about it, only that there was a vast amount of information to go through. Since no one had been able to talk to the third and ask him where everything was and everyone who'd worked in the building before hand was now fired it left Tsunade with a great deal of unsorted work.
Izumo felt a bad foreboding about all of this. Until recently he'd not thought that the small boy's treatment had been that bad. Then he'd started to pay attention instead of his previous indifference. Just small things here and there that didn't seem right when Naruto would visit the Hokage, which he often did for numerous reasons. The unsure and weary look the boy got when he merely waved to him with a smile. The tiny flinch if he got a little too close. The utter surprise when he would ask the boy how he was and what he was up to. And the look. Every now and then Izumo would find himself being stared at with the look. Icy blue eyes watching carefully, analyzing his every move for something, anything that appeared threatening. Izumo shuddered.
How would it feel to have grown up constantly wondering if the people around you were trustworthy? If you had to consider every person around you before you even spoke? If everyone around you hated you enough to wish for your death? Izumo knew he'd not have made it and wondered each time he saw the blonde how he managed it. Kotetsu, the coward that he is, stepped around the corner and gingerly took a seat beside him. The moment Uzumaki's name came up the younger man had handed him the paper and disappeared, leaving him to face her.
"So? How'd she take it?"
"The man will be in her office in a few."
"…"
"…"
"Should I call the hospital to see if they have rooms available?"
"Nah."
"Ibiki?"
"No."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"So the morgue it is then…"
BN: Ugh, sorry for the lateness of the chapter, everyone, but it was my, The Epitome of Eccentricity's, fault entirely. I was sick, really sick, and was unable to go online to beta this. Here it is now, however, so I hope you enjoyed it!
