For the last few days, there had been a new boy outside.
He was blond-haired, small, whiskered and quiet. His steps were utterly silent, and the way he whispered to himself gave of an air of jumpy nervousness. He had not been introduced to the class and had not been invited inside the class. So far, he seemed to be unnoticed by the teachers as far as Shikimaru could discern from behind the window.
Chouji, ever the big eater, crumpled his plastic bag noisily as he followed Shikimaru's gaze outside the window. He watched as the boy played with a kunai in his hands, and suddenly ripped his arm with it.
Chouji silently gagged.
Even from a distance, the blood was easily visible. The blonde boy ran his hand through all the blood and dripped it onto an orange utensil. He then scribbled something on the tree in front of him, and laid his bloody palm on it. With that, he placed his hands together as in prayer, closed his eyes, and Shikimaru saw the scribbling glow red before disappearing altogether.
The way the boy tore blood from his arm never failed to make Chouji uncomfortable. Yet, the ritual itself was strangely fascinating, in a sick sort of sense. He watched as the boy repeat the process on yet another tree and stared as a piece of bark was torn out and vanished into a strange piece of paper.
Chouji would have thought that such a ritual would be very taxing on the body, but whenever he managed to catch a glimpse of the boy's arm, it looked completely unblemished, as if the boy hadn't been cutting himself every five minutes. Even so, Chouji's face was curled up into a permanent cringe, a comical face for a chubby person.
Distantly, he failed to register the chalk aimed for both his and Shikimaru's forehead, which Iruka had hurled with extreme precision and force. Both of them snapped into attention at the same time as the projectile slammed into them, and the class roared with laughter at the sound of the slap.
"Shikimaru! Chouji! There is no one teaching anything outside!"
Beside him, Shikimaru grumbled something to the teacher, and Chouji was forced to look away from the window. A few moments later, when he looked back, the boy was no longer there.
Needless to say, he still wondered. Who was that boy?
A certain Hyuuga Hinata sitting a few seats away had the same question.
…..
If Naruto didn't write his seals with his blood, they didn't work. Or at least, his ink seals paled in comparison to his blood seals.
Oh sure, he could still make ink seals work. It was just that his blood seals were a lot better. Naruto might have had a problem with that if he hadn't had the Kyuubi inside of him, but having a chakra system half made out of youki made everything regenerative; all the way up to blood. Having the ability to digest food way faster than the average guy probably helped a lot too, as his storage seals of grub would pertain.
It was still a quite a bit of a hassle though, although the special kunai had made it easier. Every cut he made with it drew out blood into a specialized storage seal, which he later injected directly into the orange brush Jaraiya gave him. It was more of an orange stick now, considering that the strands were worn out long ago. Regardless, Naruto could write with any part of it.
It was into his 300th seal that Naruto had received feedback from one of the security seals; someone had entered the perimeter in his vicinity. His breath came out in anxious heaves because few people, if ever, came into this part of the academy. He had laced the entire academy with seals long before jiji had announced his coming here, just to prepare for the prospect of being here. He knew what was frequently visited and what was not, and the place he was in had not gotten seal feedback for years.
It was, after all, a run-down, old complex of the academy that was no longer used. Yet, someone was in the building, and they were not on ordinary paths either. They were wall-walking, not walking through the corridors or on the floor. That meant only one thing: they were hiding, and Naruto was possibly being watched this very instant.
Naruto immediately scanned the walls, the ceilings, and maneuvered around the decrepit desks, chairs and boxes that were simply left abandoned long ago. He ignored the musky smell of old things and walked nonchantly into the corridor from the room. From here, he could hear the sounds of children in the real academy; even see from his vantage point the many kids having lunch. Although they looked like little ants to him, they calmed him down a little, but still didn't ease his paranoia.
Seal feedback coming from his right inwardly alarmed him, but he maintained an outward calm. He was trembling, but hiding it well, and simultaneously tracking down the person with the seal feedback. Finally, he pinpointed the position of the person, and held his hands in the snake position.
He let ten seals explode simultaneously.
A wail pierced his ears, and Naruto winced. That…did not sound like an assassin in the least. Also, the seal feedback gave indication of a person writhing in pain, not a trained ninja forced to overcome the pain. Even so, for someone to evade his seals that long meant a very skilled person in stealth and Naruto was still cautious. Nevertheless, Naruto walked towards the center of the seal feedback.
And around the corner into a dim alley, he came into contact with a blue-haired pupil-less girl.
Immediately, Naruto's suppressed trembling resumed twice-fold. While he knew now that the person was not an assassin, somehow the thought of confronting a person his own age was far scarier. Oh, he knew his grandfather would probably cover up for anything he did, but he still got the "I'm screwed" feeling, and the "I really fucked up this time" sentiment. He was suddenly glad he had not called ANBU.
The girl looked at him, whimpering, and tears of pain running down her cheeks. She clutched her legs and held herself in the fetal position. It reminded Naruto of Ayame when she was bullied, and against his better judgment, he walked towards her instead of running away like he should have. Wordlessly, he took out a medical seal, and got closer to the girl. Her tortured heaves got both quieter as he approached, yet louder, and Naruto had no idea how to communicate anything to her. Despite this, she offered no resistance as Naruto gingerly lifted her arms away from her badly burned legs and held the medical seal to her shins.
As green light bathed her legs, the girl's tortured heaves slowly gave way to quieter and quieter breaths. The pain smoldering her body ebbed and diminished slowly afterwards. Soon, on closer inspection, her legs were completely healed and her pained sobs had stopped. Naruto then made the mistake of meeting her curious gaze head on.
"…."
"…"
Flustered, Naruto turned away and ran, away from the old place. He jumped down the stairs two by two and ran. There was a twinge of regret that formed in the back of his brain, but he ignored it in favor of rationality.
….
"So how was school today, Naruto?"
It was okay, he signed to his grandfather. Besides the fact that he almost blew up an academy student, he chose not to comment that he hadn't even entered the classroom yet, though it wasn't as if the instructors were clamoring for his presence.
Unknown to him, his grandfather already knew, but chose not to risk Naruto's mental stability over a social concept. Nevertheless, his grandfather gave of the air of an old veteran calmly chewing a pipe and went back to watching naked women in his crystal ball. Naruto went back to his miniature desk and chair, a corner of the Hokage room that was dedicated to him and him alone, and sat down with an orange stick already in his hands.
He eyed his latest projects of his sealing as he plopped down on the colorful chair. Every now and then, his grandfather approached him and helped him out. But other than being warned not to sketch seals on his body, Sarutobi placed no restrictions on what he did with seals anymore.
After all, with one's own blood being a far better chakra conductor than ink, it was hard to rein in someone like that, especially an ex-prank master.
He took out his orange stick and began working.
…..
The next week passed in a blur. Besides spending all his time reading, inscribing seals and mimicking taijutsu stances, Naruto never strayed from the old building. He made some attempts to go near the academy court-yard at least, but he chickened out before he even came near.
His latest project was working pretty well though. It was a push/pull seal that was designed to store kinetic energy and suck it in. It wasn't working as well as Naruto would have liked, but it was still working, which meant that he was doing something right. Besides, no matter how hard he hit the seal with a hammer, the wood never broke, though the object that was supporting it did.
That was the problem, incidentally. It was no use for blocking attacks if the structure behind it got broken too.
However, there was one redeeming feature that made Naruto happy with it anyway, and stopped it from being a complete failure and a waste of a few months. It had the ability to release all the kinetic energy it gathered in one burst, which made it potentially useful.
And it was this accidental discovery that made Naruto smile in silent excitement instead of shaking his head in frustration at yet another failed project.
After a few more practiced swings at the wooden seal, Naruto took out a desk and an empty box outside. He prompted the box on the table and placed the wooden seal against its side. With a little burst of chakra, all of the force directed itself onto the small light weight box and Naruto watched it fly all the way into the horizon. It was so addicting to watch that Naruto did it all over again, the room of unused boxes beckoning him.
But as he watched the boxes fly, he also noticed the academy children playing together. From his vantage point, he saw friends laughing, petty arguments, and other social activities that reminded him of his loss.
He shook his head and told himself he didn't care and that it was better to be alone, but the rationalizations sounded empty to him. A part of him longed for the days of Ayame, Teuchi and Konohamaru, though he squashed the thoughts right afterwards. It wasn't fair to bring people in to his mess, and he already shed too many tears over it. Anyway, he wasn't even sure if anyone besides his jiji even wanted him, nobody besides the toad sannin or the Sandaime would care if he died.
It was then that he got seal feedback from the entrance of the building. Someone was walking in, normally too. Was it a teacher? Or was it a…
He felt the seal feedback slowly itching towards his location, from the entrance to up the stairs and towards where he stood.
It couldn't be.
But it was.
He found himself face to face with a blue-haired girl.
"…"
"…"
Despite looking like she wanted to run away, she still itched forward until she stood a foot away, and then she shuffled slightly forward. With her head bowed, her eyes closed, she thrust out a bento box in his direction: the epitome of shyness and feared rejection.
Awkwardly, Naruto took the box in much the same manner from his sitting position, and soon the both of them just froze there. Naruto had no idea how to communicate anything to her; it wasn't as if he had practice since them. Even so, he still wanted to try.
A wisp of smoke later, a piece of paper was in his hands. He scribbled something on it, and held it out for the girl to read.
Do you want me to eat this?
The girl nodded, and Naruto managed not to drop anything as he hesitantly opened the box. With that done, he took a bite from it, and then cautiously took one bite more.
Politely, he sampled the food. The girl sat down next to him and watched as he ate a mouthful, her eyes following his every move. It was very uncomfortable, but Naruto managed.
"W-was it okay?"
A short segment of scribbling later after he put down his chopsticks, Hinata had her answer.
It was good.
"I-I'm glad…"
She sniffed a little bit then, and for some reason, seemed like a very lonely individual to Naruto. Despite his anxiety, Naruto reached out and touched her arm, offering some of the food from his storage seal. Hinata simply stared at the food, and Naruto moved his arm forward a bit in a "go on" gesture.
"T-thanks…"
Naruto gave her his best smile, and continued to eat from the bento box the girl gave him.
….
A/N: I'm back!