Zero to Naruto!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail….
Chapter Four: Change x Thought
Naruto was pissed. In fact, pissed was an understatement for the intensity of rage he was currently feeling. He'd be lying if he said his fists weren't tingling from being closed too tightly and that his lips weren't slightly bleeding from his canines piercing them. It took every bit of his strength for holding back from throwing away the cell phone in his hands. He wondered whether the girl he'd been hanging out with merely acted insane or if she really needed medical attention.
He tried to mentally count to 10 and remind himself of all the good things she had done for him—helping him dress up better, prompting him to become punctual, been a loyal fan for years, bought all his merchandise—he corrected himself that the latter two were done for Gama Kichi and not him. And most of the things that had been done to him, for him, were mostly horrible. He wondered if that was how she expressed her love for people but he had seen her interact with Ino and Sasuke like sane people do, so he shoved that thought aside, too.
As his reluctant legs started walking out of the parking lot, he caught sight of a large red trash can at the exit. The first thought that came to his mind was to throw her things away. He slowly walked towards it and stared at it for a few good seconds, eyes shifted back and forth between the trash can and the shopping bags in his hands until he lifted his arm above it. But right before he let it drop, the flashback of Mirajane's silhouette with that random brunette guy played in the back of his head.
His thoughts from there took a different trail. Sakura was popular—it was almost possible that she was the most popular girl in the school. There was no way she wouldn't know about Mirajane and the kinds of relationships she'd had. His hand instinctively pulled back and his breathing rate elevated. He didn't spare a moment to think why he was so keen on finding out those things about Mirajane or why he was concerning himself with her after years of living peacefully in solitude and unconcerned with the world outside of his mind.
He quickly walked out and caught the first taxi that stopped across the pavement. Not knowing or pondering over why he was doing what he was doing.
(Scene change)
The address that Sakura had texted him was at a significant distance from the mall. The ride was longer than he had expected, mostly because his mind kept on making multiple scenarios about what would happen when he had reached her house. He wondered if her parents would be there or if he could just leave the bags in her front porch. But that would make it impossible to ask her about Mirajane so he placed that thought aside. What came next was a mental preparation of the speech he was going to give her to ask about Mirajane without sounding too obvious or desperate. Did he just admit he was desperate?
'Nope, it's strictly out of interest to find out about it.' He groaned. 'Since when do I care?'
The taxi stopped right in front of her house. He stepped out and turned to face it after thanking the driver. Her house wasn't huge but it was beautifully designed and carefully constructed. Beyond the fences guarding the boundaries of the place was a flowery, green lawn with a set of violet striped lawn chairs surrounding a small, round, wooden table. Golden daisies were growing in places along with wild violets as he made his way across the main gate.
It was a two-storey modern house painted in grey and porcelain white. A golden fancy light illuminated her front porch where he stood contemplating whether to ring the doorbell or walk away. After a few minutes of deep thinking and steps taken to and fro, he finally pressed the bell button.
"Who is it?" said a voice through the intercom. It was a woman's voice and Naruto couldn't tell whether it was Sakura or not given the reverberating incoherence in it.
"N-Naruto," he answered with hesitation. Then the other side was quiet and after a few seconds, he heard the door buzz open.
"Come in," was Sakura's voice that came from inside the house, probably from the left-hand side which appeared like her living room. The lack of greeting and escort prompted him to walk in on his own and swing the door behind him shut once he found himself inside the house. He carefully walked towards the living room where he could hear the TV playing—gunshots and grunts followed by dialogues about some important person's hidden location.
Once inside, he saw her sitting on her beige couch. Maroon tanks worn with a pair of plaid pyjamas as she sat cross-legged. "I brought you your stuff," Naruto said after clearing his throat.
"Can't believe you really did," she whispered, without moving her eyes from the screen, "I thought you will throw it away and never see me again," she chuckled.
"I was going to, to be honest," he uttered, "but I didn't so you should be counting yourself lucky."
"Do you know why I did what I did?" she questioned, still not batting her eyes.
"Because you tend to do insane stuff out of your arrogance?" he expressed in a questioning tone, running his fingers through his hair.
She was quiet for a second, lips pouting as if her thoughts were running deep, "you're half right but no," then for the first time since he got there, she turned towards him and shifted her gaze profoundly into his cerulean orbs, "I did this for vengeance because I'm arrogant," she smirked, pulling her damp hair behind her ear.
"Vengeance?" he questioned, clueless.
"You kept me waiting for half an hour in the hot summer heat, Naruto. My dress, when I got home, was drenched in sweat. And—not to forget, my hair was damp and greasy from it," she explained, lifting her shoulders, "so, all this so I never go through it again and get to see you sweating just the same way," she shifted her position to face him and pointed her finger towards him, then she tilted her head and smiled at him, "but I didn't expect you to go through with it and since you did, I'll thank you," she stood up from her spot then, "make yourself at home," she told him, gesturing towards the rust settee placed in a corner.
He thanked his 'endurance to bullshit' for helping him keep his cool as he tolerated the smug tone of her voice. Without waiting too long, he placed all her shopping bags on the centre glass table and settled himself on the appointed seat. The walls of her house were painted in a light, faded grey and the curtains were navy-blue in colour, tailored in velvet fabric. The furniture was also pale coloured while colourful, vibrant paintings hung from the walls. There were some potted small plants placed in ceramic vases on the wood patterned floor at some spots and the overall air smelled like fruits. It was the same smell that Sakura gave off.
After a while, Sakura came back with canned fruit juice which she threw at him to catch, "This is all I'll offer since my parents aren't home and I don't want to make extra efforts here," she told him as she settled down in her previous spot.
"Thanks," he murmured.
"Next week, I have sports practice all week so I won't be able to set up these meetings for you for a while," Sakura informed in a soft voice, Naruto nodded, quietly gulping down his juice until he realized that that was his moment and almost choked.
"C-come to think of it. When I walked past your practice room the other day, I found a long, white haired girl—what was her name..." he feigned thinking to himself, "Ah—Mirajane! She said she knew you and felt like she really admires you," mumbled Naruto, "she's from track and field, right?"
"Ah—Mira... I'm surprised you only got to know her now," Sakura answered, her brow lifted in surprise.
"What do you mean?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"She's well-known in fact, everyone knows her," she explained, "she's the daughter of Mad Woman's director," she paused for him to let out a name but rolled her eyes when he said nothing and continued, "Emily Strauss, Naruto. What world do you live in?" she flinched, "anyway, so everyone has been saying her name a lot recently because of some affairs of her mother."
"Affairs?" Naruto blinked, "what does that even have to do with the girl herself?"
"It's Hollywood, Naruto," she uttered, "one rumour and you're on the front page of the rolling stone, along with your family and the stranger you once talked to on the bus."
Naruto needed to dig deep but Sakura's oblivious nature was making it hard to do so. Speechless, he stayed quietly thinking for a while to come up with more ways to have her revealing Mira's personal information. Sakura, on the other hand, keenly watched as his forehead folds became more and more intense by the moment to imply at his underlying curiosity.
"She didn't seem like the popular kind to me, to be honest," he mumbled to himself.
"She is—given her looks and family background," Sakura stated.
"I mean—face, I understand but what does her mother's career has to do with her?" he mouthed and this time, Sakura could feel an ounce of desperation in his voice and in the way he kept on bringing up the same matter, over and over.
"Why are you so interested in that?"
He immediately started shaking his head, no and raised his arms in the air while trying hard to hide the newfound redness of his cheeks. Sakura raised her eyebrow and smirked as if she had just found out something interesting.
"Anyway, her mother is known to be a tough bitch who only cares about name and fortune. Legend says she almost abandoned her little daughter when she was born just because she didn't want to take care of her and focus on her career, instead," she stated, shifting her attention back to the TV screen.
"You mean, Mirajane?"
"Her younger sister, Lisanna. She's in the same year as us— which rock do you live under?" Sakura said.
"Uh—" the sudden sound of his phone ringing caught his words in his mouth and before picking it up, he glanced up at Sakura who didn't seem much interested in him or his presence. Then he looked back at his phone's screen, "it's from home," he said, standing up, "I gotta go."
"Shut the door when you leave," Sakura voiced when he had reached the main door. He did as he was told to and went on his merry way, replaying everything Sakura had told him in the back of his mind.
(Scene change)
It had been over a week since he had seen Sakura at her home. Fate hadn't been kind enough to grant him the chance to see Mirajane either. He knew it didn't involve him but something about the guy he saw her with made him feel interested. Well, perhaps interested wasn't the right word, rather an uneasy feeling on the back of his head was present.
'Intuition. I guess that's what it is.' He thought. 'But to what?'
He walked down the lead-coloured cobblestones of the pavement, marking the path from his neighbourhood convenience store to his house.
He swung around his wrist, the plastic bag containing an egg sandwich and a pack of instant ramen swung along with him as he skipped on his feet, wondering about the unfathomable past two weeks.
His eyes caught sight of two familiar figures standing on the other side of the road before him.
Instinctively, he crossed the road without caring much about the traffic approaching him, which to his fortune, wasn't as chaotic as it usually would be on his street at noon, on a Sunday.
Making sure to keep a careful distance from the duo, he hid himself behind the corner building. If anyone else had seen him, he might've been labelled as a suspicious stalker.
But again, to his fortune, there weren't many people around. (Today could easily be his lucky day).
He keenly observed the man next to the girl he was so familiar with—Mirajane.
She had her hair tied into a low braid while she was dressed in flared blue jeans and a pastel rainbow plaid shirt. While her partner wore a black three-piece suit.
He was a brunette with light peanut-gold hair and wore translucent, bluish glasses. Naruto couldn't see his face clearly, given the distance and the lack of the spectacles on his nose bridge but he was sure of the identity of this man being the same as the one he saw in the mall with Mirajane.
The only visible difference was the contrast in the aura around the couple from back then.
Naruto was positive about his gut feelings as he saw their current situation was extremely disparate from what he could sense.
Mirajane was arguing with him about something he couldn't quite understand while her partner seemed to dismiss everything and anything she would say. Naruto watched them bicker at each other for some good few minutes—Mirajane's hands waving in the air to explain something her dumb mate couldn't understand, the resonating raises in her voice at irregular intervals followed by her dwindling pitch, the man would let out deep sighs and would occasionally fix his glasses but Naruto didn't hear him bickering back at her too often.
And so, it became the reason why Naruto gasped when the man grabbed Mirajane by her shoulder and started forcefully dragging her towards the Rover standing at some distance from them. He didn't say a word despite of Mira's continuous protests and woeful cries. Naruto could feel his heart clenching as he tightened his fist, but even he knew he wouldn't be charging at the man any time soon, given his superior size, age and strength proven by how easily he dragged the captain of a sports team against her will, as if it was child's play to him.
"Let me go!" Naruto heard Mira scream as she pulled herself back from the man's grasp but he only snatched her back and grabbed her neck from behind. The grip of his fingers around her arm felt ruthless to the sight as he bent himself to meet her ear and whispered something—something threatening enough for her to go lump and stay standing still, ceasing all of her previous protests and elegies.
The man took her to the car and pushed her inside, shutting the door while he walked around from the front and took his seat on the driver's side. Naruto waited for the car to start moving but it never happened and through the darkened, opaque mirrors, he was unable to see the events taking place inside
After a while, he saw the door of the car unlocking as he heard a thump against it. Before long, the door opened for Mirajane to step outside. It didn't seem from her body language like she did it on her own accord and Naruto's suspicions got proven once she vigorously slammed the door of the car shut and the man drove it away, rashly, as if he was just as enraged.
He watched her kicking her feet on the pavement carved with pebbles and stones. Her leather boots made a rough sound against it. Then she bent down with her palms supporting her weight on the knees as she let a held back sigh slip off her tongue. Naruto could've sworn he was about to step up and walk towards her until his attention got directed towards the way he was dressed.
Baggy, worn-out green pyjamas and an over-sized plain white T-shirt. His hair wasn't combed and his sneakers reeked of mud from not being cleaned for as long as he could remember. All of a sudden, he could hear Sakura's words in the back of his mind—
'The way you dress is awful'
'Are you sure you want to keep going on like this?'
'I want to make you appear better'
She was right. She's been right all along—
He could feel his legs freeze up as much as his eyes were on Mirajane's figure—immovable like concrete, and just as firm and unchanging.
Her dwindled body then rose from the ground like a phoenix from ashes—reborn. At least, that is what the fierce fury in her blue eyes said. She let out a loud groan before roughly reaching for the cross-body bag around her waist. In no time, Naruto watched her pull out her phone as she quickly started dialling something. Placing the phone against her ear, she started to tap her foot.
"What the h—" she groaned, biting back the curses as he watched her stare blankly at the phone screen, then looked here and there as if searching for something. She raised her arm in the air, the one holding her cell phone, as if meaning to throw it against the side wall but held herself back. The frustration and desperation were painfully visible in the way she fisted her hands and clenched her jaw.
Naruto deducted that either she had some network problems or her phone battery had run out, whatever the case, she couldn't get back home. He wanted to help but couldn't move himself, even by an inch. That's when an idea popped into his head and he quickly reached for his phone in the back pocket of his pyjamas.
In the next few minutes, a Taxi pulled up to where Mirajane was standing stranded. Naruto had hidden himself behind the building to avoid even the slightest chance of being caught stalking—ugh, patrolling her.
Mirajane observed the cab in surprise because nobody else could be spotted on the seemingly abandoned roads of the neighbourhood that wasn't hers and where she knew no one. She asked the driver if he had gotten the wrong location but didn't push her luck too hard since she needed the ride that had been sent by a djinn.
Quickly, she sneaked inside it, never looking back, as the car drove her away. Naruto, on the other hand, watched the car slowly fade away from his view as it disappeared in the far distance.
(Scene change)
That night, he received a text from Sakura—something he hadn't expected and something that surely made him curse himself to no end.
[I have a task for you tomorrow.
Remember that Mirajane we talked about the other day? You have to meet her in the morning and greet her.
Oh, and she arrives earlier than most of the population in the school so you better set your alarm tonight.
Sakura—23:47]
He let out a sigh because it was almost possible that he had made Sakura suspicious of his intentions towards Mirajane. Maybe he tried too hard to keep it hidden. His phone vibrated again,
[Also, dress up nice and don't wear that neon blazer of yours.
I repeat, don't.
Sakura—23:51]
He let out a frustrated grunt before typing a quick OK.
'This sucks... I haven't logged in for the past few days... ugh, why do I even care about her anyway.' He wondered, frustrated as he fell on his bed, staring blankly towards the ceiling. 'She seemed sad. That guy was such a jerk.'
Beep bleep...
He opened his email and sighed, not in the mood to reply or play.
[From: Vortex/user=?10₩389
Hey Gama Kichi, where are you?
Lucy]
'I should ask her and get this over with. Maybe call the police... I don't know. Ugh...'
(Scene change)
It was 7 in the morning and he was leaning against the third year's lockers waiting for an anticipated face to appear out of nothingness that surrounded him that early in time.
When Sakura advised him to get up and get there early, she most certainly didn't mean this.
Tapping his foot against the floor, he pulled out his phone to check the time: 07:13, he was still too early but some students had started to arrive, maybe the ones in the student council. It took another five minutes for Mirajane to appear before him—walking through the entrance with her silver hair swaying and her ocean eyes fluttering as she made her way to the locker.
Naruto couldn't keep his stupid gaze off of her which resulted in her meeting his eyes. She waved at him from a distance which made him aware of his foolishness. But unwilling to let this weaken his resolve, he started walking towards her and stopped right when he was half a meter away from her.
'This is horrible, how am I supposed to suddenly greet a girl… she is too bright!'
Somehow, when he faced her, words were harder to form. Either way, he tried to speak.
"Hey," he mumbled, voice low but she picked up on it.
"Hi," she cheerfully greeted, "Naruto, right?"
It took him by surprise that she remembered both his face and his name, something most people fail to do. The glimmer of her eyes, for a moment, made him unaware of the world surrounding him and it was as if, only that girl existed. He was relieved to have found her safe, given yesterday's events. His mind had made him wonder about multiple, horrible scenarios all night so having her talking to him so brightly right now—nothing else could make him happier and he didn't know why.
"Ah—yes, Mirajane?" he feigned obliviousness, "It's nice to—" maybe his luck wasn't so merciful on him today since his speech got cut by some girl that had appeared behind Mira out of nowhere.
"Mira! The prez' is waiting," she said as Mirajane turned to Naruto with an apologetic expression marking her countenance, "why are you late today, anyway?" the girl complained as she took her away from him. Naruto, on the other hand, only watched her from behind until she was completely gone.
(Scene change)
He was seated in his class for a good fifteen minutes after which some familiar faces started making their debuts for the day. One of them was Sakura's who carefully eyed him from head to toe after spotting him in his usual seat by the window. Something that made him flinch and look at his own reflection in the glass window to see if he had something strange on his face. When he glanced back at her, she smirked, mostly because she had succeeded in making him take off his beloved, excessively vibrant hoodie—something he stayed oblivious to.
As she walked past his seat, she placed a paper chit on his table, secretly, careful enough to have nobody else witnessing it. She never talked to him in class, or in front of their classmates and her friends. Whatever her reasons might be—pride, embarrassment or just because, he was partly thankful for it. No one would like to be pushed back against a toilet door and asked about what they had to do with the popular chick who had been hanging out around them too much lately.
He sighed and unfolded the pressed lavender paper that smelled of glue and fresh cardboard.
'Meet me outside the volleyball field, in the parking lot after school ends.'
—SH
'She could have just texted me...'
(Scene change)
The volleyball field was built at a distance from the high school building because the baseball and track and field club's training grounds covered the area between the two entities. The path towards it was long and annoying since it took its curve from the school's entrance, which was halfway between the building of the school and the gymnasium.
He was reluctant to go and meet her but also curious and suspicious given her smirk in the morning and her text about Mirajane, the night before. So, he was on his way, dragging his unwilling feet along with the heart that felt heavy.
Humming to himself quietly with Air pods inserted inside his ears tightly, he walked on his merry way until the scene before him made him stop in his tracks. The same man from before was standing with Mirajane at some distance from the school entrance. It seemed like they were arguing again, just like he had seen yesterday. The girl felt unstable, emotionally, with tears staining her cheeks and her voice sounding inaudible as she stood speechless before the older guy who was possibly on his late twenties.
Naruto watched her weakly grab on to his hand but he pulled it away and much to his surprise and frenzy—slapped her across the face instead.
'What the fuck...'
Author's note: Yes, it seems some of you kids are at it again and it's hilarious and sad at the same time. I am probably wasting my time but I will try to answer some bs spewed in my last chapter reviews. I suggest anyone who isn't interested in me being petty (Because I am bored) to skip this until next chapter! Enjoy!
Bullshit 1: LOL gamer and "looks cool" don't go together. Shit story bla bla
Ans: Sorry mate, I should have explained the gamers in this story aren't 12yrs old kids playing Fortnite and Roblox. It's OK if you are one of them! I don't judge *wink*
Bullshit 2: How can we not understand human feelings when we are humans too Retarded author bla bla
Ans: Ah right man, I honestly don't know what to say to you. How did you get to this conclusion from what I said last chapter? Dude, if you wanna insult at least read before you send your crap xD (I am expecting you to say only autistic people use xD)
Bullshit 3: You should read books or search up on human psychology. As no sane person would be that patient especially with an abusive person. Since prolonged exposure to negativity has an adverse effects on a person's mind. If you want it to be realistic then do not copy kishimoto's Naruto.
Ans: You talk about human psychology to sound smart and then proceed to act like every human being thinks the same or acts the same,,, like honestly if you think every human being on earth has same tolerance to abuse, then I suggest you study your so called human psychology only line that makes sense is prolonged exposure to negativity has an adverse effects on a person's mind which I never denied but the effect is not same on everyone. For example you might be reading this and breathing hard while munching on a beef burger getting your heart beats high while I am just loling at you while typing this to entertain myself.
Bullshit 4: Because if u had forgotten SHE is a STRANGER To him he could care less nobody in their mind would be that much of a asskisser and listen to such a horrible person I mean seriously who the fuck waits 1 hour gets told then that the person you are carrying the bags for the whole time is now at home and ditched u and then agrees to bring her the same bags he was carrying to her? Are you fucking retarded? You have no idea how human feelings work
Ans: Dude they go to the same school, same class and are out on a 'Date' this is not what you call a stranger. I do have an idea on how human feelings work, it's vast, not a single trackline which you seem to think. Go read a reader x xyz fanfic that will make you feel better, you seem mad.
Bullshit 5: Glancing at all your other stories im gonna guess you were bullied in school.
Ans: Thanks for your constructive criticism. Judging by such a well put sentence, I presume you play fortnite with your mom's cc to get vbucks Y.Y
NotBullshit 1: I tried so hard not to hate this story
Ans: Which is fine, I don't like some of my own stories either lol but they seemed interesting at some stage of my life