Chapter 2: City's rejection
Another week had past since the last battle, Naruto's wound had healed without incident, and had left him rearing and ready to go. However Sasuke's wounds left him unconscious for two days, and he had only been released from the hospital on the condition that he wouldn't touch Naruto, or egg him on. The city had seen the battle, seen Naruto cut open with a death wound. the city noticed the odd happenings around Naruto. Iruka had tried to deny that the boy had any special powers, reminding the people that questioned Naruto's motives that he had failed the entrance exam three times, but the people around him wouldn't listen. There was also a bigger more pressing problem that was weighing down on Iruka's mind. A young student of his had gone missing in the battles and there was no trace of the child found. Konahamaru, the fourth's grandson, had disappeared. The only one that expressed any true concern outside of the people that were training the child, and his classmates was Naruto.
"I can't deal with this!" Iruka said resting his chin in his hand. "This is to much stress for one person to be under, much less a child."
"Iruka sensei?" A small stuffy voice called forcing Iruka to look over his desk and over to the child that was now standing behind it.
"Udon? What are you doing here?" Iruka said looking down at the boogery faced boy. "School let out an hour ago."
"I know Sensei." He said his voice choking up more and tears beginning to stream down his face. "But, Konahamaru, he-he, He left a note, I found it blown up against a back alley fence near his house."
The small hand reached up and handed the note to Iruka. Iruka immediately noticed that the note had been cried upon. Tear marks splashed the page and made some of the ink run. With a lump in his throat he read the note.
"Dear whoever cares,
I Konahamaru am leaving. I have nothing for me here, my grandfather died, and everyone around me has forgotten I exist. I leave all my toys to Udon, I leave all my coloring books and Crayons to Moegi, and I leave all of the scrolls that my grandfather had that I haven't taken with me to Naruto. If I choose to come back I will, but right now I need some time to think.
Signed,
Konahamaru
"Udon, when did you find this?" Iruka said quickly rising from his chair.
"Today sir, I went over there in hopes maybe he would have been hiding, and I found it then." Udon said wiping the tears away from his eyes. "Are you going to go find him?"
"I am going to try Udon, go home now ok?" Iruka said walking out from behind his desk and giving the boy a light pat on his head. "I am going to contact the Hokage about this, she will help me find him."
"Ok!" Udon said his voice sounding a slight bit more cheered.
Iruka watched the child run, slide open the door to the class room, and disappear. A sickening feeling settled in the Mans stomach. He needed to see the Hokage badly, about more then one thing now. He felt like he was loosing his grip on reality. As quickly as he could he threw open the window to his classroom and jumped out landing on the street below and taking off at full speed. People glanced and gawked, Iruka wasn't the most extraordinary Ninja in the village and he rarely showed his talents at all, however he needed to get to the Hokage as fast as he could so he put all his Chakara into making his legs carry him as fast as they could.
"Oy! Iruka? Where ya goin in such a rush?" A voice called catching up to him.
It only took a second for the voice to sink in as Naruto's and the little knot that was bunched up in Iruka's stomach eased a little.
"Naruto, I just got a note from Konahamaru, he ran away!" Iruka said jumping from the street to a building.
"What?!?" Naruto said following shortly there after. "When?"
"Looks like he ran away that night you and Sasuke fought." Iruka said handing the note to Naruto. "I am going to the Hokage to get a search party formed so we can find him, he isn't talented enough yet to survive on his own. Your coming with me."
"Alright sounds great, I know just who we can use to find him fast!" Naruto said catching up to Iruka after reading the note.
"Who?" Iruka said noting that the building that housed the Hokage was coming up fast.
"Kiba, he has the best nose in the whole village, him and Akamaru might be able to sniff him out." Naruto said.
"Ah! Excellent!" Iruka said slowing down as they reached the garden before the main house. "Hopefully we can find him soon, it was so rough on him when the third died, he hasn't had enough time to recover and realize that he has people around him that care."
"Yeah, I know that feeling." Naruto said as they both slowed their pace to just a regular run.
Two guards were standing at the door. Both were men around Iruka's age. One of them wore a band that crossed his nose, the other wore the forehead protector covering his whole head, both of them had wild spiky hair, and both stepped in front of the door when Naruto and Iruka reached it.
"What's the meaning of this Kotetsu?" Iruka said scowling as the man with the band smiled a polite smile.
"Sorry Iruka, meeting going on inside, you and the boy are not to go in under any circumstances." He said motioning to the door behind him.
The other one standing beside him smiled and looked off into the sky.
"It's another one of 'those' meetings, only this time you weren't invited." The one with the covered head said. "Personally the idea of me being distracted by what I thought was an intruder sounds about good right now."
Naruto quickly looked from the man talking to Iruka and back again. "One of those meetings?"
"Naruto," Iruka started, but was ran over again.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ONE OF THOSE MEETINGS?!?!?" Naruto said jumping onto the chest of the one looking up into the air. "THIS IS ABOUT ME ISN'T IT!!!"
The shinobi quickly covered Naruto's mouth and shushed him. "You fool, don't let them know your out here. Kakashi put us out here for specifically this reason. Though the orders are to prevent you from coming in Kakashi, Iruka, and several others think the way you have been treated all your life has been unfair, and we plan to let you in."
"Why didn't they call me in?" Iruka said stepping up to the door.
"You support him, same reason we weren't allowed to be here unless we took guard duty." Kotetsu said glancing around.
"You have to let us in anyway! And hurry!" Naruto said unattaching himself from the man's chest. "Konahamaru left a note, He ran away." Naruto said his eyes becoming concerned. "We need to get a search party going now, otherwise we may never find him."
"Konahamaru wasn't killed in battle?! He ran away?" Kotetsu asked a pitch of panic filling his voice.
"Yes he ran away, and he has a good number of the thirds scrolls." Iruka said. "This is a very dangerous situation, not just for the boy, but also for the village. We don't know which scrolls he took and he might have some of the forbidden scrolls, which could present a problem if they get into the wrong hands."
"Alright Iruka, we are disappearing, you saw no one here at the door." The one with the headband said. "Naruto, no matter what is said in there don't loose your temper, Sasuke is in there, they are talking about the attack."
Naruto visibly cringed but nodded. "I place more importance on my friends life then I do my own, Konahamaru could be hurt out there somewhere and I want to find him before someone else does."
Both of the ninja at the door nodded and smiled before disappearing into a wind of leaves. Iruka reached for the door.
"Naruto, you know what's happening don't you, you have known ever since I told you that you had the fox inside of you." Iruka said his voice only a whisper. "You know that your life has hung in the balance ever since you passed the Exams at Ninja school."
Naruto nodded.
"Iruka, I knew deep down somewhere that there was something wrong with the way everybody treated me. After I found out about the fox I knew that my fate here was not being decided by me, it was being decided by the people who fear what's inside of me." Naruto whispered back. "Why do you think I am so careful with my steps now days? This has beaten into me that there is no time for goofy fun Naruto who tries to amuse everybody. I know what is being said in there, I can feel it, but don't worry, as I said out there I expect the worst, but a friends life is more important to me then myself. Konahamaru is a friend, he saw me with unclouded eyes, because he was raised by the fourth, and he still doesn't know about what is inside of me."
Iruka nodded.
"There are people in this village who stand by you Naruto, never forget that." Iruka whispered hugging the boy.
"I know, Iruka I know. But now is not the time for this, No more focus on me, we need to find Konahamaru." Naruto said hugging Iruka back briefly before separating himself from the man. "Besides with all this hugging someone might push the rumors further and think that I am gay, and boy wouldn't that start the village up on all my wrongs again."
Iruka laughed, but quickly covered his mouth realizing where they were. No more words were said as both of them snuck to the main doors of the conference chamber. The house itself was huge, and the conference chamber was often used to show plays from the local students. There were voices floating down the hall, thousands of them. One voice was carrying over all of them. It was Tsunede, the 5th Hokage. Her voice stopped momentarily and was replaced by one that Naruto knew well, Sasuke. His blood boiled but he kept his temper well within check. Little words floated down. Sasuke wasn't trying to accuse Naruto of anything, he was stating what went on during the fight, and why he did it. Nothing had to do with Naruto the Kitsune. In fact from the sound of it Sasuke didn't even know Naruto had a Kitsune side to him.
"Iruka, he doesn't know does he?" Naruto asked as they reached the large double doors. "And still no one is going to say anything. Are they?"
"No he doesn't know, and he won't unless you show him that side of yourself. He Didn't get to see the fight against you and Neji." Iruka confirmed.
"He did see me fight Gaara though." Naruto said rubbing his chin. "He still made no assumptions?"
"Oh he made them alright, but only to me, Kakashi, and the fifth." Iruka smiled. "He said you had some kind of bloodline limit, he doesn't know about the demon inside of you."
"Good, that's the last thing I need right now." Naruto said.
The talking on the inside of the room stopped followed by an announcement.
"Hold all comments until Uchiha, Sasuke has left the building." It was Morino Sensei's booming voice.
The room was dead silent then there was a shuffling. A door down the hallway opened to revile Sasuke and Kakashi
"I don't see the point to all of this Kakashi sensei." Sasuke said. "So we got into a fight, I don't like him anyway, Not like that doesn't happen to others."
Naruto peaked out from behind the post he was hiding behind and spied Kakashi and Sasuke walking down the hallway.
"Yes you got into a fight, but you could have killed Naruto and he could have killed you, the meeting is to determine if we need to reassign teams. You are the problem in this situation, Naruto did nothing to provoke you, and you attacked him in battle. Your lucky he didn't kill you." Kakashi said and whapped Sasuke upside the head. "If you can't change your attitude I am going to have to take some desperate measures to fix it. I didn't teach you the Chidori for nothing. You need to watch yourself."
"Feh," Sasuke said reaching for the door. "He needs to watch himself, next time I will make sure I have gutted him."
"You need to get you attitude under control, this is your final warning." Kakashi said shoeing Sasuke out of the door. "If you don't your not going to like the consequences."
The door slammed shut leaving Kakashi behind it. He sighed and leaned up against the door momentarily drawing down his mask to rewet his lips. Naruto's eyes about bugged out of his head. He had never seen Kakashi without the mask.
"This team is going to be the end of me." Kakashi said looking up to the ceiling and reapplying his mask.
Kakashi turned and walked down the hallway coming towards Naruto and Iruka. As quickly as he started he stopped making direct eye contact with Naruto. Naruto could see his face scrunch up in a smile and he winked. He quickly turned towards the door he came from and disappeared.
"Crap he saw me!" Naruto said leaning back against the wall "Now what?"
"Don't worry Naruto he isn't going to say word one," Iruka said motioning towards the door. "Come on we are going to go in. Henge yourself."
Naruto quickly did as was told and turned himself into his female counterpart and changed into a different set of clothing. No one would know it was him unless they had seen him do this before, and not many had. Iruka did the same, through he didn't change into a female, he changed his looks completely.
"Sasuke has exited, resume meeting." Morino sensei called again.
"Naruto clearly was not at fault in this situation." The fifth said. "Sasuke is the one to blame, we have put to much spotlight on the Uchiha boy and it has gone to his head."
There was an uproar of disagreement. The room just got louder and louder.
Quickly Naruto and Iruka made their way into the room during the loudest of the uproar and began shifting their way up front.
"SHUT UP!!!" Naruto could see a white fluff hovering above the heads of the people taller then him. Jiraya was up on stage as well. Everyone quieted down.
"What do you want us to do. Naruto has done nothing harmful to the village." He said his fist landing on something hard on stage. "Every single last one of you has a favor owed to that boy, he single handedly defeated the Demon from the sand, and he was the one that spotted the missing in that were in this village to cause trouble. Itachi and his buddy are now long gone."
"But what if he was the one that contacted them?" A voice to Naruto right shouted out.
"Yeah, what if he is planning a double cross? How would we know?" Another voice called out across the room again sending the whole of the room into an uproar.
As they were trying to quiet people down again Naruto laughed. He never knew how absurd this all was till he actually stood here. They were giving him so much power, yet he didn't want it. It amused him. Again he found himself and Iruka moving forward in the loud crowd. As soon as the crowed stopped again they stood still, blending in completely.
"He isn't planning a double cross." Tsunade said. "He doesn't deserve this ok? I am Hokage and I have had first had dealings with the boy, he is harmless. I had a Chuunin visit the boys house after the attack. Nara Shikamaru step forward."
Naruto about lost hold of the Chakara that was keeping him disguised.
"Lady Hokage," Shikamaru said sounding like he had been doing this all his life. "The visit went well, he was slightly shook up because of the attack, but he holds no grudge against Uchiha Sasuke. He made no violent moves against me, and when pressed he discussed he didn't blow up, he instead talked to me and told me his side of the story."
"Its true that you were over there most of the night, surely more information was passed between you in the span of 7 hours." A voice behind Naruto called out.
"To be quite frank there wasn't, I overused my Chakara in battle as did he and somewhere in the middle of our prattling I dozed off. When I woke up he was passed out on the floor, and I took my leave. There is no danger with the boy." Shikamaru said.
"He didn't curse you while you were sleeping?" A woman somewhere in the crowd called, causing yet another uproar of questions and a surge forward on the stage. Naruto and Iruka finally made it to the front and got to see who was up on the stage.
The Hokage was there, Kakashi was there, Morino-Sensei was there, Shikamaru was there, as were several other jounins. Jiraiya was there as well but he was sitting off the edge of the stage puffing at what looked to be some sort of pipe with a sour look on his face.
"He needs to be done away with!" Naruto heard a voice behind him call. He turned to look, it was Ino's father. He looked down immediately and his heart twisted into knots. "kill him! Then him and the Kyubi will be gone and we won't have to be worried anymore!"
"We can't kill him, we would be taking an innocent life!" The Hokage protested pulling out a scroll.
"Innocent! But look at all the lives we could save!?!" Another voice called above the din.
"We can't kill him, he has saved you several times over not to mention the way the demon was sealed we would have the Kitsune out and running free again and he would probably be even more pissed then he was when he was first sealed because the boy and him obviously have a truce." The Hokage said quickly pulling through the scroll.
Before Naruto knew what was happening he was pulled onto stage by the still in disguise Iruka.
"Your not suppose to be up here, get down Chuunin." Jiraiya said not even looking up and still puffing his pipe.
"S-sorry We came with an important message." Iruka said putting his hand behind his head.
"This had better be the knowledge of another attack kid." Tsunade said looking at the two on stage.
There was a crack, it was the crack of one set of mass replacing another and Iruka dropped his disguise. There was a gasp throughout the crowd and a loud "how did he get here" Resounded from several of the guards posted at the doors.
"Iruka, how did you find out about this?!" Tsunade said her eyes about dropping out of her skull.
"Chance, pure and simple chance." Iruka said taking the note from the still discussed Naruto's hands. "So happens I had an emergency to talk about to you and I found out I had been left me out of some important talks. I was going to walk in originally just as I am, but something told me I wasn't supposed to be here hearing this. But this is enough of an emergency that I don't really care about what's going on in this room."
"Who is that with you?" Tsunade said the whole room again becoming deathly quiet.
"Only the one person who shouldn't be left out of these talks but is." Iruka Motioned to Naruto and Naruto changed back into himself.
The whole room gasped and both Jiraiya and Kakashi jumped over to Naruto and stood between him and the crowd.
"Wow, you even had me fooled kid, you have gotten better!" Jiraiya whispered to Naruto causing the boy to smile.
"He fooled you too?!?" Kakashi whispered loudly. "Damn, I didn't know it was him either, I saw him at the door earlier but he didn't disguise himself. It doesn't even feel like you Naruto when you transform!"
Tsunade glared over in Kakashi's direction and Kakashi shut up and smiled. Naruto snickered, both of the men were being sarcastic, both men had seen his Jitsu before.
"What is so important?" Tsunade said.
"I was given a note from a student earlier from Konahamaru." Iruka said. "It seems as though the boy has ran away."
He handed the note to Kakashi who in turned handed it to Tsunade. She quickly read over it her face filling with concern.
"Oh god, so he could still be alive!" Tsunade exclaimed.
"We have to send out a search party immediately." Iruka said. "As his keeper it is my responsibility now to make sure the boy returns home safe and I can't do this all alone."
Naruto turned around and looked through the hole between Kakashi and Jiraiya. The crowed was talking amongst itself while fear filled eyes darted up to the stage to make contact with Naruto's own. The only kid in the room besides himself was Shikamaru. And he wasn't exactly paying attention at the moment, he was fussing with the band that held up his hair.
"You planned this didn't you Fox lover!" A voice shouted out followed by several others.
"You knew this meeting was happening! Get him off the stage!"
For about 5 minutes a mini battle raged with people trying to get on stage, and random objects flying in the direction of both Naruto and Iruka. Naruto was sick of being guarded and wanted to say his two cents on this whole matter. How dare they not believe Iruka especially when it concerned a child. Before Kakashi and Jiraiya realized anything had happened Naruto stepped out from behind the men. Quicker then the eye could see an object made it's way across the room and Struck Naruto in the chest Throwing him back onto the stage floor and shocking everybody silent.
Iruka Screamed and was immediately grabbed by Kakashi to hold him from going over to the boy. For a moment there was no movement. Then there was a stir. All eyes were on Naruto's form. No one dared move besides Iruka who was attempting in vein to struggle out of Kakashi's arms to see if Naruto was ok. There was a slight moan, and a leg raised up. Then the other, and then Naruto propped himself on his elbows and winced. The silence still hung in the air when Naruto stood up and looked at his chest. A single kunai had made it past his Armour and had pierced his chest right where his heart was. AS quickly as he could he unzipped his jacket and tossed his armor to the ground still leaving the Kunai intact.
"You people are pathetic." Naruto said his voice calm yet eerily scary in the soundless room. "Each and every time I prove myself I only wind up getting more ridicule. I am a person like everyone else here, the only difference between you and me is a situation that I could not have prevented. Do you think I like living this way? With this thing trapped inside of me?"
"Each and every day for all of my life it was a new battle, weather it was because of a personal difficulty I had to deal with without the benefit of parents, or a battle I had to fight because my name was spread like the plague." Naruto said grabbing the Kunai in his chest. "I love this city, I love the people in it regardless of if you love me or not. I was willing to risk my life for this city, for my home. I didn't know what was inside of me till recently, no one told me I had a demon inside of me, so up until I passed the Exit exam of the ninja academy I had no idea what was living within me. So up until that point None of you, NONE OF YOU had any reason what so ever to treat me like trash."
"My heart bleeds for this city and all of the people in it right now." With a giant tug Naruto dislodged the Kunai from his ribs and pulled it out of his chest causing a steady volley of blood to begin finding it's way out of the hole the kunai created. "For if No one will believe Iruka or myself, then you guys are risking not only an innocent child's life who has no knowledge of who I truly am, but you are also risking the cities life because he has with him some of the scrolls the third Hokage kept within the vault at his own house. Those scrolls could contain anything from simple cooking spells to any one of the numerous forbidden techniques that only the hidden leaf is to know about."
Tsunade had turned away from Naruto and was looking towards the wall, her fear of blood was kicking in at a very bad time. Everyone in the room was silent and Naruto smiled.
"If no one will help me find my friend, then I will find him myself, without your help, I have never needed it before so what makes you think I need it now?" With one quick motion Naruto ran his hand over his chest and cleared the blood away from what was once a fatal wound, now the only thing that was left was pink skin, no mark what-so-ever. "I leave you with this, so long as you are willing to help me I am willing to help you. If you all think that this is a hoax and a child dies because of it, it is on your minds and yours alone. I am going to start the search for Konahamaru as soon as I can get my stuff packed and myself cleaned up. For any of you that want to join me feel free."
With that Naruto exited Stage left out of the door that Kakashi went out of earlier. There was another uproar behind him. Soon Kakashi and Iruka followed as did Shikamaru.
"Naruto wait up!" Kakashi said catching up to the boy who burst through the door.
"Kakashi I don't want to talk right now." Naruto said boosting up his Chakara and taking off.
"Naruto damnit turn around and talk to me, I don't need two of my team ignoring me!" Kakashi said grabbing Naruto's shoulder.
Naruto spun around with such force and so quickly that it caught Kakashi off guard.
"I never have ignored you, it's you who was ignoring me." Naruto snarled. "I kept my temper in there like I promised, I didn't get mad, I didn't try and hurt anyone, hell I should have had every right to after whoever got me with that Kunai threw it. But I didn't. I told my piece for once in my life, and I left without so much as a finger raised against anybody. And Now? Now I am pissed. I am pissed because you completely ignore me over the spoiled brat, everyone hates me for something that is inside of me. No one knows who I am or who I was before this even happened. Hell I don't know who I was or what I could have been. Yet here are all the people in the village minus the select few hating me all the same. Do you realize how stupidly retard this is?"
Naruto had stopped and was panting. He did loose allot of blood and it took longer for him to replace things actually taken from him.
"I know things seem bad right now…" Kakashi started.
"Bull Shit, they have been bad forever, and nothing has changed. Why Don't you stop filling me with you little delusions." Naruto said looking up tears in his eyes. "I am warning you right now Kakashi, you have one more chance before I leave. And it has nothing to do with the village. If Sasuke attempts to end me one more time I am not going to hold back. This village wants a demon, it is going to get one. Sasuke is the one you have to worry about not me!"
Without any warning there was a loud Explosion and Naruto no longer stood in front of Kakashi.
"God! Kage bushin!" Kakashi yelled glancing around to see if he could see Naruto anywhere. "I really wish he didn't learn that, he uses it so well I can't tell who his clones are anymore."
"Kakashi, he uses allot of things well that we thought he wouldn't be able to use." Iruka said stepping up to the masked ninja. "He has grown out of our league. He could defeat any of us in combat now, his fight against the Demon of the sand and Neji proved that. You know as well as I do that the only reason he didn't get promoted to Chuunin was because of the whole 'he is a demon' thing."
"Yeah I know," Kakashi said sighing in defeat. "We need to find him still, I need to keep an eye out on him so Sasuke doesn't attempt anything aga…"
Without a warning an earth quake rocked the village. Shikamaru was the first to re-gain his head.
"Look! An Explosion!" Shikamaru shouted. "And Fire!"
"Katon Housenka no jitsu!" Kakashi said looking toward the explosion. "Sasuke didn't wait at all, those are death blows."
"How do you know it is Sasuke?" Iruka said getting ready to take off towards the fires.
"Because that is a fireball technique only taught to the Uchiha clan, it was there elemental specialty. I have seen Sasuke use it before." Kakashi said.
"We have to help Naruto!" Iruka said as people began filling out to see what the ruckus was about.
"No time to waist!" Kakashi said dashing off so fast that the movement was missed.
Iruka looked at the people behind him once more before taking off and doing the same.
"Naruto better be alright…" Iruka said his hope waning with every step closer to the fire.
"Yo! Wait up for me!" Shikamaru called. "Two is better then one eh teach?"
A little ray of hope made it back into Iruka's mind.
"Yes, there is strength in numbers."