"Well," Naruto started off thoughtfully, "my tale begins many years ago, when my older brother murdered my entire family. It just came out of the blue; one day we were a successful though small family of blacksmiths, and the next, everyone was dead. I managed to escape only because of pure luck. When he finally came for me, I grabbed an unfinished knife off the wall and tried to fend him off. He was very experienced, but blood made his hands slippery and he lost his grip on his weapon for just a second, in that second, I thrust my blade into his stomach and ran out of the house, never to look back. I was about 6 at the time"
Naruto was pleased at the reaction he got, Cirrus' eyes were wet and the man looked truly sad. Suddenly, he started openly sobbing and Naruto found himself engulfed in a crushing bear hug, "Ah! To overcome such hardship must have required amazing strength!"
The boy wanted to respond, he really did, but an odd tingling sensation was running all throughout his body. He had also felt an odd tingling when Temari had hugged him, but that had been more of a warm tingle and this was more a 'circulation being cut off' tingle.
He looked over Cirrus' shoulder and glared at Temari, who was currently laughing silently at his predicament. Once the big man finally let go, Naruto made a mental note to lessen the angst from now on, he valued his skeletal structure.
Cirrus took a step back and rubbed his head bashfully, "I must apologize, for I fear I was overcome by emotion."
Naruto worked the kinks out of arms, "No kidding, but if I can get back to my story…"
Cirrus smiled innocently, "By all means"
Naruto took a moment to think. He had theorized that it would be difficult to make up a decent sounding back-story on the fly, so he had decided that the most logical thing to do was combine the original material he had made up in the past with ideas from the histories of people he knew. He had always been told that the best lies were somehow based on truth.
"After that, I managed to somehow find my way to the nearby hidden village of mist, where I worked for a barber who was an ex-nin and taught me some basic mist jutsus in his spare time." Naruto braced himself, making sure Cirrus wasn't going to physically demonstrate his emotion again, and continued,
"Very little of interest happened in those years, and I left the barber shop at the age of 9 to look for work as a blacksmith's apprentice. I found a shop that would allow me to work in exchange for room and board, and spent the next year and a half working there, I would have been happy working there till I was 18, but fate intervened. It turned out that the blacksmith I was working for was loyal to a nin named Momochi Zabuza, ever heard of him?"
Cirrus nodded, "Yes indeed, the devil of the hidden mist, failed a coup d'etat and fled the village with his followers, who I'm guessing included…"
"My master and I, that's right." Naruto finished, "I somehow got dragged along and found myself being trained in various ninja arts, awaiting the day that the hunter-nins would catch up to our group. I quickly decided I wanted nothing to do with a group of missing-nins (Naruto almost grinned at the irony) and I ran away one night, slipping away in the dark"
Cirrus thrust his arm out and pumped it in the air, "Such Bravery! I find myself in awe of your burning passion for life!"
"……….."
"I tremble at the mere thought! A young man, desperately trying to escape a horrible situation, fighting valiantly for his freedom!"
"……..ok then" Naruto said, not quite sure how to respond to that, "anyway, I found myself an 11 year old with a wide range of skills but no connections to anyone, so I just started to wander from town to town doing odd jobs. Most of the time, people took pity on me and paid a high price for me to just do basic tasks."
Cirrus nodded while stroking his chin, "Ah yes, using one's youth and cuteness for monetary gain, very clever."
Naruto glared, "would you PLEASE stop interrupting me with your comments?"
Cirrus stopped smiling, "No, they're needed."
"Why?"
"Because people who are lying tend to slip up when their story flow is disrupted"
Temari started to get nervous as Naruto responded, "What do you think I'm lying about?"
Cirrus looked at him oddly, "Actually, I'm not sure. Most of what you said had the feel of truth to it."
Naruto mentally patted himself on the back, "Then what makes you think I'm lying at all?"
While waiting for an answer, the boy ran through everything he had said, looking for a flaw, and realized it the same moment a Cirrus spoke,
"You made the same mistake so many people in your situation make, it's a subconscious defense reaction that develops with all who are on the run. You're so willing to tell me what I want to know, but haven't told me your name yet."
The tension hung in the air for a moment, as all three nins waited for something to happen. Naruto knew he had made a mistake and that his cover was at least semi-blown, but Cirrus looked to be waiting for him to make the first move.
"Fushichou Naruto is my name, but I'm afraid I've given up all my cool titles"
Cirrus nodded slowly, "For some, a title is something from which to draw strength, while for others it is a weight that drags you down a path you wish to avoid," he turned, "and you would be?"
The sand girl was more abrupt, "Temari."
Silence reigned again for a moment, until Nimbus landed next to the group and immediately noticed the odd atmosphere, "Is everything ok here?"
Cirrus suddenly regained his energy and smiled brightly, "Indeed, I was just enthralled by Naruto-kun's story. He has led a most amazing life!"
Nimbus looked to Naruto in curiosity, "Is it okay if I listen?"
The cloud jounin grinned brighter, "That sounds like a most excellent idea, in fact…" He turned to his other students, "STRATUS! CUMULUS! Take a break and come listen, you might learn something"
His other slightly beat up students landed among their little group, breathing heavily.
Cirrus gave Naruto a look, "Continue on Naruto-san, don't mind us."
Naruto wasn't really sure what was going on, so he dove back into his story, "During my travels, I found my way to hidden sand….."
/-/-2 hours later-/-/
Cirrus and Naruto sat under a tree at the edge of the training area while Temari and the cloud gennin did some light Taijutsu sparring.
Naruto looked conflicted, and opened his mouth to speak when Cirrus held up a hand, "You know kid, you tell really good stories. Even I stopped bothering to try deciphering the truth from what you made up. In fact, I really don't want to know the truth. You've shown no hostile intentions, and until that happens, I'll treat you the same as any other guest of the hidden cloud."
Naruto looked down, "Thank you"
Cirrus suddenly lost his air of seriousness, "No need to thank me! I am a friend of all who burn with YOUTHFUL EXUBERANCE!"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Gaara stood in on the hunter debriefing as the representative of sand. Currently, Kakashi was reporting their actions right before Neji's confrontation of Naruto.
"And so, I…" the masked jounin glanced at Gaara, "very gently knocked Temari unconscious, ran to the rendezvous, and passed her off to Shikamaru, who then used ropes to tie her…"
Kakashi suddenly paused and the whole room went silent as Shikamaru suddenly found himself engulfed in sand up to his neck.
Gaara was completely calm as he spoke, "Why have you stopped? Continue with your report."
Kakashi coughed into his hand, "Well, after very GENTLY and CAREFULLY tying Temari up, Shikamaru stood guard. Unfortunately, due to certain…oversights, she was able to escape unharmed by overpowering him."
The masked jounin figured it was best to mention Temari's escape as soon as possible.
Time passed as Kakashi gave his report until he reached the part about his and Temari's confrontation in the forest. At this point, Gaara's sand started to drift around the room, so Kakashi again rushed to the part where he was his by the steam blast, and the sand quieted.
Sitting on the sidelines, Iruka could see only to well the truth in what Kakashi had told him in the forest. Gaara was looking murderous enough at the thought of his sister being tied up.
Fortunately, the rest of session was violence free, as Iruka, Ibiki and Anko gave their respective reports. The Hokage dismissed them, and they all filed outside. Shikamaru was the last out the door, and was about to head home and take a nap when he was suddenly engulfed in sand again.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Naruto smirked slightly as Temari landed next to him. Cirrus had taken her place in the quickly degenerating sparring session and was currently taunting Stratus to the point of insanity. The sand girl glared painfully at him, "Dammit, it actually hurts to have to hold back this much"
Naruto shrugged, "A body trained to react instantly and with deadly precision is difficult to restrain. We train for hours every day to make ourselves as deadly as possible, so containing those combat instincts can be difficult"
His voice suddenly became slightly strained, "But its kind of funny to watch them, isn't it?"
Temari looked up at the sky, "yeah."
Naruto shifted closer and the two of them leaned gently against each other.
"How long ago was it?" He asked as Cirrus struck a pose while his students sighed, "Or were we ever so innocent?"
Temari laughed, but her voice had a sad tone to it, "We were, but that time seems now like it was a foolish daydream"
Naruto nodded in silent acknowledgement
The two of them watched as Nimbus and Cumulus snuck behind Stratus and jumped him, grappling him to ground and tying him up with twine. The two girls mercilessly tickled the restrained boy, only to scream when Cirrus tackled them from behind, forming an odd dog pile of laughing forms.
"Why," she asked suddenly, "do you put so much trust in Cirrus? We don't even know anything about him."
Naruto thought carefully, "That man knows what it truly is to be a shinobi, and yet he continues to be one. He understands how difficult life can be."
Stratus managed to escape his bonds and crawled out from the pile to dive on top of it.
"How do you know all this?" Temari asked
"Something changes in a person when they've been subjected to too much pain and loneliness, and it's obvious for those of us who know what we're looking for."
At that moment, his voice sounded so sad that it struck Temari on some deep level. Unable to think of anything else to say, she reached an arm over Naruto's shoulder pulled him just a little closer, and felt him hesitantly reach around her waist a moment later. The two of them just sat and watched the cloud nins at play, as they held each other in a semi-hug.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Shikamaru was in darkness for some time, but was patient. Eventually, the sand on his head retracted and he found himself in a small room facing Gaara, Kankuro and Baki. The shadow user had known something like this would happen to at least one member of the team, but he had been hoping it wouldn't be him.
It was common practice in situations like this for any secondary group with an interest in the mission (in this case, the sand) to conduct their own unofficial debriefing. Shikamaru looked at the three people before him.
Gaara growled, "You will tell me everything that happened in your own words, I want to know every detail of what you observed about my sister"
Shikamaru just sighed; it was going to be a long night.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/One Month Later/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
As evening fell, Temari stood the training field, surrounded by various clones. Cumulus and Stratus used the regular variety, whereas Nimbus favored water clones. She knew that somewhere in the crowed of clones were the real people, but finding them would be a chore.
What she was currently doing was what Cirrus called 'Teamwork Exercises', what that meant was that Stratus, Cumulus and Nimbus had to, using any means possible, try to overcome either Naruto or Temari, who were both restricted to taijutsu.
So far, the cloud Gennin had lost a consecutive 59 times.
Currently, for their 60th try, Temari was noticing a distinct use of Naruto-esque tactics. Unfortunately, the 'make a million clones and attack blindly' strategy wasn't working any better for them than it had for Naruto.
The spar had been going on for 6 minutes now and Temari had destroyed almost two thirds of clones and didn't even have a scratch on her. Though still hidden, the three attackers knew this fight would be over shortly and collectively grumbled. Every time a match ended, the 'defender' would change, and that meant Naruto was up next. Now and then, the gennin would hit upon a good plan and had almost gotten Temari once or twice, but for all their attempts, they hadn't even landed a hit on the fox boy.
Naruto and Temari only ever spent half the day with Cirrus and his team, the rest of the time they spent either entertaining themselves or practicing with their respective weapons and testing out higher level jutsus in the wilderness right outside hidden cloud. They were living pretty boring lives and hadn't taken on any real missions yet, but they were both content.
After their first day, the two had quickly become unofficial additions to The Storm of Righteous Fury. Nowhere were they registered, but their help allowed Team 5 to complete more tasks in a day (more dogs walked and more weeds pulled than any other gennin team), and in return, the two Nukenins got some money and were allowed to sleep in the training field.
Naruto stood off to one side, waiting for his turn to 'train'. He watched amusedly as another six clones were taken out by a spinning kick on Temari's part. He hadn't told her yet, but he knew it would soon be time to leave. He had seen the signs; some of the other cloud jounin were getting suspicious.
He didn't feel particularly sad about leaving. The gennin viewed him more as a superior than a companion, despite their similar ages, and he hadn't really had much contact with anyone outside the team. In fact, Cirrus was the only one Naruto really thought he would miss.
Naruto and Cirrus had formed a somewhat odd relationship over the course of their various interactions and they shared a rare understanding. Most of their communication was done without words, as both were much more withdrawn when not in a group of people.
Temari had one night seen them laying in the field starring at the stars, and had some back four hours later to see that neither had moved. They weren't speaking, and yet, Temari had felt that had she said anything, she would have been interrupting.
Naruto could truly say that he saw the slightly odd man as a friend, though their friendship had developed in a rather bizarre way.
/-/-/-Flashback-/-/-/
It was the seventh day after Cirrus first found them lying in his training field, and after a particularly long day of training, the jounin had offered to take the two of them out to dinner, as they really didn't have any money left.
Naruto instantly suggested Ramen, which was received with annoyance and bemusement by Temari and Cirrus respectively; but Naruto eventually convinced the sand girl, so they found themselves at an 'all you can eat' ramen stand.
Temari quickly finished her one bowl of ramen, and declared she was going back to polish her fan, leaving Naruto and Cirrus happily inhaling their noodles.
After 11 bowls, Naruto patted his belly and turned to his companion, "I have to say I'm curious about something…"
"Really, what?" was what Cirrus meant to say, but since his mouth was full it came out more like "wiwee, fwa?"
Naruto rested his elbow on the counter and leaned on his hand, "Why are you helping us?"
Cirrus swallowed, "Why wouldn't I?"
The jounin tensed as Naruto's eyes narrowed, "If it were just me, I would be fine with us both playing fools, but I have someone else to look out for, and you know perfectly well that we're not supposed to be in this village. I've been as straight with you as I can be, so I want the same from you."
Cirrus leaned back on his stool, so only two legs touched the ground, "I suppose that's fair, but the answer is simple. I envy your conviction."
Naruto was mildly surprised, but he didn't show it, "Elaborate."
Cirrus gestured to the owner to get him another bowl, "When I was sixteen, I was still a gennin, and had been dating one of my teammates for a year and a half. I supposed what we had might have one day led to something more, since I always wanted kids, but we were one day assigned what was supposed to be a simple mission, just hunting down some highway robbers, but they had a few chuunin level nins among them."
The old man returned with the Ramen, and Cirrus asked for a beer before returning to his story, "It really shouldn't really have been a big deal, our teacher, Tsume Hirato, was a jounin, so logically, we should have won without much trouble."
Cirrus stopped talking, and looked lost in the past, so Naruto decided to prod him forward slightly, "And what happened during the battle?…"
Cirrus leaned back a bit further, balancing and putting his legs up on the counter, "Ha, there was no battle. Within seconds of our ambush, my two teammates were down with minor wounds. Not expecting such a fast response, and now missing most of his, " Cirrus spoke bitterly, "meat shield, our jounin instructor turned and ran."
He pulled up his left sleeve, revealing that most of the skin was discolored scar tissue. "With the major threat gone, we stood no chance. My teammates died helpless, on the ground, and I escaped by using my arm to shield myself from the rain of Kunai that followed me. I was hit 27 times, and almost lost my arm."
His beer arrived, and he grabbed a paper cup and poured some into it, "I arrived at headquarters after being released from the hospital to check on the mission report. All it said was 'Mission Failed: 2 Casualties', those words were the sum total of how much the village valued the lives of my friend and love. Tsume wasn't even reprimanded "
He passed the paper cup of beer to Naruto, who looked at it curiously.
"At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to run as far as I could from Hidden Cloud and all it represented, but I never worked up the nerve. All I have been able to do is make sure that at least one gennin team has a teacher who will never abandon them."
Naruto sat quietly for a moment, "But that's a lot better than nothing, isn't it?"
Cirrus smiled slightly and held up his bottle, "To the burning passion of youth"
Naruto's raised his paper cup, "To the burning passion of youth…"
/-/-/-End Flashback-/-/-/
Cirrus had been a bit more withdrawn for a couple of days, and his students had inquired about his health when he had kept his voice at normal volume and only made them run through their introductory pose sequence three times one morning, instead of the usual ten.
After that, Naruto had started to treat Cirrus with more respect, even when the man was leaping through the air yelling about energy and spirit.
Naruto looked up to see that Temari was just finishing off the clones, revealing three wiped out gennin. She hadn't even broken a sweat.
She wandered over to what had become the two's sitting spot, "Your turn."
He shook his head, "We're done for the day, we have things we need to do"
Temari shrugged, "ok, so what are the 'things we need to do' "
"We need to get out of here tonight. There have been too many people inquiring about our presence."
She shook her head, "and whose fault is that, exactly?"
/-/-/-Flashback-/-/-/
Three weeks after their arrival, the three again found themselves going out to eat. Refusing ramen, they were eating in a rather typical Bar & Grill type of place. For the first few minutes, everything had been fine, but then Naruto started to notice things.
There were a number of nins eating, and many of them were whispering and pointing in Cirrus' direction, a few of them started laughing and pretended to strike poses. Naruto was just about to say something, when a group approached their table.
The middle one, obviously the leader, spoke first, "Eating with mercenaries, Cirrus? I never thought even you would sink this low."
A large number of nins looked down on people without ninja training who fought for money. Without forehead protectors, and with Naruto carrying around a sword as big as his, a weapon no normal shinobi would use, most would assume they were mercenaries.
Naruto stood up and glared, "I don't kill for money."
The nin smirked arrogantly at him, "Oh? How do you decide who to kill then?"
It was here that Naruto made his fatal mistake, in his anger; he let some of his chakra seep out as he bared his fangs, "Whomever I want."
The group offending nins suddenly started to look extremely nervous and backed off, but Cirrus grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the restaurant, Temari following.
Once they were outside, Cirrus sighed, "That was VERY stupid, Naruto"
Naruto, of course, knew this already, and was hanging his head. He had a feeling this was going to come back and haunt him later.
/-/-/-End Flashback-/-/-/
From that day on, people had started to glance in his direction whenever he walked by, and he had heard a few of the rumors. They were all crap, but people soon started to take an interest in him. So now they had to leave.
Naruto and Temari started to pack up the few things they had as Stratus, Cumulus and Nimbus stretched in the field. Noticing something was amiss from his vantage point, Cirrus landed next to them, "Isn't it your turn to defend, Naruto-kun?"
The boy shook his head, "I'm afraid we need to get ready, we're going to be leaving tonight."
Cirrus looked sad, but not surprised, "Ah yes, I feared this day would come soon"
Temari called over to the gennin in the field, "Hey, you guys! Come over here for a second!"
After everyone was made aware of the their departure, things were packed up, and Cirrus gave everyone bear hugs (even his students, just for the heck of it), Naruto and Temari left the field that had been their home for a month, and headed for the wall. Naruto looked upset as they approached the barrier, and veered off at the last minute.
The girl looked at him oddly as he went into a convenience store and started looking through a phonebook.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Stratus was awakened the next morning by a knocking on his door, and was surprised to find a member of the village police on the other side.
"Excuse me," the man said, "all the shinobi in the village are gathering, there's been an incident."
When Stratus arrived at the base of the tower, he looked around in awe; he had never seen this many shinobi in one place before.
The Raikage emerged from the tower and looked over the group assembled before him, "This morning, a mailman found one of our shinobi murdered in his bed," a gasp went through the crowd, "his name was Tsume Hirato, a jounin. I want you all to go about your normal business, but rest assured that matter will be fully investigated. That is all."
Stratus rushed to the training field, where his teammates were waiting for him. The three started to excitedly talk about the Raikage's announcement, waiting for their teacher to arrive.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Temari watched Naruto as they walked. Her eyes flickered towards the bloodstains on his sword wrappings, "Did he deserve that?"
Naruto looked back at her, "Yes."
She tilted he head sideways and looked at him searchingly, then nodded.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Cirrus was sitting at the ramen stand in the exact same seat he had sat in three weeks before, staring at the open but untouched bottle of beer in front of him.
He couldn't describe how he felt right then, it was a combination of so many emotions. Cirrus had access to information that was normally restricted, Tsume Hirato hadn't just been killed, he had been cut cleanly in half.
Everything Cirrus had experienced flashed through his mind in an instant, the most vivid image being that of his teammates, lying abandoned as they were set upon from all sides. The voice of the only girl he had ever loved, screaming her last.
Tears ran down his face as he raised his bottle in a silent toast, and took one swig.
He set the rest on the counter with some money, and wiped his face on his sleeve. It was time to meet his students.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Authors Notes: This is the longest and probably most serious chapter I've ever written, but that's not why it took so long to get out.
I spent the week mostly getting feedback and editing my new stories, and I want to thank everyone who volunteered to pre-read, but since I had a rather large number of offers, I randomly picked ten, and an extra-special thanks goes out to those people.
After much deliberation (I stared at my ceiling fan for 20 minutes) I have decided to post Unseen sometime soon, but will probably only update it once a week or so until NCT is finished.
To answer someone's question of why Naruto wraps his sword instead of just transforming it into a Kunai, A) Because I figure Henge has size limits and B) Because Kisame does it that way, and the shark man probably does it for reason C) Because it looks cool
Next Chapter: The journey to a new city, a mission, and rumors of a mysterious figure known only as 'The Dark Avenger'