Chapter 2
Shizune knocked at Naruto's door, although not expecting an answer. The girl calmly walked into the small, dark room, with a single window, shut tight and covered by white, silk curtains. The room's atmosphere was rather morose, a scent of blood in the air, although there was a certain blond boy's scent up there as well. Kyuubi's weasel was asleep, a sleep which seemed dreamless and painful, although the boy looked especially cute to the woman's eyes. There was a small wooden table, where flowers and letters should have been, which, unfortunately, was empty. Something she guessed was quite stupid, seeing the heroic action the boy had done. Girls in this village are so immature, everything resolves around that Sasuke bastard... Poor Naruto. She looked at his sleeping form, while he shifted slowly, his face unconsciously showing pain as he did so. There she was, staring at his cheeks, which bore whisker-like marks, lost in thoughts and awe.
Knock Knock.
The door slowly opened, revealing a shy, dark blue haired girl. She had pale skin, she was small and her eyes were pearl white. Hinata was her name, Hyuuga Hinata. The gennin held a flower bouquet in her hands, along with a letter. She walked up to the table, where she put the flowers alongside the letter, clearly in view, so Naruto would see them at his awakening. Shizune looked at Hinata in a peaceful manner, thinking to herself, still.
Hinata twiddled with her fingers shyly, looking away from Shizune. "K-k..Konba-n w-wa, Shizune-sama."
Shizune smiled a friendly smile from ear to ear, motioning the girl to move next to her and have a seat.
"Hello, Hinata, it's nice to see I'm not the only one who cares about Naruto!" she happily whispered.
"I...I-...'ve come to...w-well... N..Naruto...g-give him...these f-flowers." the girl, ashamed, looked to her feet, pushing her fingers against each other once more.
"That's so kind of you Hinata-san! You shouldn't be shy about that" The jounin replied in an understanding tone.
Argh, Hinata, he's going to be mine, hands off! Shizune was starting to feel slightly jealous about this, in fact, she was not slightly, but really jealous, for the Hyuuga was in Naruto's age range, while herself was much more older, and higher ranked, although she didn't really think she could beat the boy, she was still a jounin, and he was now just a chuunin. Oh well, that doesn't matter! She cheered herself up. Silently staring at Naruto, intent on forgetting about her work and waiting by his side until he woke up, just to ensure his own security. The wound in his body had begun closing – thanks to kyuubi's healing powers – and the less deep of his cuts were already faded to nothing visible. The blond boy had really matured, although he was still hyper and noisy, it was becoming better, and that cheered Shizune up a lot as well. His hair were starting to grow longer, although if he had a hair cut in mind, she didn't know. He seemed totally peaceful about everything, his rest was soundless, except for the occasional shifting, his eyelid shut without an effort, leaving no trace of forced sleep, his arms by his sides and his mouth slightly curled in a smile. The black haired girl giggled playfully to herself, blushing as she gazed upon him. Next to her, Hinata was thinking almost the same thing.
He's so... cute... My Naruto-kun. She blushed a shade of pink, imagining a romantic scene of Naruto and her, kissing and holding each other tightly.She broke out of her thoughts though, as Shizune talked to her.
"Hinata-san..." she hesitated, "You love him, don't you?" she grinned warmly.
Hinata blushed madly and nodded, before taking her go and running out of the hospital, where she then leaped from rooftop to rooftop until she reached the Hyuuga estate. Shizune, On the other hand, just sat there, plainly.
- - -
It had been a week. Shizune spent most of her free time by Naruto's bedside. She was not always the only one though, Hinata would come and visit too once in a while, and Sakura had come to mock him, along with Ino, but the older woman scared them off. Sasuke was now a bit better, although not many had forgiven him, only Sakura and her rival, which were way too hooked to him to care. But that didn't matter much, because today, something was about to happen. Early morning, you could hear birds chirping joyfully, sun was at dawn, the sky was tinted orange and pink, along with a few shades of purple, all in all, a beautiful morning, peaceful. Well, that was if you ignored Lee and his 3000 laps-and-counting around Konoha, as a training, for he thought he didn't match Naruto, and thus wanted to train. Right now, the blond boy was alone in his room, still sleeping, not having waken up once from when he fell back to sleep, a week ago.
Clang.
A rock broke through the window, hitting the hold-bar of the bed with a noisy 'bing'. Naruto flinched, but didn't seem to wake up. A few more throws ensued, until one hit Naruto straight to the head, which indeed made him fly awake.
"What the hell was that for?" He screamed at the window, noticing the curtains were still closed.
The young boy flew them curtains open, noticing the pretty dawn scene, at least, until he got hit by a rock coming from seemingly nowhere. Naruto's eye were the baby blue they always were – usually – and he looked quite hurt actually, the boy had hid his feeling for too long. He had always lived in hope of someday being acknowledged, thinking it was going to change, and yet, no matter how hard he tried, it always came down to the same thing: being ignored, ignoring it, and trying harder, to no avail. He had also went trough a period of time where he told himself he was the one everyone had to hate, in order to stay happy, but that was when he was still a young, young child. Sometimes he wondered why he would even bother trying anymore, and today, that's what had happened, he told himself it was over, he had had enough of this fake smile, fake life, in fact, fake everything, his decision was taken, he was going to walk away from Konoha, yes, that's right, walk. He was sure no one would notice him anyway, so he just jumped trough the window, in the early morning, and calmly walked towards the gates, getting thrown rocks at him. He couldn't make out whom it was, not that he had intended to. He thus walked, until a voice in his head rang.
"Naruto, whelp, listen."
What is it, old fox?
"Don't you call me that, whelp, I have seen what they do to you, and it angers me."
The fox's roar echoed trough his sewer-like mind.
"I'll help you out, If you agree to a little deal."
You're trying to trick me! Don't you even think about it!
"Oh but whelp, it's a win-win situation," the fox continued, "I'll have your body modified a little, just so that part of me is part of you, in exchange, you get most of my chakra at will, unlike before, when it was controlled by the ninth gate, the seal if you prefer."
Is that it? I'm not up to that.
"Fine, whelp, I'll then give you heightened senses, those of touch, feel, hearing, smelling and vision, and, unfortunately, a downside is you will always have your red eyes. Let me explain though, you will most likely have to hide those eyes, but it won't be a problem, since you will feel everything around you, not needing to see anymore."
Well, I guess this will do. I'm fine with it, but answer me one question, and stop calling me whelp!
"Okay, whelp, one question it is."
Don't call me whelp!
"Unfortunately, I cannot do that, whelp. Ask your question now."
Okay, why are you helping me?
"I know it is unusual for a demon to help a human, but I've been stuck in there for way too long, whelp, and by helping you, I grant access, even though little, to the real world, which will take away my anger, a bit."
Naruto smiled to himself, he had nothing to risk anyway, if the fox was unleashed, freed, it would not only make him nearly invincible – although unable to control his body – but it would allow him to take revenge on those of Konoha that betrayed him.
A sou, then let's do that... He trailed off. Umm, Kyuubi, how do we do that?
"Just channel some of my chakra, and grant me access to your hands so I can do a few seals"
How do I make sure you won't take over?
"You don't, you just trust me."
I'll do, okay, here goes nothing.
Naruto's eyes turned red as he channeled the demon's chakra, crimson aura spinning evilly around him. He then focused. Access to hands, access to hands, access to hands... He suddenly began to do seals, some which he didn't even recognize, as much as it went fast.
Inu, Tori, Saru, Usagi, Nezumi, Tora, O-ushi, Hebi, Ousu-buta, Uma, Hebi, Tora, Usagi, Saru, Tori, O-ushi, RYU!
His body went all red, an opaque red, all of his facial details, clothes and skin turned to that color. The chakra then enveloped him, his ears starting to form into which of a fox, his fangs growing longer, his hair growing longer, his whisker marks taking up more space, and accentuating, his clothes changing, taking the shape of a trench coat, a shirt making up underneath it, as well as strap pants, which had many pockets and holsters. When the red aura cleared away, everything identified itself to a color as best as it could. His hair still blond with black strips, although the blond had taken a somewhat crimson tint into it. The trench coat made out of leather, was black, as well as the pants and shirt, which wore a deformed Uzumaki emblem, ledges sharpened and looking more like a question mark now.
The boy felt stares, he turned around to see the shallow figures of his assailants which now seemed frightened. He lowered his forehead protector onto his red eyes, feeling everything around him, getting a whole neat picture of the area in his mind, colors included, and every little details, up to things he wouldn't have seen with his normal eyes. He felt the power surge trough him with such ease, as if he didn't even need to try to employ Kyuubi's chakra. He felt it merging to his own chakra, the flow in his pathways changing to purple. He focused chakra to his tenketsu points, and released, causing a huge purple haze around him, which seemed rather burning, not to mention frightening. The little fellows ran away as they noticed Naruto very slowly walking towards them. The red eyed half-fox smiled to himself, which actually looked more like a devilish smirk, bearing fangs and pointy ears. The boy turned around and kept on walking towards the gates, intent on leaving this place, after all, he did not belong here.
- - -
Shizune got inside the hospital room, noticing her Naruto-kun wasn't there. She looked trough the window and saw someone headed towards the gate, though the person didn't look at all like the Naruto she knew, actually, it didn't look any close to him, except maybe... Who has blond hair in this village except Naruto... She thought for a moment. No one! Naruto! Don't do anything silly! Do not step outside the gate Naruto... please! Shizune jumped trough the window as well, quickly running after the boy.
- - -
Naruto felt someone with an average chakra signature, most likely a jounin of the sort – for he was new to detecting chakra signatures clearly – coming towards him. He did as though he hadn't seen it, walking casually towards the gates. Confusion was tearing him apart, he was fed up with everyone here in Konoha, nothing would change his mind, or so he thought. Naruto was about thirty feet away from the gate.
Twenty feet.
Ten feet.
Five feet.
"Naruto-kun! hold it right there!" he hear a torn, empty, trembling voice.
The boy turned around, to a vision that forever marked him. Shizune, the Shizune he knew as a older sister, was running towards him, tears flowing freely, her hair blowing in the cold morning breeze as she did. Naruto felt something inside his heart break. His mind filled with remorses, feelings of culpability, hatred towards himself. Regret pasted in his eyes, he locked her into a stare, as he was just beginning to speak.
"Shizune! I'm s--"
The girl was tightly hugging him, her head rested on his shoulder, sobbing and shaking, due to the never ceasing sorrow she felt. Her arms were around his neck, playing in the back of his hair, causing the boy to slightly blush, although the purple chakra emanating from him removed all traces of that. He had never felt such thing before, it was all new to him, he had an idea what it was, of course, and had been hugged before, although this, this was more than just a simple hug, he had an extra feeling he couldn't get his finger on. Naruto, being... well, Naruto, decided, as he would normally do, to ask the person who was the cause of this.
"Shizune..." he was at lack of word, although faith smiled upon him, as it seemed to come out on its own, "It'll be okay...don't worry..." he smiled, though she couldn't see it.
"Na..Na...n..." she sobbed too much to manage a single word.
The blond boy patted her back softly, as though his body was acting on its own, but that wasn't Kyuubi, and the boy knew it.
"Don't worry I said." he whispered to her as he slowly rocked her back and forth.
It took a few moments before the kunoichi composed herself, and it took another moment before the fox-like boy would dare ask his question. In the streets, near the Konoha gates, you could see a huge sphere of purple chakra burning around two shapes, one of a man, the second of a girl, holding each other tightly, the man kneeling on the ground and the girl laying half on top of him.
"Ne, Shizune, what was... that feeling I felt before?" Asked a rather embarrassed boy.
She pulled herself even closer to him, if that was possible, grasping every opportunity she had to be that close to him. "Naruto, I'm not you, I don't feel what you do, you'd have to describe how you felt, you know" It was her turn to tilt her head sideway, with a slight grin plastered across her face.
"By the way, Naruto-kun, your new clothing style suits you well, and..." she backed away from him a bit, staring at where his eyes should have been. "...how could you see me? How can you know where I am with this forehead protector on your eyes, and yet, why is it on your eyes?" she asked, looking demanding.
"Well, I might explain you later, not in the middle of the town, just like that though." he replied, grinning foxily.
"Okay, but then you have to explain to me that purple chakra, and also..." she trailed off slightly, and blushed ever so lightly, "...tell me why everyone treats you that way here in Konoha." Although she knew, she still wanted to have a reason to make him come over to her own office – she did have one, after all – where she could spend a little time with him. "At my office. This evening."
Naruto nodded happily, got up, and, in a hyper voice, yelled.
"Yatta! Tonight then you also have to tell me what I felt!"
Ah, that Naruto, make him look as mature as possible, yet he still manages to be a little kid. It's amazing.
They both walked together until they had to split up, The black haired girl going to Tsunade's office, and Naruto getting ready for his official promotion to chuunin.
Okay, That's it for chapter 2, Those updates were close to each other, but it might not always be like that, I'm quite busy lately. I'm also happy to announce that I kinda sketched how Naruto should look like, it's not really related to the fiction though. Once it's either colored by my friend, or once I get my graphic pad and actually color it myself (not before Christmas :P ) well, I can't show you, but once it's done, I'll post the link. :) Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I could make them longer, if you guys really want to, but then they'll take longer to post. I fixed the chuunin thing in chapter 1.