Yo, looking through my bookmarks on AO3 i D
He traversed the route to the Hokage Tower with an ease born of practice, a familiar path that he'd trodden at least a hundred times before.
None of the usual guards were on the alert for the troublemaker and didn't anticipate his appearance. After all, he'd done nothing wrong, and what excuse did they have to stop the boy from visiting the strongest shinobi in the village? It was almost laughable to think that the small boy could even land a hit on the Hokage, even with the tailed beast and favoritism to show.
So Naruto continued on his merry way, slipping past the too-lax guards and secretary that was just there for show.
Not bothering to knock, he walked through the creaky door and made his customary greeting.
"Hey, Gramps! How's the paperwork treatin' ya?" His glower was all the answer he needed
Though his day had gone terribly so far, it still made him happy to see the old man, frown and all. And buried as he was in his dreadful paperwork, the Hokage very nearly didn't notice his condition. Notice: nearly.
"What happened to your eye, Naruto?" Hearing the command behind the question, Naruto had to look away as he grudgingly replied:
"Birthday didn't go so well yesterday; what's new." The sound of a tightened grip on his pen was the only sign of distress from the man, and he didn't say anything for a moment.
"The one responsible?"
"Taken care of, unwillingly." Mr. Shinohara would've gotten off with a warning had he not tried to finish what he'd started, though Naruto wasn't quite sure that the Hokage knew that. He'd seemed to have ignored what the boy'd tacked on, and was back to staring at the bandaged eye.
"I presume you have yet to get it treated properly at the hospital," he said, sighing heavily and rubbing at his eyes, already imagining the stack of papers that would later grace his workload.
"Actually, just outran Iruka-sensei wanting to take me himself!" And if he was a wee too proud of outrunning the uncannily intuitive chuunin, no one pointed it out.
"You speak as if you've escaped The Devil himself," the old man said, an amused twinkle in his eyes.
"You would too if you had to endure his idea of punishment!" Naruto shot back. Having gotten caught during many a prank lent to some hefty experience with the man's sense of justice and sadism. Relatively mild compared to what the guys at TI probably specialized in, but no less terrifying to the young boy.
The old man just chuckled at the younger's theatrics, fond of his unique perspective. After a moment though, he had to sober so he could deal with the issue at hand.
"Come now, let's get you to the hospital," he said, rising from his chair.
"But I don't wanna!" Naruto whined, but knew there was very little he could do to actually escape his fate. But then Hiruzen softened, and settled down again to discreetly have an ANBU send him a med-nin.
"Alright then, you won't have to go to the hospital. But you are going to cooperate so the medic I called for can check you over. The wound does not often kill the shinobi; inactivity or infection does."
Naruto pouted but agreed. The eye in question was constantly throbbing, a pain that seemed to be worse than the pain of it being ripped from his skull in the first place. And if seeing this medic would get people off his back, then it was a small price to pay for being "healthy" and not going to the hospital.
Thankfully, there was little time to regret his allowance and wonder if he could escape through the window before the medic ninja appeared in a kneeling salute, masked head held down as they awaited their orders.
"Rise, Gator. I need you to look at Naruto over here, see what you can do."
"Yes, Lord Third."
Ever so reluctantly, Naruto allowed the intimidating anbu to approach, eye pointedly looking away from the dark holes that were their eyes and keeping it trained to their glowing hands. It was awkward to stand there while the ninja was doing their job, appearing to be doing a diagnostic scan while The Third had gone back to muttering unintelligibly and scribbling on papers.
"Report: other than the remaining dead matter of the eye, there's nothing to be done. The optic nerve has already started repairing itself and would likely be unreceptive in the case of an implant."
This was news to Naruto. He was unaware that Mr. Shinohara hadn't taken the whole thing out, or that there was a chance of an implant in the first place! But... wait, didn't this mean he couldn't get one even if he wanted one?
How was he to be a ninja without an eye? Did this mean he wouldn't get a shot at his (now mostly forgotten) dream of being Hokage?!
"Thank you, Gator. If you could remove the excess tissue before it starts rotting, that would be greatly appreciated."
"Yes, Lord Third."
"Remove...?" A glimpse of whatever metal instrument Gator was in the process of pulling out clued him in to the events that would quickly take place if he didn't do something. "Ah, let's not be too hasty here! I uh, is this really necessary?!" He really wasn't too keen on the idea of another foreign object going anywhere near his eye, even if it was currently just a small scrap of remaining tissue.
"Naruto, it's for your own good. If it's left unattended, it will surely fester and cause more problems. Now stop making a fuss and get it over with. I'm sure Gator will make it as painless as possible."
"I-I don' wanna!" Seeing that his protests had no effect on the advancing anbu, he turned tail and ran. Logically, he knew he didn't have much of a chance against anbu, but he had fear fuelling him and they had little actual reason to chase him to the fullest of their abilities.
And that's how he found himself in what looked vaguely like a library. Of course, to him, it looked more like a forgotten storage room for old books and scrolls, but the Hokage, well... The Hokage would tell him he had absolutely no business being in The Hokage's Library.
As it was, it just looked like a handful of really old scrolls of various sizes with the occasional book standing lonesome near a shelf divider. And despite the ridiculously large scroll taking up the majority of the room's corner space, there was this one book that caught his attention. It didn't strike him to be the oldest, but it certainly showed more wear and tear than the others.
Pulling it out, he saw that it wasn't thick either, rather both the binding and pages seemed to be unusually thin, the cover being a fairly light honey color with dark scars and absolutely no details. But more than these minor details, it was fairly nondescript.
The small seven-years-old wasn't normally one for reading, but there was just something about this book that made him want to read it for hours on end.
He didn't think that would be a viable option in the cramped space he'd found himself in, so he instead shoved it to the front of his waistband, hoping his baggy shirt hid it well enough and walked back into the hallway that had dimmed in the time he was running and hiding.
How long was he in that room? It only felt like a few minutes.
By now, he had all but forgotten about his promise to himself to sneak into the classroom he was supposed to have spent his day in and was instead heading back to his trashed apartment, intent on reading that small book that called to him so.
Short chapter, but I'll be continuing soon now that the plot is finally picking up. Kinda proud of myself for pushing so many chapters out, but also horrified that I actually published more stories. And how is it that no one else has thought of these plots? I feel like I'm just writing things because I can't find them anywhere else. Most of the things I published are plot bunnies that I'd like someone else to toy with if they feel like it. Honestly, if you want to use my concepts, feel free; just credit me and send it to me because I wanna read it too!
(Also, ngl but I feel edgy as fuck whenever I sit down and write for this story.)