It's been a good while since I last uploaded… well, anything. This, Toys of Ink, is going to be in a semi-similar style to my Frozen Insanity. Yep, you guessed it. We got another insane Naruto fic on our hands. This is what I've come to after testing several new ideas and discarding them… in other words, this is the only idea and test that's made it to the upload stage.
Naruto won't exactly be insane, per se since I don't include paranoia as insanity. There will be good moments and then there will be dark moments, not necessarily in that order.
Also, partial Uchiha massacre and Kushina is still alive. You'll see what I mean.
You have been warned.
Here we go, motherfuckers.
x-x-x-x-x
It had been 9 years since the Kyuubi attack. 9 years.
The Kyuubi had been sealed into a child, but that wasn't something that was unknown. No, everybody in the village knew of it.
At first, the villagers hated the child. They loathed and despised the container of the demon, but they failed to see the results until the child was 4 years old.
The red-haired boy wasn't hated anymore. He only unnerved and scared people.
Every year, on the night of his birthday, Uzumaki Naruto was tortured. But not by the villagers. Nobody touched him. It was the demon inside him, punishing the container. It was the one night of the year that the villagers did not venture outside, opting to ignore the screaming.
It burned.
Everything burned.
The demon inside him released wave upon wave of pain on Naruto.
And it burned.
Naruto always went missing for a week after his birthday, only to reappear. But he wasn't fine, anybody could see that. He was always paler than usual, jumpier and easily startled. His eyes were always wider and his pupils were dilated, rapidly moving around as if searching for something.
It only got worse with each birthday.
Left by himself for 9 years, all he had was the company of the demon inside him. He was paranoid, something that became increasingly and painfully obvious. Some people even believed he was even schizophrenic, often found whispering to himself or staring at random places as if somebody were there.
It was unnerving.
Eventually, Hiruzen enrolled Naruto in the academy. The council even pushed him to do so after Naruto unintentionally displayed the ability to manipulate ink. It was as if he had taken the Uzumaki affinity for Fuinjutsu and brought it to life, literally manipulating ink.
Despite his appearance, Naruto did not come off as feral, like one might expect a container of the fox demon to be.
He had the signature red hair and purple eyes of the Uzumaki clan. His skin was pale, almost resembling paper. He wore a hooded jacket nearly 24/7, the hood constantly being up had matted his naturally spiky hair, instead making it smooth. The jacket was simple in design, being entirely black.
He had a black facemask covering from his collarbone to the bridge of his nose. His hands were covered with black gloves with a metal plate on the back of the hand. The metal plates did not shine, even in the light. He had dark red bandages wrapped around his forearms, the same shade as his long-sleeve shirt. His pants were black with more dark red bandages wrapped around the shins. Finally, he had black shinobi shoes, not to be confused with the sandals. Sandals didn't cover the toes or heels.
The dark clothing was quite useful for blending into shadows or dark areas.
Like his clan, Naruto was also a budding Fuinjutsu user. Uzumaki were demons on the battlefield, their red hair a telltale sign for the enemy to fall to their knees and pray to any god they might have that their death would be quick. Even Uzumaki civilians were dangerous. No Uzumaki went without learning Fuinjutsu.
Uzumaki fought with everything they had, and quite literally had to be hacked to pieces before they stopped fighting. If it came down to it, they'd sprint straight at the enemy and explode, taking down entire squadrons with them, only to practically be raised from the dead by the Uzumaki seal masters. In the end, that was what saved Uzushiogakure from falling.
Granted, Naruto was nowhere near that, but he had no desire to violently explode to kill enemy squads. But he hated everyone and everything, especially Konoha and the demon inside him.
It had been revealed that the attackers of Uzushiogakure was Konoha in disguise, trying to kill the Uzumaki once they had one and the Kyuubi under their control.
And Naruto knew it.
He vowed to himself that one day, he would rid himself of the demon and destroy Konoha. They were the reason the demon was inside of him. They were the reason the demon punished him. They were the reason why everything burned.
But for now, he'd hide his hatred and nurse it, let it grow stronger. For now, he had to focus on the task at hand.
Passing the test to fully join the academy.
The test was a spar – do well enough and impress the Chuunin teacher to pass the test. Naruto watched as students fought each other. The bulk of them were civilians throwing around wild punches and kicks. It was painful to watch.
Until it was his turn.
He walked over to the dirt ring and faced a dark-haired boy. The other boy radiated confidence.
"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. Your spar begins now."
Sasuke fell into a stance with ease, bringing his hands up to guard his face. It was a boxy and rigid stance, but it was one that would allow the user to put a lot of power behind their attacks. Naruto slid into his, one that roughly imitated the Hyuga Gentle Fist, but it was loose and fluid instead of rigid.
Sasuke made the first move, throwing a punch at Naruto's face while stepping forwards, putting his weight into it. Naruto slid to the side and slapped the lower half of his palm against Sasuke's side, letting chakra flow around his palm to harden the bone.
His opponent winced. Sasuke jumped up and spun around, trying to deliver a spinning jump kick. A flashy move, yes, but it had the potential for power if done correctly. Naruto grabbed the leg with both hands and shoved downwards, literally slamming Sasuke into the ground, before sliding back a few steps.
Sasuke got up, glaring at Naruto. He rushed forwards and dived to the left, following up with a punch aimed at Naruto's torso. At the last second, Naruto slid under and around Sasuke, grabbing the back of his neck with one hand and Sasuke's arm with the other. Then he kicked Sasuke's feet out from under him while using his hands to shove the boy the other way.
The fall was a harsh one, but Sasuke got up, seething with anger. He had realized Naruto's technique.
It was all based around counter-attacking and dodging the opponent's attacks. That is, until Naruto lowered his arms slightly, leaned forwards, and brought his feet a little closer together. Sasuke was about to run forwards when Naruto beat him to the punch.
Naruto sprinted forwards and ducked under the kick sent his way, pulling back his right palm. Sasuke twisted, letting the palm slam against his side rather than his stomach. Naruto slid around the dazed Sasuke and, in a show of flexibility, lifted his leg up and hooked it on Sasuke's shoulder.
He lifted himself up and slammed his knee against the back of Sasuke's head before flipping off the boy. He landed and turned around, observing Sasuke. The dark-haired boy was sprawled on the ground, out cold from the hit to the head.
Naruto couldn't deny that it had been difficult to dodge Sasuke's attacks, but the Uchiha could use some more time training in Taijutsu before being able to take Naruto down. In Taijutsu, it had been found that if one opponent was even a little better than the other, he or she would most likely win. Such was the case here.
As time went by, it soon became apparent who stood where in the class. Sasuke started to catch up to Naruto in Taijutsu, and even surpassed him. Nonetheless, nobody else ever beat Naruto, and Naruto always made it quite difficult for the Uchiha to beat him.
Naruto was the best in academics and in Ninjutsu. His textbook answers and logical explanations far surpassed others of his age. His Ninjutsu was the best, only slightly above Sasuke's. Naruto's Sumiton: Mist and Sumiton: Coffin were impressive, although both were far from being complete. Manipulating ink into a fine mist or specific shapes where difficult.
He was near the lowest in the class for Genjutsu, though. He had no aptitude for it, although he did have one advantage. Despite making it their job to torment him, the demon broke him out of every Genjutsu he was placed in.
That didn't stop him from hating the fox though.
Things continued along this route until a year into the academy, just 2 weeks after his 10th birthday.
He received news that his mother, Uzumaki Kushina, had woken up. He didn't know how to feel about it, but the fox screamed and shouted in anger that rivaled the frosty void of hell.
He had been brought to the hospital, to see her for the first time in his 10 years of life. Hiruzen stood outside the door and greeted him.
"Hello, Naruto."
Naruto nodded downwards slightly, as per his usual greeting. He didn't like speaking unless he had to, or unless he couldn't stop himself.
"Before you go in, keep in mind that your mother just woke up from a 10 year coma. Good luck."
Hiruzen opened the door and let Naruto into the room, closing the door behind the boy.
Hiruzen hoped that this would help atone for his sins, for the wrongs he had done, even a little bit. He had lived through 2 wars and came out of both of them with regrets and more blood on his hands. He was the one who had the most blood on their hands in the entire village, including the death of half of Uzushiogakure.
Everybody had regrets. Hiruzen regretted launching that attack on Uzushiogakure. He cursed to himself, knowing he shouldn't have let the council pressure him into it. Because the attack had failed in the end, Konohagakure was surrounded on all sides by enemies. If there wasn't a country that they were enemies with, the ones that they were allies with were only barely, having a very strained and thin alliance.
And they just had to go and add Uzushiogakure into their long list of enemies and potential enemies.
Hiruzen had decided, long ago, that he wouldn't hold Naruto or Kushina back. He knew about certain missions before they even happened, like the Kannabi Bridge mission. If he had sent in a different team, a more experienced one, then certain things wouldn't have happened. He knew he could have done something, anything else, and change the chain of events that had happened.
Of course, he could list many events that changed things for the worse, but he couldn't change that now. Each one led to the destruction of lives of good people, leading up to how things are now. The least he could do was to not hinder Naruto. That included keeping Kushina alive and letting her meet Naruto.
He regretted many things. Hiruzen just hoped that he could begin to atone for it before death.
x-x-x-x-x
Kushina watched as a boy entered the room. He was short, perhaps 4'9, but it was hard to tell how old he was with almost no skin showing. Truth be told, she remembered very little about life before she had fallen into a coma. She remembered finding out she was going to have a child of her own, but nothing beyond that. Everything beyond there was too foggy to remember.
Until she woke up, that is. Although she still didn't remember, she didn't know how she got there. She found that she couldn't get up and walk about, having already tried. Needless to say, she was still a little sore from collapsing and hitting the floor, forced to wait there until somebody came into the room and helped her back into the bed.
Hiruzen had appeared a day ago, telling her that today she would get a special visitor. And here was that visitor.
"Hello… wh-who are… you?" Kushina asked with her unused voice.
Kushina figured that they could very well have been a girl, but the child's build suggested that it was he, not she. The boy walked forwards until they stood silently in front of Kushina's bed.
"Kaa-san?" He asked with uncertainty.
Kushina's eyes widened in shock.
No.
It couldn't be.
It was impossible.
Right?
"What?" Kushina asked in disbelief. Surely, if this was her child, then Minato should be around somewhere, right? But if he was, then why wasn't he there?
Dread rose up in her chest and her throat constricted painfully. She had to check something.
"Come… here."
The boy walked around the bed and up to Kushina's side, as requested. Kushina tentatively reached forwards and pushed back the hood while pulling down his mask with her other hand. Red locks of hair and seemingly glowing purple eyes stared back at her. The hair was exactly the same shade as her hair, and his eyes…
His eyes had the same exact shade of purple as her own eyes. She noticed his eyes starting to get watery.
He even had her facial features.
"Are… are you… Naruto?" She asked. That was the name that she and Minato had decided to name their child if it was a boy. She had to make sure.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."
The dread changed. It was no longer that uncertain, uneasy dread. It was full and settled in. "A-And Minato?"
Naruto's facial expression changed slightly to one of confusion, "Minato Namikaze?"
"Yes."
The next thing he said sent Kushina into hysterical crying.
"He died 10 years ago… on the night I was born."
x-x-x-x-x
That concludes the end of this chapter.
So, as I said, this isn't exactly an insane fic. It's more like a degradation into the dark before (maybe) coming into the light a little bit. Now, some of you will present the whole: "B-But Odd One! Konoha didn't destroy Uzushiogakure! I-I-It was so-and-so!"
Well I don't give a shit.
My fanfic, my rules. And don't think I don't see you typing up your shit about how the academy actually works in the franchise. If you didn't notice, I'm not Kishimoto. I'm not going to do shit the same way he did. Deal with it.
Or don't.
Leave your complaints, reviews, and other comments after the beep.
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