"W͏a҉k͠ę ̴up."
And thus, he opened his eyes.
"…Shit."
Our protagonist, Uzumaki Naruto, was in quite a bind already. He woke up and discovered that the day was already approaching noon. On a normal day, this would have been fine since he never really had to follow a schedule or anything. However, today was a special day. Today was the first day when classes start for the new cohort of Academy students. The cohort our protagonist was in.
"Oh damn…" Naruto groaned, as he got out of bed.
He looked at his bedside clock and realized that the orientation for classes started about an hour ago. He internally questioned himself if he should skip class or not but soon decided that skipping would do more harm than good. He then looked at the calendar that was pinned to the wall to ensure that today was actually the day when classes start. It's not as if the day could magically change to yesterday if he looked again, right? His futile hope was met with reality when he confirmed that today was in fact the day that lessons started.
"You could have woken me up earlier, you know," the boy talked aloud to himself while pacing around the room, hastily putting on a plain orange t-shirt and black cargo shorts. "Come on…at least respond, prove to me I'm not crazy…"
Again, he was met with silence. Ever since the day he discovered that the voice followed him wherever he went, he tried interacting with it daily. Unfortunately, the lack of response just continued to cause Naruto to question his sanity. When the voice did talk, however, it was always in random moments when Naruto least expected it to. It also seemed that the longer he lived with the voice, the clearer it seemed to sound. Before, it used to be fragmented and heavily distorted; now, he could hear each word with clarity. The voice itself felt off, however—it felt distant. He couldn't really visualize a face or other physical characteristics to imagine the speaker, but he could tell that the voice had slightly feminine tones when speaking.
Naruto internally joked to himself that maybe he really was a monster if he kept hearing voices in his head. How could this be any trait of sanity? Maybe what the people told him wasn't that far off to begin with—
"G̸͢E̵̢T̵̨̨͠ ̢̛̀͝͞G̸͘͢͠͠Ó̡Ì̕͟N̡̕͘G̨̨͘"
His ears popped. She didn't like that. Assuming the voice is a she, that is. The first time Naruto referred to her as a male in his own thoughts she popped his ears then too, so this wasn't an uncommon occurrence. Naruto noticed that there were bouts when the voice sometimes got upset; it usually happened when he came close to near-death experiences or made self-deprecating jokes to himself. Also, when he had to urgently go somewhere—like now.
He took one last look at the mirror to observe himself. It was crazy to compare his transformation from fresh out of the hospital a couple months ago to the present. At a brief glance from another perspective, the boy appeared to look lanky and perhaps even frail. However, after careful observation, one would notice that his muscles were discreetly toned in all the right places; the exercise at the training grounds truly did its work.
His gaze drifted to his face and he started playing with his unruly blond hair, trying to pat it down to remove all the tufts from bed head. He was slightly surprised to see a couple strands of red hair. It was curious, but it was quickly dismissed, as it wasn't of importance. It was just hair...who would care?
Lastly, Naruto made sure he had the Yondaime's kunai on him. Grabbing his chest, he felt the tri-pronged kunai underneath his t-shirt, out of sight. He tied it around his neck with a thin chain so he could keep it on him at all times. He couldn't afford to lose the treasure—it was his only chance of competing in the shinobi world, after all. If only he could just crack the seal and figure out how to use it without a fluke…
His thoughts paused when he realized he was ready to leave. He grabbed a single bag containing his school supplies and headed outside his apartment and towards the location of the Academy. Naruto, not one to walk through the streets, ran and hopped across the rooftops of the buildings to get to his destination.
The last thing he wanted was any inevitable conflict he would face if he was in direct view of the citizens of the village. Ever since that day, he never wanted to be caught in a vulnerable position ever again.
⁂
It didn't take long for Naruto to arrive, but a new problem arose…how was he going to enter the Academy building? He couldn't just come through the front door and brazenly show everyone in the building that he was late on the first day of class. Even if he managed to sneak pass the front clerk—which was highly unlikely, considering the very open front lobby—he doesn't know the actual room number where his lectures were being held.
So, our protagonist did what any other protagonist would do, and snuck around the building, looking into the windows of the classrooms or any other possible entrances. He was going to sneak in.
Naruto climbed a tree, perched on one of the branches, then peered at the many windows on the side of the building. It seemed like the students were divided by their year, as he could tell by distinguishing the students in each class by their age group. He gazed around to try and pick out the lowest age group, which he should be a part of. He found a reasonable group of students that looked to be around six to seven years old—around Naruto's current age. Once he confirmed that none of the other classes were likely candidates of being his class, he made his way to the window of the anticipated class he was supposed to be in. He discreetly looked in through the window, spotted an empty seat at the back, and climbed through. He made his way to the seat without making any noise while remaining crouched—a skill he developed while maneuvering around the forest, as to not attract predators at night. He even went as far as to significantly reduce his heartbeat for an added safety precaution.
Once he climbed onto his seat, he was slightly startled when a voice called.
"Uzumaki…Naruto." A bland voice spat with a trace of annoyance that only a careful listener could have caught. A moment passed, and the speaker spoke again louder, "Uzumaki Naruto, are you present?"
"Uh…yes?" Naruto replied, confused as to why his name was called. They didn't catch him coming through the window, right?
Everybody in his vicinity was shocked and surprised at the sudden presence in the room. A few audible murmurs of surprise echoed. Everyone in the classroom initially thought the seat was vacant when they walked in, and nobody was in the seat when the chūnin sensei spent the first hour welcoming them to the Academy. Nobody came in through the front door entrance to the classroom either. Yet, somehow, somebody was in the seat, and nobody knew until the boy in the seat himself spoke up. Perhaps if the boy never spoke, nobody would have ever noticed him.
The sensei held his gaze on the boy for a couple of seconds then looked down at his clipboard and made a checking motion with his pen. He then looked up again, but with a malicious glare.
"Respond faster next time. If you don't, I will mark you as absent," the sensei said in a rough tone, prolonging eye contact with Naruto specifically.
"…"
"…"
Naruto simply stared at the man and nodded shortly after. The teacher squinted in disapproval and then resumed calling out other names and continued making checking motions on his clipboard after receiving verbal responses.
"Hey," a raven-haired boy next to Naruto tried whispering to him, getting his attention. "Were you always sitting there? I thought that this seat was empty the whole time I've been in this room!"
"…"
"…"
"…I was here…the whole time," Naruto blatantly lied.
"…"
"…"
"No way!" the dark-haired boy yelled aloud. Upon realizing his outburst, the boy clasped his mouth with his hands.
Most students in the class giggled or laughed at their antics, but the sensei at the front of the class didn't find the humor.
"Hey, you, blond kid. If you make another spasm like that, there will be punishment involved," the sensei focused his words towards Naruto specifically.
Naruto was mildly shocked and offended that he was the one to blame. It should be obvious that it wasn't him that made the outburst, yet the cause of the sudden disruption was pinned on him. Upon careful inspection on the teacher, he recognized the tone exuded from his eyes. It was the exact same look Naruto wanted to escape from. The one that was put on him ever since he could remember.
It was as if the teacher wanted him dead. He could feel so much hate emitting from his vicinity, and it was toxic. Naruto began to feel nauseous and breathed deeply to calm his nerves.
So much for first impressions.
Once Naruto got a hold of his senses and realized what he got himself into, he stood up and firmly looked at the chūnin. "I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again," the boy apologized as he even added a short, respectful bow to emphasize his words.
Half-satisfied with the apology, the sensei turned to face the class again, resuming whatever he had to say to the class. Naruto sat back down and looked blankly at the front of the class.
Meanwhile, the raven-haired boy next to him couldn't believe what just happened and stared at the blond. He didn't mean for his outburst to be pinned on the blond kid, and he immediately felt guilty about it. It was even more shocking when the blond even took responsibility for something he didn't even do; he even formally apologized for it—no normal kid would do something like that!
"Uhm, hey. I'm sorry. That was all my fault," the boy said in a carefully hushed tone.
Naruto turned his eyes from the front of the board to meet his neighbour's. Realizing that talking is a bad idea, the blond took out a notebook from his bag and scribbled a message at a shockingly quick pace with great precision. He turned the page at an angle to let the other boy see while staring at the front of the class.
Don't worry about it.
The boy's eyes widened in surprise, as he expected the blond to be mad at him. He then looked at the blond, and then pulled out his own notebook and began scribbling something of his own in a semi-discreet manner.
My name is Uchiha Sasuke, what's yours? I wasn't paying attention to the sensei when he said your name.
Now it was Naruto's turn to be surprised. He looked at his neighbour and saw that he was eagerly looking at him, expecting a response. He wasn't used to seeing eyes without hate…perhaps the dark-haired boy wasn't aware of who he was in the village yet. So, Naruto complied and responded by writing in the notebook.
Uzumaki Naruto.
Sasuke looked happy to receive a response from the blond, but then frowned as he scribbled a message messily.
You're not mad, Naruto? That was all my fault. Why didn't you tell him the noise was because of me?
Naruto tapped to what he already wrote from prior.
Don't worry about it.
Their silent conversation was interrupted when there was a sudden applause in the room. Focusing his attention to the front of the board, Naruto noticed that the teacher was holding a small flame in his hand. It seemed like he was demonstrating a basic jutsu to the class. Each student seemed to be enamored at how the teacher spontaneously created fire out of essentially nothing. Well, almost everyone.
"My brother can do way better than that," Sasuke muttered under his breath, clearly unimpressed by the performance.
Naruto looked on impassively. He somewhat felt the same as Sasuke, as he himself saw what type of jutsu advanced ninja could do. He spent his fair share of his time sneaking around, observing them at the training grounds. He spent a lot of his time learning from them and picking up a few tricks. Compared to their performances, seeing a simple flame in his teacher's hand wasn't that profound. He hoped that he could soon mimic what jutsu that had impressed him, though. He wanted the ability to defend himself when the time called for it. He doesn't like risking death everyday. Thinking along these lines, brief images flashed through the boy's head.
His apartment, caught on fire.
A crowd chasing him with exposed weapons.
The sight of his own blood that he coughed up on the ground.
His bruised-up face, reflected in the mirror.
These were all instances of some challenges Naruto faced prior to the incident. Even after that day, there were several more attempts to take his life despite the Hokage promising it wouldn't happen again. Obviously, the promise didn't hold. He didn't mind, though, because he became strong enough to deal with it himself, as difficult as it was.
Something in his head ticked.
A headache—an occurrence that wasn't uncommon; they often came whenever he thought about himself and the village. Breathing heavily, he closed his eyes and tried to ease the pain. A seven-year-old boy should not have to think about life or death situations, since the stress was obviously catching up to him. He never wanted to live his life like this.
His hands clenched tightly, and he could feel the sweat forming on his palms. His ears rang obnoxiously loudly. Why was it him? Everyone else his age looked so happy. They never had to worry about coming home alive. He wanted that life. Why?
"N̸̢a̷̢̛r̵̶͟u̢t̷̕o͟.҉̸̕"
His throat clenched, making it harder to breathe. He was forced to breathe through his mouth, taking sharp, short breaths. Why was it him? Do his feelings not matter? How could they just look at him once, and then dismiss his existence entirely?
"Ná̴ru͘t҉o҉̴,̶ ͘͝ņo͞t͘͢ ͘a̴҉͠g̶̛a̸͠͠i̢ņ͠—"
His vision started flickering. Slight moments of blackness, even though his eyes were perfectly fine. It was better if he wasn't here. What was the point of the Academy? Why couldn't he escape those stares, even here? Would it really be better if he was…dead? Should he just end it? Yes, maybe, just conform to everyone else's wishes. That way, he wouldn't have to suffer like this anymore. Not lik—
"C̷͜͢ ҉̴̸͘͠L̷̕͠͡M̵̧ ̛͟D͝O̵͘҉̴́ẁ̶̴͞—̨͘"
Naruto's panic attack was interrupted when his neighbour prodded his elbow with his own. Sasuke had a slightly worried expression on his face, wondering if Naruto really was upset with him. From Sasuke's perspective, it looked like the blond was growing angrier, and he assumed that the blond never really forgave him for his prior outburst. Little did he know.
Naruto's demeanor changed almost instantly as he resumed to impose his natural, calm, stoic image. All visible signs of hyperventilation disappeared as he forced his mind to return to equilibrium. He looked at his neighbour, Sasuke, and noticed his worried expression. He had a panic attack in front of someone he just met—not good. Naruto inwardly sighed, as he tapped to his notebook again.
Don't worry about it.
They both stared at each other for a few seconds, studying each others' expressions, then stared back to the front of the class since the sensei sought the attention from everyone. The sensei was going over the syllabus of their year and told the class what they were all expected of to pass to become Genin. Naruto was slightly disappointed by the curriculum, since he was sure he studied most of it at the library already. It looked like he wasn't going to learn anything new.
He really started to doubt the purpose of the Academy.
⁂
Naruto's expectations slightly changed when the class went outside to witness a taijutsu demonstration between two of his sensei. He wanted to see and get an idea of what he will learn from them. Both sensei bowed to each other and began the spar.
What Naruto saw though was disappointing, however, and his expectations just continued to drop as the spar went on. It may be because they dumbed down the fight for the other kids to learn easier, but to Naruto it was just painful to look at. Frankly, they were slow. So slow that if they were to spar against Naruto, the boy was confident he would be able to inflict more than just cuts and bruises on their bodies.
The sensei stopped the fight when one of them managed to trip the other onto the ground, holding the target to ensure he couldn't continue. The battle could have resumed into a grappling match, but it seemed that they felt that it was a good place for the spar to end. Again, the whole class looked at their sensei in admiration—except for a few, of course. The sensei put themselves upright and prepared to teach the class.
"Now, that's a little taste of what you guys will be learning while your stay at this Academy. You'll be expected to be at the level we've shown you by the time you graduate, though a little bit of what we've shown was chūnin level," one sensei explained, sounding slightly smug.
Naruto wondered when in the spar had they demonstrated any chūnin level techniques. Everything looked so amateurish…he was starting to question the proficiency of the teachers.
He inwardly sighed.
"Don't feel discouraged if you can't get the hang of it right away, just train your bodies and keep practicing until you do. We'll be there to help you with your forms," the other sensei explained, "Now, pair up, introduce yourselves to each other, and spread out. You'll begin sparring sessions now, using the techniques we showed you in our demonstration and in class. Do your best to imitate our forms."
Many of the girls flocked to Sasuke for some reason, which left Naruto with no options who to be partnered with. He looked around to see if he could partner with any of the males, but they seemed to have paired up already. The pairs may have been friends or acquainted prior to this—an advantage that never came to Naruto. The blond was in a bind as he looked around because he didn't know how to interact with anyone to get them to spar with him. He was lucky when a shy voice approached from behind him.
"Uhm…uh…uhm…h-"
Naruto turned around and saw a girl with dark blue hair who was around his height. He noticed that she was pulling down on the front of her loose, light purple hoodie that looked to be a tad worn out. Oddly, she was looking straight at the ground for some reason.
"W-would you like to… uhm…" she was struggling with her words, and was stepping backwards, almost as if she was regretting her decision to talk to him.
"…"
"…uhm...!" she looked like she was painfully trying to say something.
"…"
Naruto didn't know what to do.
"Ac͞c͡ep̕t ҉h̨e̸r off͟er̢.̴"
He heard the voice but didn't react to it. Instead, he just complied as he started to realize what this odd situation was about.
"Okay," Naruto responded.
Her head snapped up to look at him, mildly surprising the boy as he saw her eyes had large, pale irises that lacked pupils. A Hyūga clan member, he recognized. Her face seemed surprised at his abrupt reply.
"You want to spar?" Naruto asked. His response was a curt nod from the girl. "Okay."
Her eyes widened as she continued to struggle with her words, "Uh.. t-thank… uhm…"
"…"
"…awa.." she seemed to cripple under his passive gaze.
"Thank you as well. Good luck."
His response put a confused expression on her face. Then, a faint blush appeared on her face, and she put her head down once again, staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact.
"Okay! Now that it looked like everyone found a partner, let's begin sparring," the sensei's loud voice boomed across the field. "Remember, we're going over the forms we went over in today's class and what I showed you before our demonstration. You can add your own style if you want to experiment—but remember, this is a spar! Try not to injure your partner! Now! You may begin!"
The teacher's voice hurt Naruto's ears.
After seeing how everyone around him got into their own respective stances, the boy faced his female partner as he fell into a pose that was different than what the sensei detailed. Naruto was mildly amused as his partner was surprised at the sudden shift in atmosphere as she took time to get into her own stance. His amusement continued as he observed that her stance was also different than what the sensei advised. The girl's eyes focused onto his stance, and her expression became strict and serious—a stark contrast from the behaviour she exhibited earlier. She was starting to become an interesting character to Naruto.
"Ready?" Naruto prompted half-heartedly. It was obvious that both of them were on edge, but he felt it was best to receive confirmation. His feedback was a short nod from the girl.
They both stood their ground, analyzing their opponent's stances and anticipating the other's move. Finding an opening, Naruto initiated the attack by stepping into the girl's range but backed off as he deflected an incoming jab at his neck. Noting the precision of her strike, he went out of her range to reassess his entry. She was sharp in the way she attacked, and Naruto was wary as to how to approach her next.
Realizing that he would probably fail to connect properly again, the boy feinted with a punch, then pivoted on the ball of his foot to propel his body up into a reverse high kick. The girl foresaw this and blocked the upward kick, but was confused when she felt nothing against her arms. To her late realization, Naruto did another feint as he adjusted his kick at the very last moment to change the direction of his knees, bringing his kick downwards and breaking the girl's guard. He then continued the momentum and sent a flurry of kicks with the same leg, all at varying angles.
To the mild surprise of the boy, the girl kept deflecting every kick with her palms despite the quick pace at which he was sending them. Naruto did notice her getting tired though; he guessed that she wasn't used to receiving kicks—probably because of how she was taught. However, the girl surprised him yet again by suddenly choosing to evade the kicks with footwork alone instead of parrying them.
Realizing the futility of his attack, the boy crouched on his grounded leg while retracting his kicking leg and lunged at the girl with the intent of a takedown. He ran while keeping his frame low. The girl was surprised at the sudden change of form the boy displayed as she took a step back, as if she didn't know how to handle this approach of attack; Naruto noted that she didn't have experience with unorthodox techniques. However, the girl proved capable yet again by shifting her posture accordingly as she searched for an area to counter.
Naruto, knowing she would go for a vital point (most likely his neck again), changed his form while in the girl's range of attack. He abruptly raised his frame, aiming for an uppercut with the aid of one of his legs pushing off the ground, and the other planted. The girl attempted to sidestep but was met with alarm when she realized the boy's grounded foot was planted on hers, preventing her from moving. Panicking, she brought her arms to cover her face, and the boy's fist met with her guard, breaking it. Naruto tried using this opportunity to follow up with a strike at her body but was surprised yet again when the girl regained her composure and deflected his strike while countering with one of her own. An exchange of hand-to-hand strikes went on, with neither opponent yielding their ground.
This was starting to get annoying.
Naruto slowly began to feel the strain on his arms as the fight progressed. He knew this wasn't his style of fighting and was slowly playing into the girl's rhythm. He broke the pace by jumping back and then jumping back in with a knee extended, switching the fight up by trying to land a mid kick. The girl promptly raised an arm to guard, but it wasn't strong enough. She was pushed back and lost her stance, and Naruto followed up with a low, sweeping kick. The girl's unguarded legs were swept as she began falling over. She closed her eyes to embrace for the impact of the ground. However, instead, she felt a force cushioning her, preventing contact with the dirt. She opened her eyes and saw the standing boy's face looking down at her. She realized that the boy's foot caught her head.
Naruto extended a hand. She took it and stood up with his help, with a faint blush on her face. The blush quickly grew redder when she realized how intense she got into sparring with the boy.
"UHM… uwaawa-imsosorwy!" she blurted out.
"…"
Naruto looked at her with a confused expression and was unsure how to respond. That was the most exciting fight he ever fought; the wooden dummies he trained with were tough, but got very repetitive. Compared to them, this fight was very refreshing.
"Ididntmeanto h-h-hit you so hard d-duringourspar!" she exclaimed in an almost impossibly hushed, yet comprehensible tone.
"It's fine. It was a good spar," Naruto responded.
Frankly, Naruto didn't expect to fight so intensely. He knew from the moment the girl initially positioned herself into her stance that she was above what the Academy level detailed, but he still didn't expect the fight to go as long as it did. It was to be expected against a Hyūga clan member, he guessed. What was surprising though was that even when fighting something new, she formulated a plan accordingly with great precision. Every move she made was calculated and planned—quite unlike Naruto's spontaneous, pseudo-random fighting style.
Naruto developed this style as detailed by the notes from Namikaze Minato, and he honed each technique by training at the special training grounds he discovered quite a few months ago. At first, the wooden training dummies seemed to be too overpowering for him, but he slowly became accustomed to fighting against them. He was grateful, as he realized the dummies never actually went as far as to kill him, but they did come close to, which helped motivate Naruto to improve even more. As of now, he could adequately handle the army of Oni, but still had trouble with the Sōryo.
The boy's thoughts were abruptly stopped when he realized there was an odd silence within his vicinity. The other students couldn't have already finished fighting their spars, right? He was sure that he didn't miss the signal from the teacher indicating that the sparring session was over either.
He glanced around to see that the other students were looking at him and his partner with curiosity…and perhaps…a bit of admiration? The expressions weren't familiar to the boy.
"…"
The students quickly returned to their own sparring once they realized the boy's attention was set on them. Unknown to Naruto, Sasuke kept his gaze on the blond a bit longer than the others but quickly resumed his sparring against his own partner.
Naruto looked back at the dark-haired girl he fought with and noticed that her cheeks were significantly red. She was fidgeting in a very strange manner, and it shocked him to imagine that this was the same person that challengingly fought him a while ago.
"…Are you okay?" Naruto asked, with a hint of worry in his voice.
She lifted her head up to look at his face. His bright blue eyes met with her pale white. It looked like she was about to say something…until she fainted.
"…"
What?
The boy began questioning how she collapsed the way she did.
Naruto soon called for his sensei to check on her. When the chūnin came, the boy was put subject to an accusing glare, as if he was the one responsible for this. This time, though, Naruto couldn't internally deflect the blame. He felt guilty even though he didn't understand what he could've done to make the girl lose consciousness so easily. She seemed fine during their intense spar together…so what went wrong?
⁂
The sparring session ended and thankfully, the girl recovered. The children all filed back into the building, and they assembled randomly at their desks. However, for Naruto, a new inconvenience surfaced…the girl was avoiding contact with him for some reason. Naruto wanted to directly apologize for what he did, but he couldn't even approach her to do so. When the teacher resumed lessons, he often caught her giving him short, not-so-discreet glances during the times he was pretending to ignore her. Each time he met her gaze, she would hastily avert her eyes with her cheeks reddening each time. He wondered if he hurt her to the point where she held a grudge against him or something similar. Perhaps he was a monster to her eyes as well…to be honest, it was a plausible reason—to Naruto, at least.
However, since she wouldn't let him apologize properly, he let the situation go and decided to push his worries aside. He just didn't feel like being pummeled with responsibilities on his first day at the Academy. Naruto didn't owe her anything, and neither did she owe him. He was at the Academy to learn skills that would help him protect himself—no distractions were necessary.
Whatever she labeled him was irrelevant: monster or whatever.
'Friends' were a luxury Naruto couldn't have.
"…Foolish boy…̕"
"…"
Naruto didn't know how to feel about being openly insulted like that—especially when the one insulting him was coming from inside his own head. Especially when he doesn't even know what he was being insulted for. What unsettled him the most, however, was how clear the voice was this time. It almost felt like it was a real person speaking instead of the distorted fragments from before. Naruto had a mildly troubled expression on his face, but quickly slipped back into his impassive persona when the teacher ended the lesson for the start of lunch break.
Wait, lunch?
Everyone seemed to cluster in their respective cliques, leaving Naruto alone at his desk at the back of the room. He realized he didn't bring a lunch, which this period seemed to be for. The room suddenly became louder as the chatter increased. Naruto's sensitive ears were in pain as a result. He felt no inclination to stay in the room, so he left the to go outside the Academy building.
Naruto aimlessly walked around in the foliage and tried to situate himself with the voice in the meantime. Verbally communicating with it invoked a response, but he also noticed that voicing his thoughts in his head sometimes worked as well.
When will I learn who you are? the boy internally questioned.
…
He expected the lack of response, but it was still upsetting.
"Ç̵ą͝ĺ̴̕͜͝l͠҉͏̧ ̶̨̛́͡m͢͝y͢͟҉ ̷̢̡̛n̸̷̛͢͞am̴͘͟͞͞e̶͜..̷̕͠"
Naruto abruptly stopped his pacing. The voice this time was sudden and was more distorted than usual. It made it difficult to discern what the voice said. He recalled the memory to reiterate the message. As the words echoed through his head, he started to understand what they meant.
"…But how do I…?" he murmured to himself, thinking.
A crunch.
Naruto heard someone step on the grass from behind him. The boy was too lost in his own thoughts to sense anyone approaching him, and he panicked—any presences behind him did not end up going well in his past experience. He ran further into the foliage, attempting to escape his pursuer. He stopped when he realized nobody was following him and looked back with his body masked by the tree branches and leaves. He raised a kunai from his hidden holster, preparing to throw it at his possible attacker. However, what he saw surprised him, and he lowered his kunai. The girl from before was there.
Naruto stayed perched on the branch while waiting to see what she would do. He stared at her intently and noted that she was looking desperately into the foliage, as if searching for something—perhaps him? She had both hands clenched and in front of her face, hiding her mouth. It looked like she was trying to make herself seem small as possible. To Naruto, this image of the girl in front of him was the complete opposite of the girl he sparred with. Were they really the same person? What caused this change? And most importantly, what was she doing here?
Realizing that she didn't pose any harm, he was preparing to jump down, when suddenly—
"…UHM!"
He almost fell off his branch. She was directly looking at him, with bulging veins around her eyes. It seemed like she activated her Byakugan, which he recalled from the Yondaime's notes.
"uhm.. Ijustwantto…say sorry… ᶠᵒʳ ᶠᵃᶦⁿᵗᶦⁿᵍ ˢᵘᵈᵈᵉⁿˡʸ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ!" she said in the same quiet, yet barely comprehensible tone as before. The girl then turned around and ran back into the Academy building, leaving a dumbfounded Naruto in the trees.
He could barely register what she fully said, as she practically squealed the last few words under her breath. But, from what the boy could understand, she just apologized to him. This was the first apology Naruto ever received to his face aside from the Hokage himself, and he couldn't fully process what had just happened.
What bothered him more was how easily he was found out. He prided himself in his hiding ability, which was stealthy enough to avoid detection from the most seasoned shinobi around the training grounds—even most jōnin! The Byakugan was truly a force to be reckoned with…
⁂
Classes finally ended. Finally. The lessons were beyond painful for Naruto to sit through. So far, all they covered were safety precautions as the life of a ninja, as if everyone here didn't already know what they were getting themselves into. Considering that thought, Naruto realized that probably nobody in this class actually did understand the possibility of death as a ninja—the poor souls.
Ultimately, Naruto decided that he regretted coming to the Academy. It's as if children were somehow thrown into this institution to have fun, rather than learn. He wondered if this was the environment that raised such legends like the Shodai Hokage. He doubted the thought the moment he finished it, as he almost forgot about the war time era, and how comparatively lax the current era was.
Regardless, it was the first day of class, and Naruto expected more to come as the lessons progressed…hopefully.
He packed his bags and was about to get up from his desk to leave before he noticed the same girl again. She was directly in front of him and wasn't breaking eye contact this time, which slightly startled the blond. There was still a faint blush on her cheeks, however.
"My name is Hyūga Hinata…what is yours?" she looked more confident when she spoke, reminding Naruto a bit of the version of the girl he sparred with. She still looked like she was ready to run away at any moment, however.
"Uzumaki Naruto," he blandly responded. He was wondering why she was spending so much effort trying to talk to him.
Her next question though, surprised him.
"Can I…can I be your friend?" her face was beginning to redden as she asked.
"…"
Naruto's eyes widened slightly, which didn't go unnoticed by the dark-haired girl. Her intense staring at his face was far too uncomfortable…where had the girl who could barely look him in the eyes gone? His mind blanked and he absent-mindedly nodded, as he didn't know how else to respond. A moment passed as both of them slowly began to digest what had just happened.
A few moments ago, Naruto was completely fine with being friendless for the rest of his life. Now, though, he unconsciously let his actions defy that philosophy by accepting her request. A 'friend' was conceptually foreign to him, as he couldn't have even imagined anyone approaching him to become his friend.
He looked again at Hinata, and noticed her eyes were still locked onto his. Her eyes were different—and he wasn't regarding the Byakugan. No, they were different in the sense that they didn't contain the malice which he would normally expect. This was…new.
Could he…trust her?
Maybe it was okay that Naruto accepted her request, for now. He would keep her at an arms distance, as she was obviously still suspicious in wanting to get close to him. There had to be an ulterior motive behind the gesture…right?
Hinata, however, was purely elated. To her, the blond was a boy she was aware of for a while. She observed him when she knew he wasn't looking. She saw him on the streets being ostracized by everyone. She noticed the pained expression on the boy's face, as subtle as it was. She saw his cuts and bruises. She knew he was alone, and that he had nobody to cry to. She knew he needed someone. She wanted to be that one.
Because she was alone too.
"Hey," a new voice caused both Naruto and Hinata to look at the source.
The raven-haired boy, Sasuke, was looking nervously at both of them, to the surprise of everyone, including a random group of girls gossiping—no, fawning over the boy.
"Can I be your friend too?" he asked, looking directly into Naruto's eyes, with absolutely no hesitation.
"…"
At this point Naruto was stressing out. Why? What did they see in him? How come they didn't stare at him like everyone else did? He wanted to refuse, but he felt that if he did, it would be beyond rude and perhaps even insulting. The last thing Naruto wanted was to cause conflict at the Academy as well. So far, it seemed like nobody in the classroom knew who he was in the village, and he wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.
So, to maintain his calm persona and neutral relations, he gave another curt nod as a response.
Sasuke had a slight smile on his face that replaced the plain expression from before. The group of girls watching the interaction swooned over the smile and giggled madly among themselves, to the annoyance to the rest of the class. Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata were mildly disturbed at their behaviour and they realized that they didn't want anything to do with it, so they chose to simply ignore them.
"So…I'll be leaving now," Naruto said, as he didn't want to prolong the awkward moment any longer. He felt uncomfortable just by sitting and being stared at by the strangers he just met.
It's almost as if he preferred if they hated and ignored him. Almost.
"Wait, can I spar with you before you go?" Sasuke quickly interjected.
"…No thanks. I'm going home," Naruto responded. He was fed up with social interactions. He wanted to go home and continue his studies. He quickly sat up and exited the room, leaving his two new 'friends' behind, confused.
Hinata stepped forward as if she wanted to say something to Naruto's retreating back, but quickly stopped. She decided that she did enough for today. She would talk to him tomorrow. She slowly walked to the exit at her own pace, choosing to leave as well.
Sasuke was…annoyed. He didn't expect Naruto to refuse. The blond's sparring against the dark-haired girl was impressive, and Sasuke wanted to see how he himself would measure against that skill; to Sasuke's annoyance, he ended up being pressured to fight an amateur pink-haired girl who seemed overly eager to partner with him.
Regardless, Sasuke decided to not take the blond's refusal seriously, so he exited the room too. He made sure to avoid contact with the group of girls that were giggling while looking at him…creepily. He decided he would practice his shurikenjutsu by himself—his brother still wouldn't help him with that, to Sasuke's annoyance. Lately, Itachi felt more distant to him than usual…a little more depressed, too.
Hopefully Sasuke could talk to him tonight and help him feel better.
He loved his brother.
⁂
Naruto awoke in the middle of the night, shivering. Sitting up, he realized his clothes were completely drenched with sweat. He was about to get up to change his clothes until he paused.
Something was wrong.
The ANBU guards that usually patrolled around his apartment were absent. He could feel them whenever they were normally around, yet the presences weren't there tonight. Suspicious of the situation, Naruto strained his ears to get a better sense of his surroundings—he immediately regretted it.
Because a shrill scream rang in his ears.
His head immediately snapped to the direction of the sound and wondered what the source of it could be. It sounded human-like…which was terrifying, because nobody made that kind of noise if they were simply scared. Yet, Naruto couldn't think of any animal that could've sounded like that.
Suddenly, a wave of disgust filled him. He could feel the terror, sadness, and hate in a concentrated area somewhere within the village. This was almost like…the feeling from that day. He realized that these emotions were in the direction of the sound he heard from prior.
The emotions were pushed into Naruto's mind and slowly began morphing into another headache. The boy was struggling to stay conscious at this point. His joints felt weak, eyes watered, heart pumped wildly, and his breathing became uncontrollable.
Perhaps…it would be better if he saw what was happening for himself. Perhaps he could help and thus soothe the headache. The boy walked towards the window while barely staying upright. He looked out and could've sworn that the mo͘ǫn̕ had a tin̕t of r̵ed̷. Dismissing it, the boy started to unhinge the latch to his window until it spoke to him.
"Don't"
He was glad to comply with the simple command and collapsed onto the floor, overpowered by the emotions. None of this would be remembered tomorrow.
⁂
The Uchiha Massacre occurred on that night.
The news spread throughout the entire village in the following morning.
Itachi defected Konoha and was branded a traitor.
Sasuke was rumored to be the only survivor.
⁂
A few weeks passed since the first day of the Academy. What transpired during that period could be described as nothing more than…uneventful.
As the days went, Naruto paid careful attention to his surroundings in case of another personal attack on him, but luckily they never came. However, there was something else that was occuring, but not unexpected: everyone began looking at him different. There was scorn forming on their faces, one by one.
On this day it was especially noticeable. There were several groups huddled together throwing very conspicuous glances at him then whispering among themselves. If he strained his ears he could pick apart the contents of their conversations, but Naruto felt he didn't have to. It was obvious.
Everyone moved out of his way as he walked into the room. Many of the faces that once looked at him with awe on the first day now held fear and contempt. It was truly frightening how easily they could change their intentions. Naruto expected this, but he was still surprised that it happened so soon. Perhaps their parents found out of his presence at the Academy and warned them of him already. Perhaps it started from a single rumour. They shouldn't know about the Kyūbi, so they were probably told that he was a 'demon' in some type of way.
Oh well.
Regardless, the boy headed up the stairs to his usual seat at the back of the class. He was accustomed to this treatment; it was certainly nothing new. He would just ignore it per usual. However, Naruto's thoughts wavered when he spotted one of his 'friends' he made a while back. His eyes were different, and for once filled Naruto with slight hope that maybe he would defy his expectations. He was absent ever since that day for some reason, so Naruto couldn't help but be curious at what their 'friendship' was like.
Uchiha Sasuke was sitting at the back of the class at the same spot where they first met. Naruto took his usual spot next to the same neighbour.
"Good morning," Naruto experimentally greeted, trying to see if their 'friendship' was a permanent agreement from that day.
He thought for a long time about the odd situation when he went home that day, and he decided that it would be worth trying to maintain their 'friendship'. After all, there would be more disadvantages being alone than having a few friends…according to the books he read, at least. Also, since the opportunity literally walked up to him, Naruto would be a fool to not take the chance. Perhaps he could trust Sasuke and Hinata to change his skepticism.
Naruto's expectations, as small as they were, dropped when Sasuke turned to stare at him.
Those eyes.
Full of confusion, sorrow…and hatred.
It turned out that 'friends' were a luxury after all.
⁂
A/N: Hey guys. Thanks for your reviews on my first chapter. Please, keep them coming! One thing I'm mostly worried about is the pacing of this story. I want each chapter to sort of be episodic and skip from parts to parts of Naruto's life. This is because I obviously can't just write about Naruto's experience at the Academy or as a genin/chūnin/jōnin for chapters at a time. How do you feel about Naruto's social interactions? Are they too slow to read?
Also, I am aware of the massive amount of NaruHina fics out there. I hope this one will be unique. Personally, I find Hinata's initial character in canon to be annoying as hell. Even writing her in this chapter was annoying…so, that's why I'm developing her earlier than normal. I hope to expand on this on the next chapter…so stay tuned.
To the reviewer asking about the "bold text stuff", google "Zalgo text".
Thank you for reading.
Edit: for clarification, I was specifically annoyed at Hinata's constant s-s-stuttering. I don't hate her backstory or development at all—in fact, I think it was one of the best side character developments in Naruto (apart from Gaara/Lee). It's just...when writing her character, writing all these "UHM"s gets a tad tedious...haha.