Sorry for the long wait, Real Life took up a lot of time...but here's the official first chapter! I have a lot of assignments to finish after this as well...so don't expect a quick update, for this story or any of my other stories. Sorry about that.
Once again, thanks angelofdeath8254 for beta-ing this chapter! *holds out choc chip cookies, and a side bag of carrots for the pet rabbit*.
With a final flourish of his brush, Uzumaki Naruto stepped back and critically observed the yellow spiral he had just painted on the stone nose. He grinned cheekily at the sight, and threw the brush away somewhere—a loud yell of outrage coming from far below answering where the brush had landed. Or maybe the yell was because of his retouching of the Hokage Monument – it didn't really matter much to Naruto anyway.
He'd always thought the monument could use a bit of colour to liven up the brown stone faces. He was doing the village and the previous and current Hokages a favour—now the stone faces actually had personality to them.
"YOU'RE DEAD MEAT!" The unanimous scream from both civilian and shinobi watchers below blasted up to him as Naruto continued to admire his handiwork.
Tch, they had no humour, Naruto thought with amusement. Turning away from the monument, he pulled a face at them, struck a pose that screamed, 'NYAH NYAH!' and laughed himself sick as the screams of outrage grew louder from the civilians with each passing gesture. Rather than joining them, the shinobi in the observing crowd leapt up towards the monument, intending to catch and strangle Naruto to death. Among them, Naruto picked out a few jounin amongst the chunnin, and—there! Some distance away but quickly speeding closer, an ANBU member!
Naruto stopped laughing and decided it was time to start running for his life. A huge grin still remained on his face though, as testing his skills this way was so much more fun than testing at the Academy. And as his nee-chan would say, so much more useful in the long run.
Of course, Naruto stopped grinning as soon as Iruka-sensei caught him (the brown-haired chuunin had to have some sort of special sixth sense or something, because sometimes even ANBU couldn't catch him). Naruto then resigned himself to another hour-long lecture and some in-class humiliation for his prank earlier on in the day. A typical Academy day in the life of Uzumaki Naruto.
XXX
Naruto still snickered at the memory of Iruka shooting blood out of his nose from seeing his Oiroke no jutsu (also dubbed Naruko), hours after defiling the Hokage Monument. Even if Naruto had been assigned the boring job of cleaning up after his prank, that one memory made it bearable. He had never known that it was possible to expel so much blood through the nose alone. Surely the nose would just explode off the face with that amount of blood loss, right?
Urk. Bad imagery.
"Keep working Naruto! You're not going home until you clean all of this mess up!" Iruka reprimanded, gesturing towards the paint splattered monument as Naruto continued to scrub.
"There's no one waiting at home for me anyway," Naruto muttered grouchily.
He paused in his scrubbing and stared hard at the patch of stone in front of him, completely missing the regret that crossed Iruka's face. Not anymore.
Naruto shook himself out of his thoughts as Iruka called down to him. "What now?"
"After you finish this, how about I take you out for some ramen?"
Naruto blinked. He blinked again. Iruka had offered to buy him ramen? Why? No one except Hokage-jiji, Teuchi and Ayame was that nice to him. (Nee-chan couldn't be counted, she had tried to restrict the amount he ate—unforgivable!) He narrowed his eyes at Iruka, wondering if there was an ulterior motive for this sudden offer of kindness.
"Why?" Naruto asked suspiciously, Iruka looking startled at the question. Then, inexplicably, Iruka's face softened (for a shinobi, he was far too expressive, Naruto noted absently) and he smiled down towards him. Him. The blonde demon. The kid all the adults hated and kicked around like garbage.
"Just thought you could use something to eat after cleaning all this up. Even if it is your fault."
"You need to eat more than just ramen, Naruto-kun. Otherwise your growth will be stunted in future."
Naruto's throat closed up as the memory flashed briefly through his mind. With the ease of long practice, he forcefully loosened the knot in his throat and grinned as widely as he could up towards Iruka.
"No thanks Iruka-sensei! This will take ages to clean-up; it'll be too late to have dinner by the time I'm done! Let's do it another time!"
Iruka looked bewildered at the refusal of free ramen—Naruto had boasted his love for ramen very loudly and very enthusiastically over the years—as well as a bit sad, though Naruto had no idea why Iruka would feel that way.
Naruto then remembered the information he read on Iruka's profile while researching all his Academy teachers. Orphaned from the Kyuubi attack, Iruka had been a notorious prankster during his Academy days. A psych evaluation done further on in Iruka's shinobi career had commented briefly on this, saying it was a lonely child's way of gaining attention, whether negative or positive. From what Naruto had studied about human behaviour, he agreed. It was partially the reason why his current Academy persona was that of a prankster—he himself was a presumed Kyuubi attack orphan. Iruka's Academy days as described by the profile was a little similar to Naruto's, minus the dead-last position and the constant abuse.
Aha, Naruto realised triumphantly. That was why Iruka had offered him ramen. He probably felt sad because he saw the similarities between them, and guessed at the reason why Naruto was a prankster. Which was half-right and half-wrong. Naruto didn't want attention (not as much as he drew as a prankster anyway), but that was what he was trying to project to those around him. Evidently he was successful.
"A good mask is one with some definable traits," she lectured sternly towards Naruto, as he sat there trying to drink up every word said. "Traits easy for the person to slip into—it's why many infiltrators use part of their personality in their disguises, exaggerate parts of their own nature while toning down other qualities. The best lies have a grain of truth to it. Their disguise's personality should match with the fake history attached to that disguise though, make it easy to see why that person would have done a certain action in their past, should they ever need to expand on it."
Naruto hid a bitter smirk at this memory. Yes, his mask was definitely successful. But his teacher wasn't here to see it. Naruto frowned and tried to distract himself by making conversation with Iruka. It turned into a (gentle) lecture on Iruka's part on how his continual pranking contributed to his past lack of success in becoming a gennin.
Iruka was completely wrong about that though. It wasn't the pranking. It was the bloody bunshin.
XXX
Naruto, for a prankster, was actually an intelligent person (the wild hours-long goose chase he once forced three ANBU squads to give wasn't completely because of luck). His theory work in the Academy was ranked at almost the same level as Haruno Sakura, and he was the highest ranked in theory work amongst the boys (much to Uchiha Sasuke's irritation). It would be after having to learn the same Academy material for three years. His practical work was passable, ranked average in class. (Of course, if the Academy teachers had thought a little harder on most of the pranks Naruto carried out, and the subsequent escapes that involved hours of searching and chasing for said blonde boy which weren't always successful, they would realise it didn't match up with the barely passable attempts he made in class.) His taijutsu did need work, but without any sparring partners it was hard to improve—there was only so much improvement one could make while self-training and reading from scrolls. Still, it was almost passable.
His Achilles Heel was ironically enough one of the easiest things on the Academy curriculum. Creating a bunshin.
Sure, Naruto could trick the ANBU, and even run and hide from them with great success, but if there was one thing he sucked at, it was chakra control. Hence his inability to make bunshin. It was what caused him to fail his first gennin exam, and his second retry at it.
(Naruto found it slightly unfair that the boy who couldn't perform any ninjutsu last year, Rock Lee, was allowed to pass, but he wasn't. Apparently though, said boy actually medically wasn't capable of channelling chakra—he had been sponsored by a taijutsu-specialist jounin, which allowed him a chance to pass the gennin exams minus the ninjutsu part. Naruto could channel chakra, just sucked at controlling it.)
Two fails and a few more months' inability at creating bunshin that didn't look half-dead though had Naruto nearly willing to kill just to graduate from the Academy. Not only were the failures points of shame for him, he was tired of pretending. It had only meant to last up until he graduated two years ago. His failures had made him prolong the act, and he was tired of not being taken seriously at all. He could deal with the name-calling, with being labelled the dead-last, with the teasing other students participated in, but he could not tolerate the thought he was actually turning into the empty-headed dead-last façade he had put up to test his stealth years ago.
It was time to find a way around his inability, like that Lee kid had done with his chakra problem. He had trained his taijutsu until even some jounin couldn't follow his moves. Naruto would go with his specialty too.
After all, nearly anything could be accomplished with seals, Naruto thought with a smirk.
XXX
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
Shoving aside his nervousness, Naruto stood up and walked into the examination room with as much confidence as he could muster. It was small and plain, with the two examiners, Iruka-sensei and the white haired Mizuki, seated at the end of the room opposite the door.
"Okay Naruto, show us kawarimi and henge," Iruka said, and smiled encouragingly at him.
Shouting the technique names, Naruto performed the kawarimi and henge, almost tempted to use his Oiroke no jutsu just for the fun of it, but at last minute decided against it. He did want to pass after all, and failing because he gave the examiners nosebleeds wasn't something he wanted on his record…well, the smarter part of himself didn't. The prankster part of him cackled evilly at the thought and was rearing to go.
"Okay, create three bunshin now Naruto," Iruka instructed.
Naruto took a deep breath. Now to time this correctly…
"Bunshin no jutsu!"
A huge explosion of thick grey smoke filled the air, hiding Naruto completely for a few seconds. Quickly, he pulled three small sheets of paper out of his pocket. Each sheet had a seal painted on it. Naruto placed them on the floor in a line, spaced roughly apart, injecting a little chakra into each just as he put them down. Images of himself appeared above each piece of paper— and success! Work done, he quickly stepped back into his original position, wide stance with fingers held in the seal for bunshin, and waited for the smoke to dissipate.
When the smoke finally cleared, the two chunnin examiners were treated to the sight of Naruto still in stance, face screwed up in concentration, while three bunshin stood in front of him standing, feet together (very conveniently hiding the seals under their feet).
Iruka beamed at Naruto, privately wondering how late Naruto had stayed up last night to perfect the bunshin no jutsu—up until the day before's lesson, the blonde child hadn't been able to pull off two decent bunshin, let alone three perfect ones that now stood before Naruto. For that, Iruka could forgive the smoke - Naruto had completed the objective after all.
"Congratulations, Naruto. You're now a gennin of Konoha," Iruka announced, and smiled as he held out a hitai-ate.
Better put on a performance for his last act as the dead-last student of the Academy.
"YES!" Naruto screamed in joy, grabbing his hitai-ate. He tied it around his head and bounced about in joy, as Mizuki-sensei glared angrily at him.
"Just scram already!" Mizuki-sensei snarled.
He looked absolutely pissed, a startling difference to the cheerful expression on his face when Naruto walked in to be tested. Naruto surmised that Mizuki was probably one of the large percentage of Konoha who hated him, though he had never found out why (he had his suspicions though). He had probably been expecting the blonde to fail. Naruto mentally stuck his tongue out at Mizuki while he skipped joyfully out of the room. It was rather strange that Naruto had only noticed the emotion just then though; Mizuki had to good at hiding emotions, this was the first time he showed his dislike.
He met the incredulous stares of the other students who had passed the gennin exams and actually did stick out his tongue this time. As Naruto took a seat among the graduates, he smirked.
These people wouldn't underestimate him in future. The idiot mask he had been wearing for so long was finally coming off.
XXX
A sudden burn near his chest jolted Naruto into an unwelcome wakefulness. Someone had broken into his apartment—his official apartment, in any case.
Being hated by most of the adult population, the apartment complex Naruto lived in was mostly empty except for a few people who lived several floors below him (and they ignored him). Also because he was hated, a few people occasionally went after him, and they always seemed to know where he lived—he was widely hated, and maybe his living information was general knowledge amongst adults. Realising that many people knew where he lived, Naruto claimed another apartment two levels down below his own as a sanctuary of sorts—no one, not even the Sandaime nor the ANBU that used to guard him when he was very young (they thought he couldn't see them, pssht) knew that he spent a lot of time in another apartment that he had discretely and unofficially claimed. He still used his designated apartment to sometimes eat, sleep and shower, but he wasn't there the majority of the time. The only reason he still used it at all was to make sure the Sandaime and the occasional guard he sent to check up on him didn't get suspicious about his lack of presence there during evenings and at night, as well as to avoid the pile up of dust that occurred when someone didn't use a place for a long time.
Around both his official and unofficial apartments Naruto had placed perimeter seals designed to warn him if someone broke in. The central seal connecting the areas being guarded to the person who wanted them guarded gave off a brief burning sensation, thereby warning them to any intruders.
Naruto however wasn't too worried about whoever had broken into his apartment. Usually they turned out to ninja sent to check on his well-being; sometimes Hokage-jiji let himself in for a visit. A few times some of the villagers who thoroughly loathed him broke into his official apartment, no doubt intent on hurting him, but the seal's warnings allowed Naruto to avoid the apartment when those occurrences happened. With some measure of calmness, Naruto slipped out of bed and crept down two levels to check on his official apartment.
Of course, alarm bells began ringing in his mind as soon as he found his official apartment's front door open, and the corridor utterly silent. No shuffling of feet or raised voices—not angry civilians or an inexplicably revenge-driven drunk mob. The shinobi that occasionally checked him would usually peek in through a window, not actually enter his apartment, and when they did, they closed the door like Hokage-jiji did during his visits.
Naruto hesitated, set his hands into a familiar hand seal, and vanished. Or more appropriately, any viewers would believe the space he filled was empty. One of his favourite jutsu, and the reason why even ANBU sometimes couldn't catch him when he chose to hide—chameleon no jutsu. With that done, Naruto silently crept into his own apartment.
With keen eyes he searched each room as he passed, though there weren't that many to search through. Foyer, living/dining room, bathroom, bedroom—Mizuki-sensei?
The white haired Academy instructor was in his bedroom, looking around with an expression of frustration on his face, tinged with a little bit of panic. A gigantic scroll was strapped across his back. Naruto wondered what the hell the chunnin instructor was doing here. Maybe…maybe he was sent by the Sandaime on one of those occasional check-ups Naruto received? Naruto cancelled his jutsu and called out to the teacher.
It was admittedly a stupid thing to do—revealing yourself to someone who had broken into your apartment. Not one of Naruto's brightest moments he had to admit, and after the whole incident Naruto would review his actions with utter mortification and shame, because though he knew he wasn't an idiot, that had to be the stupidest thing he had done while not pretending to be a foolish Academy student. In his defence, he had not expected his own Academy teacher to attack him, even with said teacher's inexplicable dislike of him—the Hokage's fondness for him was well known (though Naruto felt a bit guilty about the bad comments this drew).
Mizuki jerked in surprise and then charged towards him, fist shooting out for a punch to the stomach. Instinctively Naruto jerked back, and kawarimi'd with a pillow from his bed. This wasn't a friendly meeting, and Naruto was not about to clash his clumsy taijutsu with a chunnin. He flashed through the seals for his chameleon no jutsu and snuck up behind the chuunin. A slam of a kunai handle to the back of his head, and the Academy teacher was out like a light and sprawled on the floor.
Naruto glanced down at the prone, crumpled form, wondering why the hell Mizuki had waited so long after they met to attack him. Mizuki had had plenty of chances to try and attack the blonde, but it was only now…Naruto roughly shook the thought away. He checked to make sure the chuunin was truly out cold, tied him up, then took the gigantic scroll the man had been carrying off his back. Somewhat curious, Naruto opened the scroll, and began to read, eyes widening as he read further down the scroll.
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu? I can't even do regular bunshin…" Naruto groaned, but as he read, his groan petered out and a grin soon spread across his face. Solid clones? Awesome! And this required a lot of chakra—just what he had.
Naruto memorised the hand seals and the effects of the Kage Bunshin quickly, and rolled up the scroll again, placing it far away from the chunnin lying on the floor. Before he could begin practising the jutsu though, several chakra sources flickered outside his apartment window and door. Members of the ANBU walked in, their animal masks highlighted eerily by the moonlight pouring through the windows. They took one look at the scene, then turned their masked faces to Naruto, who jumped.
"I swear I didn't do anything!" he snapped reflexively. "Well, except knock Mizuki-teme out…"
"You can explain what happened to the Hokage," one ANBU stated flatly. Naruto was grabbed, and taken to the Hokage tower via several consecutive shunshins.
XXX
One long discussion (from which Naruto omitted his chameleon no jutsu or the fact he had a second apartment) with the Hokage later and Naruto had a completed B-rank mission under his belt for capturing a traitor—it turned out Mizuki had tried to steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals but been caught in the act, and only luck had let him escape outside the guarded chamber with it. He'd fled half-way across Konoha with the ANBU on his trail when he had the brilliant idea to kidnap Naruto and use him as a hostage to get out of Konoha successfully. He hadn't expected Naruto to be able to sneak up on him—hence his quick defeat at the blonde gennin's hands.
Naruto had also gotten permission to use the jutsu he had learnt from the Forbidden Scroll. Oh yes, this night had gone very well for him. There was one thing he didn't understand however…
"Why would Mizuki-teme try to kidnap me? Why not someone else, like Sasuke? He's an Uchiha and all, no one wants him dead."
The unspoken, "worth more to the village than me," was perfectly clear to everyone in the room.
The Sandaime stared at Naruto for several seconds with an unreadable expression. Then he let out a weary sigh.
"Naruto, I think it's time I told you the truth about some things. Twelve years ago…"
…
Huh. Kyuubi. Well, it explained the hideously complicated seal on his stomach that he'd been trying to decipher for the past two years.
XXX
Naruto walked into class the next morning. Without any orange on him.
The class paused. Gaped at him. Then shrugged and turned back to whatever they were doing before he walked in. He could read the thought in their eyes: a dobe was a dobe, clothes weren't going to change that.
Naruto took a seat beside Shikamaru, the brown haired boy half slumped on the desk. Chouji sat on his other side, eating chips again. The Akamichi was always eating something. With a friendly smile, Naruto greeted the both of them. Shikamaru replied with a mumble that might have constituted as 'hello' (though it might have been 'troublesome'), and Chouji replied by offering a chip.
Sakura and Ino arrived a few minutes after him, screaming about being Sasuke's girlfriend or something—Naruto tuned out as soon as the name 'Sasuke' escaped Sakura's lips. Honestly, how were they going to become competent kunoichi if they wasted their time mooning over the boy? He didn't remember his nee-chan being this…air-headed. Or air-headed at all, really.
Iruka came in soon after, instantly silencing the room with his Big-head no jutsu (Naruto could never figure out how the teacher did that). He lectured, admittedly quite inspiringly, on the trials and responsibilities of gennin for awhile—Naruto had already been told about this, years ago—and then began reading out team assignments. Team One, Team Two, Team Three…
"Team Seven: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke."
Sakura punched the air in victory. Sasuke scowled—though because he had a team, because he had a fangirl on his team, or because he had the dead-last on his team (might be all three), Naruto wasn't sure which. Naruto himself just twitched.
He had a fangirl and said fangirl's crush on his team. Fangirl mostly ignored Naruto, since he was ranked dead-last. Sasuke detested fangirl, more so than he did others because she was just that, a fangirl. Naruto preferred not to interact with either the fangirl or the Uchiha, the former because she was screechy and the latter…he had personal issues with.
This team was doomed to be dysfunctional from the very beginning.
"Team Seven's Jounin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."
XXX
Three hours after other students had been picked up by their jounin senseis, Sakura looked half-ready to kill something. There were only so many times she could ask Sasuke for a date, and be rejected quite coldly or plain ignored, before she became discouraged enough to temporarily give up. Temporarily.
Naruto saw the signs of boredom and anger in her—thankfully all directed at their tardy sensei—and steered clear of her.
Sasuke screamed irritation and disgust—though he had mastered his face, he had not completely mastered blanking his eyes, and he hadn't yet learnt to completely control his body language. To Naruto, who had been taught by an aspiring infiltration specialist, Sasuke was as easy to read as an uncoded scroll.
Naruto had kept himself occupied for an hour attempting to meditate, a concept he'd recently stumbled across. So far he hadn't managed to properly meditate yet; he just wasn't good at keeping still. After giving up (again, temporarily, he was a tenacious person as well) he had just opted to have a nap. An hour passed, and Naruto woke up and still no sensei in sight. Another hour spent refraining from fidgeting in his seat, and Naruto finally gave into the urge to do something.
He scavenged the classroom and found a chalkboard eraser, still very dusty. With a grin, Naruto pulled a chair over to the classroom door and place the eraser on top of the slightly ajar door, ready to fall on the unsuspecting head of the next person to walk through the door.
"Naruto!" Sakura snapped. Naruto waved a hand at her, predicting what she was about to say.
"Relax," he placated. "I'm not expecting this to work on a jounin anyway, but if it does work…at least you'll know how skilled the teacher is."
The door opened, and a head poked through the doorway. The eraser fell and liberally dusted the shock of white hair attached to the head with chalk dust.
"I'm sorry sensei! Sasuke-kun and I weren't a part of this though!" Sakura stammered. One corner of her lip kept twitching up—even if she was sorry, she was still angry enough to laugh at the man's misfortune.
Kakashi half-heartedly attempted to brush the chalk dust out of his hair, and then gave up. He put a hand under his covered chin (the three recently graduated students wondered what was up with the face mask) and stared at the trio.
"Hm. My first impression of you is…I hate you."
XXX
In its glory days the Uchiha compound had contained hundreds of Uchiha clansmen and women, both those born from the family and those who married into the family (though the latter had been a rare case—the Uchiha had been slightly xenophobic and only allowed enough new blood into the clan to prevent birth defects). Behind the tall walls and imposing heavy gate of the compound lay hundreds of houses, with the larger main Uchiha house positioned close to the front of the compound. Before the Massacre, small Uchiha families had lived in each house, had set up businesses in some of the buildings creating Uchiha-only businesses, and each building had been proudly engraved with a red and white uchiwa, the symbol of the Uchiha clan. Parks, training grounds, blacksmiths and armouries—the Uchiha were almost like an independent part of the village, related to Konoha but also able to sustain themselves. The compound had been crowded, busy, and full of life.
Now all that remained were hollow dusty buildings slowly falling into disrepair. The compound had been cleaned of the bloodbath the slayer of the Uchiha clan had left behind, and any personal Uchiha artefacts and private documents had been moved from other buildings into the main Uchiha house. That particular house was sealed by certain blood-seals performed by the Sandaime, only allowing the last loyal Uchiha and the Hokage himself (since he performed the seal) entrance. Of course, since the seal was tied to the creator, the blood-seal would fade if the Sandaime died, but neither shinobi nor civilians thought that would happen anytime soon—this was the Professor they were talking about after all.
That Sasuke did not live within the Uchiha compound was clearly obvious. Though the Sandaime had given Sasuke the means to visit the compound anytime he wanted, he refused to let the boy live there—it would just traumatise the boy further. Sasuke had not argued years ago when the Massacre was still recent. It was worthy to note though that even years after the event, he had not broached the subject of moving back into the compound. Something the Sandaime was relieved about—he was sure the move back would break the boy, but Sasuke would not have accepted it as a reason had he gotten it into his head to go back to living in the compound.
Therefore, the Uchiha compound was always deserted; a ghost town Konoha simultaneously mourned for and wished to forget, a similar reaction to when others contemplated the Konoha Military Police Force, previously made up mostly of Uchiha, now a non-existent organisation. People avoided the topic, just like they avoided both the compound and the police building.
If it had been Naruto's choice, he would have avoided the compound as well. However, his nee-chan's final home was here, and so here he snuck into regularly, hidden by his chameleon no jutsu. He was always careful to avoid the ANBU guards that sometimes made a circuit around the compound (they weren't that discreet in checking, since hardly anyone went near the compound anyway), and his chameleon no jutsu ensured that Hokage-jiji's spy glass ball thing (which he had learnt about from his nee-chan, though Naruto wasn't sure how she had gotten the information) couldn't see him, showing only the area where he should be. The Sandaime hadn't talked to him about that, though he sometimes caught the old man giving him strange looks. Hokage-jiji would have had to admit he was spying on Naruto first.
Straight after his meeting with his sensei—his future sensei, should he pass the lazy-looking man's test which he most definitely would—Naruto headed for his apartment. From there, under his chameleon no jutsu (he loved that jutsu, really) he snuck out of his apartment and proceeded to the Uchiha compound. Just to make sure no one followed him—he had been taught not to leave a direct trail if he was sneaking into somewhere he wasn't meant to be. He used this advice in his pranks too, though he downplayed his ability to cover his tracks to maintain his mask.
It wasn't the compound he wanted to visit. He had never been inside the compound before the massacre, had no official reason to go since he technically wasn't associated with any of the Uchiha. Technically.
No, what he came to visit was the Uchiha graveyard within the compound.
The Uchiha graveyard was a small plot of land with many headstones placed in even rows, all denoting the names of deceased Uchiha. The Uchiha had kept no bodies, since having clan bodies lying around was just asking for other villages to come in and steal a body for experimentation. All bodies were burnt, but their names were remembered on the ornate stones within the plot.
Near the front of the graveyard was a towering black stone, significantly larger and taller than the other stones. Names covered it from the top of the stone to about thirty centimetres from the foot of it, with ages written beside the names. There were hundreds of names, a mixture of men, women and children, varied between the ages of two to eighty, with even some brief mentions of unborn babies killed in the Massacre with their mother.
Like with all his other visits, Naruto sank to his knees by the stone, bowed his head and offered a simple prayer to the dead on the stone. That done, he looked up and pinpointed the name he wanted on the stone. He smiled slightly, all he was able to conjure up at the moment, and traced the name with gentle fingers.
Uchiha…Fuyumi…
'Hey nee-chan,' Naruto began quietly, as he always did. In his head of course, he didn't want anyone accidentally hearing him. 'How have you been? Sorry I haven't come to visit in awhile—it's been a month hasn't it? I've been really busy, though that isn't an excuse. I would have visited yesterday, but you always told me that a proper espionage-specialised shinobi should try and gather as much information about coming events as possible. So I waited until Iruka-sensei told us students which teams we were in, with who, and with which jounin-sensei. And you know what that means…I finally graduated!'
For the next hour or so, Naruto rambled on mentally about his life between the current visit and his previous visit, about how he had graduated the Academy—finally, about the new bunshin seal he created (as well as other seals) and the new ninjutsu he had learnt, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. He punctuated his mental babble with called up images, smiles and silent chuckles, knowing the last two were hidden by his jutsu.
The first time he had done this a few months after her death, Naruto had felt so stupid, talking in his head—he had felt slightly insane and more than a little stupid. After a few more times though, it became easier to talk mentally, almost comforting—it was like him talking to her at a level beyond skin and bones, like his soul reaching out to connect with hers wherever it was. Like having her always with him.
It was the only thing that consoled Naruto over her death.
Eventually his mind drifted to other thoughts besides chatting with his sister, and Naruto realised he had run out of things to mentally talk about. Standing, he brushed soil off his knees, ignoring the slight cramp from kneeling for so long, and brushed his fingers tenderly over her name again.
'I'll come back soon Fuyumi-nee-chan, and tell you more about Team 7 and the missions we'll have done by then. I'll definitely pass sensei's test tomorrow, I have to so I can get stronger…and if I ever meet HIM…!'
Naruto gnashed his teeth and tried not to even think of the name. Speaking to his nee-chan was meant to be calming, now was not the time to get pissed off. Taking a deep breath, he changed topics.
'…and I'll guard Sasuke's back if he lets me. I haven't really talked to him in the Academy though, I'm really sorry nee-chan. But he almost hurts to look at sometimes, he looks a little like you…though he acts like he has a stick up his ass all the time, you were a little like that but only when we first met...'
XXX
Dark obsidian eyes regarded the sniffing blonde child blankly.
"You're bleeding."
Wary blue eyes stared back from underneath a heavy fringe of wet, dirty blonde hair. Water dripped down from drooping locks, trickling down cheeks marked with six, strange scars—reminiscent of whiskers—down his jaw, to drip off his chin onto his collarbones and white, now see-through t-shirt. Underneath what small, worn black shorts covered, his knees slowly wept small beads of blood, though it was quickly washed away by rain. Little hands barely larger than leaves clutched at sharp, badly skinned elbows, where blood welled up much faster above the skin. Soaked from the pouring rain and hugging himself with how he clutched his arms, he looked like a defensive bedraggled cat.
"No I'm not," the boy denied, and attempted to wipe away the blood welling up on his arms, suppressing several sniffs during the process. He winced, but never took his eyes off the person in front of him.
Maybe it was the poor state the boy was in, pale skin and delicate bird bones and startlingly thin limbs. Maybe it was the fact he was alone in the rain, soaked through to the skin, with nobody around. Or maybe it was because of the way his eyes were both wary and at the same time, so pitifully, vulnerably hopeful. Hopeful this person wouldn't be like everyone else he had met in his life, because he was tired of trying to ignore the glares. He was tired of everyone keeping a metre distance around him, as if he were an incurable leper. He was tired of hearing whispers of the words 'demon' and 'monster' when people thought he wasn't listening (though sometimes they said it openly too). He was tired of running from the orphanage to other places in the village, only to receive the same scornful stares, snubbing, and-and—lots of dislike? (Later he would learn the emotion was called hatred.)
Whatever the reason, this person didn't stare at him with those eyes though. She did not have much of an expression at all, if any, and that unnerved him a little. This person looked old enough to be an Academy student, he could normally read them. Well, except for this black haired boy he walked past once, but he already had a one of those bandanna things around his head, already a ninja, and ninja were a lot harder to read than Academy students. Come to think of it, this person reminded him a little of that grown-up looking boy, with the hair and skin colour. Though, with long shiny black hair up in a loose bun, dark thickly lashed eyes and soft looking milky skin, all shaded under a red umbrella, the girl didn't look like a ninja. She looked more like a princess from those picture books he heard girls at the orphanage squeal excitedly about than a ninja to him. Was she a princess?
"No," the girl replied, and Naruto realised, with some embarrassment, that he had spoken aloud.
Just for a moment, her blank face melted, and something almost like a smile crept across her lips. Then it was gone, and he was left looking at that expressionless face again with astonishment and a vague sense of disappointment.
She was much better than a princess, Naruto decided dazedly. Her smile (or the almost smile) looked so much warmer than the smiling dolls the orphanage girls carried around everywhere. And she had smiled at him.
Him, the 'demon', the 'monster'. Nobody except for Jii-chan did that.
Suddenly, the girl's red umbrella was shoved in his hands. Blinking, he looked up at the brim of the umbrella he was now holding. He watched in bemusement as the girl stripped off her short-sleeved blue jacket, and blinked when she draped the piece of clothing over his shoulders. It took the some of the edge off the cold wind hitting against his soaked form.
"Go home," she told him. "And don't tell anyone who gave you these items."
Then she turned and walked away. Naruto watched her back until the heavy curtain of rain swallowed her completely from view. Blinking in confusion, he eyed the red brim above his head and tugged the jacket around him tighter. Then a small smile appeared across his face, and he hurried towards the orphanage in much lighter spirits.
He made sure to hide the umbrella and the jacket between the large roots of a tree at a corner of the orphanage back garden. For good measure he rolled a few large stones in front of the gaps between the roots, blocking the space. They weren't toys, but they were the first things he had been given from anyone other than jii-chan (though he liked the old man a lot) and he wasn't going to let the other bigger kids steal them just to make fun of him like they did when they stole some of the things the funny-clothed jii-chan gave him.
The girl (the not-princess?) hadn't told him whether he could keep them or not though. He didn't want to accidentally steal her things. He should probably find her the next day and give them back to her.
Brightening at the thought of meeting that strange but unusually nice girl again, he entered the orphanage grinning. It didn't fall, even as the orphanage matron scowled at him.
That was the first time Uzumaki Naruto met Uchiha Fuyumi.
Please review.