I'm not going to come up with some stupid excuse about my computer breaking down or needing to go to the hospital (I apologize to anyone who actually is telling the truth) but I have a busy life and I haven't been bothered to continue to write in the past few months. this chap I actually wrote down only a couple of weeks after my last update but i hadn't been bothered to type it up. so from now on I'm going to be writing directly on the computer, which may cause lower quality of writing (spelling and grammar isn't a problem though). Also the plot should be moving faster soon.
"It's the Demon!"
Naruto quickly spun on his heels, hoping that whoever had yelled out wasn't directing the call to him, but knowing that it was.
Naruto had spun his head into an oncoming fist, amplifying the damage. He grabbed his now bleeding nose as he fell to the ground. Before Naruto could do anything to protect himself, he felt the man's boot crush his chest forcing the air from his chest.
Naruto gasped to fill his lungs and pulled his knees into his chest to protect himself from the pain as much as he could. He held on to his legs waiting for the pain to come, just as it always did.
Naruto waited and waited, unwilling to lift his head to head to satisfy his curiosity of why the man hadn't begun to hit him. He felt something soft touch his shoulder and flinched away from it, holding himself even tighter.
Naruto tried to make himself as small as possible, just as he had done all his life to protect himself.
"Little boy, are you alright." Naruto heard a woman's soft voice ask. She spoke in a tone which no one had ever expressed towards Naruto.
He had heard it before when he had been observing the children his age play. One had hurt themselves on the playground equipment and the child's mother had used the tone while asking if her child was alright.
Naruto had been confused by the actions of both mother and child, he didn't know why the woman was speaking the way she was or why the child was crying from such an insignificant and painless cut.
As Naruto continued to watch he noticed that the boy wasn't healing and it must have been expected as his mother didn't seem shocked or surprised, which Naruto couldn't say the same for, this was the first time he had seen anyone else get even slightly injured so maybe it was just that he was weird, maybe he was the demon he had always been called.
But Naruto knew better than that now and as the woman used that tone that he still didn't understand, yet he craved to hear.
"I'm not going to hurt you."
Naruto knew he shouldn't trust the woman, as the man who had just hit him was proof that the world outside the village wasn't going to treat him any better, but against his better logic Naruto couldn't prevent himself from craving for someone to talk to him in that tone.
Naruto slowly raised his head from behind his arms and knees to look at the woman who had been speaking.
She seemed to be in her late 20's; she had both brown hair and eyes, she wore blue jeans and a red jacket covering a white tank top.
When the woman saw the boy's broken nose she instinctively reached out to see how bad it was.
When the woman moved her hand towards Naruto he flinched and backed away from her, wincing as he felt pain in his chest. Naruto saw that the woman retracted her arm upon seeing his reaction.
She gave him a sad smile, and told Naruto "Don't worry, I want to help you."
Naruto wanted to believe her. He wanted nothing more than to have someone who cared for him. Someone he could trust. Someone who wouldn't betray him.
Naruto gave a slight nod to the woman, still unable to resist her tone. He watched her closely, scrutinising her movements as she moved her hand to her pocket. She brought out a handkerchief and slowly brought it to his face to clear the blood, she was relieved to see that his nose wasn't broken.
The woman directed Naruto's hand to hold the handkerchief under his nose. "Hold that there. In a few minutes the bleeding should stop."
Naruto did as he was told and she pulled her arm away.
"So kid, what's your name?" she asked trying to get him to talk.
After a few moments of indecision, he replied softly "Naruto."
"Well it's nice to meet you Naruto. I'm Mari." She introduced herself, giving off a welcoming smile.
Naruto opted to remain silent and Mari's smile weltered as she realised he didn't share her enthusiasm and was still watching her sceptically.
"Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?" Mari asked.
Naruto didn't respond, instead he winced and covered his chest with an arm, as if her words had reminded him of the pain. His actions were the only answer she needed before reaching out to feel his chest, doing this she was oblivious to the look of confusion Naruto had as stared at nothing.
As Mari touched the child flinch away again, but it wasn't like the last time when he was scared of her touch nor was he flinching from pain. Mari thought it seemed habitual and he was doing it involuntarily.
Mari felt the boy's chest and guessed that the bastard had broken one of Naruto's ribs when he kicked him. She was sure he would be behind bars by now, as many people had seen the event play out including the sheriff and herself.
The man had called the child a demon. Naruto had stopped walking and turned around as if he knew it was him being called. Mari had seen Naruto's face just before he had been hit; it had the look of pure dread, like his worst nightmare was becoming a reality.
After Naruto had been knocked to the ground and hit a few times, in her rage Mari had knocked the man away from the boy making him stumble and lose his footing without even realising she had moved. Some people including the sheriff ran in and dragged the man away.
Mari had then approached Naruto to see if the boy was hurt. He had been huddled into himself, preparing for more of the onslaught; which it looked like he expected to come
Snapping out of her thoughts, Mari looked around and realised that Naruto had been wondering the streets alone.
Mari turned to Naruto and asked "where are your parents? Did you wonder off?"
He averted his eyes from Mari and sadly replied "I don't have any."
Mari hesitated before continuing, "well is there anyone to look after you?"
The boy just shook his head. Mari felt sympathetic for him but also curios about his past, she didn't push it though as she knew that Naruto probably didn't want to talk about whatever happened to him in his past.
Now that she knew that the boy was alone she couldn't leave him by himself. "How about you come with us? Mari asked.
"Huh?" Naruto responded with confusion as he furrowed his eyebrows.
Mari elaborated, "Why don't you come with Mirai and I? After you have recovered we will hit the road and you can travel with us." Mari's excitement at the prospect had leaked into her words. She would love to have another companion to accompany her and it seemed the kid had nowhere else to go anyway.
Naruto stared at her like she was crazy. "Are you serious? You don't even know me!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Well, we're just going to have to fix that, aren't we?" Mari replied, grinning.
"Do you think you can walk?" Mari asked after a moment of silence.
Naruto gave a small nod in reply before rising to his feet, hiding the pain he felt doing so.
Naruto was worried; normally the pain would have disappeared by now as the injury healed. This was bad and Naruto knew it. If it wasn't for his advanced healing factor he would have been killed a thousand times over.
This woman, Mari, seemed to want to protect him; something that no one else had done for him before. Then again nobody had ever wanted to do anything for him besides trick, torture and kill him; but that is irrelevant.
Naruto decided he would follow Mari, if he stayed by her side he might be able to live his life without pain and anguish. He just hoped the trust he placed in her wasn't for naught.
Naruto was led by Mari through the town as she excitedly described someone named Mirai to him. Naruto couldn't understand a word she was saying though as Mari was speaking too fast and rambling.
Before Naruto knew it, they were barging through the door of a motel room.
"Mirai, I'm back. Come here, I want you to meet someone." Mari called out beside him
Naruto saw the head of a pre-pubescent teenage girl pop up from behind the couch where she had been laying.
"What? You brought someone here?" the girl asked.
Not waiting for an answer she looked to Mari's side where Naruto stood. Mirai visibly brightened when she saw him. She leapt over the couch only to trip when she got a better look at his face. Mirai's excitement shattered, demeanour seemed to switch polarities from delight to depressed.
Mirai stayed frozen for a moment before running to one of the rooms and slamming the door.
Naruto was confused. He didn't have a clue as to what had just happened. Turning to Mari, he noticed she was staring at the door Mirai had run through. Seeing that she was deep in thought, Naruto didn't disturb her.
Naruto stood by the door, unsure what he was supposed to do. Fortunately for him, Mari snapped out of her thoughts quickly. "Naruto, you would be about seven or eight years old, wouldn't you?" she asked
"Yes, seven. Why?" Naruto replied
Mari sighed, "I'm sorry, I can't tell you. Mirai has to decide whether to tell you this herself." She said solemnly.
Although curious as to what would cause a reaction like the one he saw, he decided to let it go for now.
Mari then addressed Naruto. "Why don't you take a bath. You look like you haven't had one in years!"
"A bath?" he asked confused.
Mari looked amused "yeah. You know, one of those big tubs with water inside that you use to wash yourself." She said, teasing Naruto.
"I know what it is, It's just that I have never used one before." Naruto replied softly.
Mari was shocked, how could he not have had a bath before. She now doubted her previous assumption that Naruto's parents had just died and left him on his own, if that had been the case he would have used a bath before. Mari knew she now needed to ask him later, but now she needed to help him to become clean.
"Who would have known you were actually blonde under all that dirt and grime?" Mari exclaimed as both she and Naruto walked out of the bathroom. Naruto was wearing a bathrobe they had found in the wardrobe of the motel.
Mari had thrown his rags of clothing away and promised to get some new clothes for him as the robe he was wearing hung off his small and skinny frame like a blanket.
"You know, I actually thought you were a brunet." Mari continued, laughing.
Naruto sat down on the couch, wincing once again from the pain in his chest. Noticing his reaction, Mari declared, "Tomorrow, I am going to take you to see a doctor."
She then moved to the front door and called over her shoulder "I'm going out to get some things." before closing the door behind her.
Now that she was gone Naruto was left to wonder why his body wasn't healing as quick as usual. He hadn't told Mari about this or anything else from his life, as he was fearful of how she would react. He didn't want anyone else to start hating him, especially now that someone had actually shown him kindness.
Naruto tried to think of what would cause his accelerated healing to stop functioning. He thought back to the last time his healing had taken affect when he had been attacked in front of the stationary store.
He realised that was the same time that the Hokage and ninja said his seal had been damaged. Could his healing be a side effect of him being a jinchuriki? If so, that would mean something bad had happened to the seal. He did not know what was wrong with it, as the seal was well out of his league.
He never had been able to expand his knowledge of fuuinjutsu from what he had read in the books of his library. He could not experiment with seals as he didn't have a good enough understanding of chakra to use anything but the most basic seals. He knew how seals worked, he just couldn't perform them, and if he could he would have been able to protect himself.
Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts when the door to the room Mirai was in opened and said girl came out. She walked over to the couch and sat next to Naruto.
"I'm sorry about before." Mirai apologised keeping her eyes away from Naruto.
She turned to look at Naruto. "I'm Mirai by the way." She stated
Naruto figured she also wanted his name. "I'm Naruto."
Mirai then looked away from Naruto again. "Naruto, I'm sorry. When I saw you earlier I...I thought you were someone else. I thought you were my younger brother and I was so happy that he was back... so happy he was alive again that when I realised he wasn't, I just couldn't help but feel so betrayed. I realise my actions were rude and I am sorry."
Naruto felt weird, this was the first time someone had apologised to him and it was over something so small. "It's alright, no big deal. I'm sorry for your brother."
Mirai just nodded and they both fell into silence together.
Please review, Motivation is key for new chapters:)