Chapter Three-
Hanada Michiko prided herself on being a sensible woman. She was an early riser and liked to read nonfiction books. She had been this way for almost ten years since that horrible incident. She had been a doctor for almost fifteen years now and had seen the most terrible injuries and was quite confident that she could handle anything. This, however, was before she started to take care of a one Yamaki Sasumi.
A standard procedure in Konoha's hospital was that each patient, no matter they're state, should be given a room only for themselves and a standard hospital garment to wear. If the patient was unconscious or unable to get this garment on, then the staff would do it for them. Michiko, being a sensible woman, was used to undressing patients and thought nothing of it. A fact that would haunt her for the rest of her career. After she had assessed that the girl had fainted of lack of food, she immediately assumed the girl was a victim of anorexia. But then as she was carrying her to her room, she started to notice a few things that she had not noticed before. For one, the only skin the girl showed was her face. Most twelve year old girls, no matter the occupation, wanted to show as much skin as was decent. These were the type of girls that cared about their weight.
When she got to the room she also realized that most anorexics wouldn't eat for a short intervals, then eat and then stop eating again, as where this girl had not eaten for almost a month straight. Shaking her head softly, she pulled out a hospital gown and began to undress the girl. As soon as she removed the gloves, she knew there was something wrong. The hand was bony, horribly bony, like a normal starved persons should be. It wasn't that that made her stop. It was what the girls skin looked like.
Tiny jagged scars covered the entire expanse of her hand. She automatically reached and pulled the bandage off her bony arm. Huge gashes and puncture wounds had been inflicted here, leaving grotesque scars. Some parts of her arm were black and looked like they had been burned with fire or some kind of acid Michiko didn't know. She looked down and saw that the rest of her limbs were also bandaged and her neck was completely covered. She had seen scars before, but nothing like this. These weren't just regular scars, or even child abuse, it looked like…like…
TortureMichiko realized that she was shaking. She mentally slapped herself.
"Get a grip on yourself, Hanada. You have a job to do."
She willed herself to pull the other bandages off revealing more scars, more burns. As she pulled off the girls shirt, she had to clap her hand to her mouth to avoid making any sound. Her entire chest was covered in tiny puncture holes and her stomach had huge gashes marks. It looked like she had been stuck with a hundred needles. Her legs looked like pieces had been cut out of them and her feet were almost totally black. Tears spilled out of her eyes and she quickly put the hospital gown on her and stumbled backward.
"Oh my God! Oh my God!"
She didn't know how long she stood there, shaking and crying, but she came to a conclusion. The girl's scars were old, she had no wounds that were inflicted on her in about the past three years. Had her parents done this to her? But why had they stopped? Abusing children or spouses was an addiction, she had once read in a book, parents rarely stopped. Then maybe she was an orphan. She wiped her eyes and picked up the list of orphans from an office downstairs. She remembered that the blond haired kid had referred to the girl as 'Sasumi,' and scanned the list for her. No 'Sasumi.'
So she was still living with her parents? Or maybe she had ran away? That would explain why she had almost starved to death and had no recent scars or wounds. Now the only thing that remained was to decide if she was going to tell her the rest of her Genin team or not. A normal doctor wouldn't have even thought of not telling them, but Michiko was not a normal doctor. She knew if she told them they would never think of this Sasumi the same way again. They would pity her. Just like all Michiko's friend's had pitied her. Right there she made a decision. She was pretty sure they did not know her scars or they would have said something. She would find the girl's parents and talk it out with them, there was no need to involve her friends. With that in mind she walked back to waiting room, but not before wrapping the girl's arms, legs, hands, and feet and bandages again.
After finding that the girl indeed had no parents, was a relief, for Michiko had no desire to go even a mile within the distance of the people, or person who had done this to her. But it left her wondering and Michiko hated not knowing anything. Four days after Yamaki Sasumi had been admitted to the hospital she finally awoke.
Michiko was just fixing the IV that was attached to her arm, when she noticed that the girl's bright green eyes were half open and staring at her blankly. As she made eye contact, the girl's eyes widened considerably.
"Wh…at'…s?" Her eyes took in the white room. "Whe…re?" she managed to cough out.
"You're in the hospital," Michiko told her, trying to sound professional, "You fainted after not eating for almost four consecutive weeks."
The girl looked down at her dilapidated body and then tensed. She slowly looked back at Michiko, her eyes wide.
"Wher…e…are my clothes?" she said, shaking slightly.
"It's standard hospital procedure for us to give you something more comfortable to wear during your stay here," said Michiko, inwardly wincing at how she sounded like a hotel clerk, "Listen, you-"
"Sasumi!"
Michiko whirled around to see the blond haired kid and his black haired teammate standing in the doorway. She inwardly cursed, she had planned on telling the girl that she hadn't told her teammates about her scars. She supposed the girl would have to figure it out by herself.
"Uzu…maki-san? Uchiha…-san?" To her horror, the girl attempted to pull herself up.
"Be careful!" she said, holding her decrepit body up and leaning it against the headboard of the bed, "You'll wear out your body even more."
Then she stopped as she took in what the girl had said. Uzumaki? Uchiha? She turned slowly toward her teammates, as the blond haired boy rushed toward her bedside. She noticed the strange whisker marks on his cheeks.
"So this is the holder of the Kyuubi," she thought.
Now being a sensible woman, as well as a doctor, Michiko refused to be afraid of this boy. She had met the Yondaime once or twice before he died, and had complete confidence in his skills. And, she supposed, the fact that the boy was so obviously worried about her patient helped a little. Her eyes moved to the Uchiha boy, who was a little less obvious that he was worried, but a small crease in his forehead didn't go unnoticed by the doctor. She had heard about the Uchiha massacre and that only the little brother of the perpetrator had been spared.
"What an odd team," she thought, "One had a demon inside of him, one is the only survivor of a massacre, and other is a victim of both torture and starvation."
She then realized that the Kyuubi boy was asking her a question.
"I'm sorry," she said, "Can you repeat that, please?"
"How long do you think it will take before Sasumi gets better?" he said.
"It's hard to say, probably a few weeks at the most." Adolescents were very adaptable, after all.
The blond turned back to the red haired girl, "Sasumi!" he half yelled, "Why didn't you tell us you didn't have enough money to eat?"
The girl looked at him in surprise, "What are you talk…ing about?" she coughed out
"You know exactly what I'm talking about, dammit! After you fainted Kakashi-sensei went to your landlord and found out a month ago that your rent went up and then he said you probably couldn't buy food and that's why you-"
The Uchiha cut him off, "Why didn't you tell us?" he asked angrily.
The girl avoided eye contact with both of them, "I'm sorry," she said, no emotion in her voice, "I didn't think it would interfere with the…mission."
Michiko raised her eyebrows, how would not eating not interfere with their missions?
The black haired boy stared at her, "What the hell is that supp-" but the Kyuubi holder cut him off.
"The mission! You think this about the mission?!" he yelled, causing other doctors in nearby rooms to stick there heads out the doors. Michiko closed the door.
The red haired girl looked slightly surprised as he continued, "Goddamnit, Sasumi! I couldn't care less about the stupid mission!"
The girl looked slightly confused, "Why are you angry, then?" she asked quietly.
"You idiot! We care about you, why else!? Are you insane? Do you really think-" The Uchiha clamped his hand around the shorter boy's mouth.
"Exactly," he said.
The girl looked away and then the black haired boy pulled his hand away from the Kyuubi holder in disgust.
"Naruto, what the hell was that, you moron!"
'Naruto' smirked as Michiko caught sight of a bite mark on the other boy's hand. Rolling her eyes she shuffled them out of the room and told them they could come back tomorrow. After they left, she closed the door and resumed fixing the IV on her arm. She felt the girl's stare, but ignored it waiting for her question.
"What do you want?" she asked tonelessly, "You saw them, didn't you."
It was not a question.
"Yes," Michiko said softly, "I did."
The girl closed her eyes, "Why didn't you tell them?"
"I wanted to ask you where you got them first. It doesn't have to do with them, does it?"
The girl opened her eyes and stared at her in a way that almost made her feel uncomfortable.
"No," she said, "It doesn't."
Michiko straightened and pulled up a chair, "They're from torture, aren't they."
The girl froze and then nodded, but didn't say anything.
"Who did this to you?" Michiko asked, trying not to let the girl feel pressured.
"I…they…" she swallowed, "I have a Kekkai Genkai."
Michiko raised her eyebrows in surprise, Kekkai Genkai were very rare, only one clan in Konoha had managed to retain theirs.
"I didn't grow up in the Leaf County and…where I grew up, Kekkai Genkai…people didn't like them, but I," her voice grew stronger, "I ran away almost three years ago and I…that's all there is to it."
The girl looked straight into her eyes, "I don't want them to find out, because they'll pity me and they might even hate me and I," she paused, "don't want that."
Michiko's eyes widened a fraction, this 'Sasumi' knew exactly how Michiko felt when all her friends had found out about…that incident.
"Please," the girl whispered, "Don't tell them."
"Alright." she said," I won't."
Weeks went by and Sasumi slowly got better. Her limbs ceased to be skin stretched over bone and she no longer looked as pale as she did when she entered the hospital. Naruto and Sasuke visited everyday and often stayed for hours. The fact that she had nearly starved to death was hardly mentioned and when it was, Naruto and Sasuke were very careful about it. Kakashi came once to tell her that she would now be receiving money from the village. Five weeks after Sasumi fainted, she was released and began to go on missions once again. She had a lot of training to do though. Before Sasumi began receiving money for the village, she would spend Mondays, if she didn't have a mission, training and working on jutsus. Monday was the only day that the restaurant wasn't open, so it was a perfect opportunity for her to train. Sometimes she would go to one of the old training grounds that were almost completely forgotten to train. Other days she would specifically find certain Jounin, such as Maito Gai or the Hokage himself and read parts of their memories to find certain jutsus and how they mastered them. Now that she no longer had to work at the restaurant, all her free time was devoted to training. She would go to the library and read up on special techniques, or spend her time throwing punches and kicks at punching posts that she was forced to make herself as every time she threw a half way decent punch, they would shatter into bits. The combination of all these was making Sasumi a very powerful ninja indeed.
She still went to the tree every night as did her teammates. Though sometimes one or both of them didn't show up, Sasumi still felt at peace there.
Ever since the mission to the Wave Country that really should have been given to Chuunins, the Hokage had completely ignored all Naruto's petitions for more 'interesting' missions, which left them still doing completely pointless missions such as walking someone's dog or carrying their groceries. Some, however, were quite amusing, such as the time they had to deliver a package from a store to and invalid living in an apartment. The invalid, an old women, had dragged them inside for tea and would not stop commenting on how 'cute' Sasuke was, to his horror. After they finally left, Naruto had almost fallen down the stairs laughing and Kakashi hadn't stopped making comments about the particular mission for nearly a week. Another one involved a middle-aged man who kept glaring at Naruto, to Sasumi's fury. Naruto was apparently annoyed as well, because during the mission, doing the man's laundry, he 'accidentally' bleached all the man's clothes bright pink. How he managed to do this, Sasumi did not know, but was very pleased when Kakashi refused to punish him, to the man's astonishment. The man wasn't the only person that discriminated against Naruto. Some people absolutely refused to have him near, to Sasuke's apparent confusion. After this happened for the fifth time, Sasuke said something very rude to the customer, which got them thrown out. Sasumi thought it was well worth it, as did Naruto. The appreciation was nearly oozing out of him as they walked back.
It was just the beginning of spring when it happened. It was before a mission, where they were all to meet in the main square of the village. It was about 10:00 am and there were people everywhere. Sasumi spotted Naruto's blond hair and he waved over to her.
"Hey, Sasumi!" he called, and then turned around and yelled, "Hurry up, bastard. Sasumi's already here!"
Sasumi saw Sasuke walk up behind Naruto and they exchanged, presumably insults, that she couldn't hear.
A boy of about three ran straight into Naruto, bowling them both over. She walked closer to see if they were okay.
"Aww man," she heard Naruto groan, "Watch where you're going." He pulled the boy to his feet and brushed him off, "Are you okay?" he asked him. The boy burst into tears and wailed. Naruto looked confused and was about to say something when a woman, probably his mother's voice was heard.
"Get away from him, you monster!" she yelled and slapped him straight across the face.
Even before Sasuke understood what the woman was saying, he knew there was something wrong. When she slapped him, Naruto tumbled to the ground. He looked up slightly, anger stamped on his features. But when she called him a monster his expression changed. His face went completely blank and he looked down again. Suddenly, Sasuke felt very angry, he took a step toward the woman, not completely sure of what he was doing, but Sasumi got there first. He blinked and suddenly she was there, standing right in front to Naruto. She slapped the woman right back across the face. The woman let out a shriek and the people around them began to mutter and point, looking uneasy. But Sasuke realized none of this, his eyes were trained on Sasumi. Her expression was a emotionless as ever, but her eyes were a different story all together. Was it just his imagination or were they darker than before? Her eyes were narrowed slightly and with them she looked like she was trying to burn the woman before her alive. Once the woman recovered from her shock she looked like she was going to yell at Sasumi, but stopped at the look on her face. After a few seconds the woman grabbed her crying children and stormed off through the muttering crowd. Naruto stared after her and then at Sasumi. Sasumi's eyes were back to normal and she grabbed Naruto's arm and pulled him up. He stumbled to his feet still staring at Sasumi. The crowd was still muttering and Sasuke caught a few of there words.
"…thrown out of here, that little monster…"
"…does he think he is? What is the Sandaime think…"
"Let's get out of here before he goes berserk. Why is he…"
"Monster."
"…be killed, he shouldn't be…"
"…should just die…"
"won't he leave us alone?"
"shouldn't be here…not normal."
"…freak…"
"…monster…"
"That demon…"
Monster Demon FreakSasuke glared at them until they dispersed, but still keeping a far distance away from Naruto.
He had always been confused at the villagers blatant hatred of his teammate. At first, he thought it was because Naruto was loud and annoying and that he had probably pulled pranks on them. But even before he became a Genin, he noticed that their hatred ran far deeper than pranks or how Naruto acted. When he became a Genin his suspicions were confirmed as he spent more time around him. The villagers just seemed to hate him no mater what he did.
Now was just one of the many examples of times when Naruto had done nothing wrong, but they still found something to hate about him. And what was up with the 'monster' thing. Even if he had pranked a few of them, there was only so much you could hate him for it, right?
He had once asked Naruto why everyone seemed to hate him, but he had laughed nervously and asked what he was talking about. The only conclusion that made sense to Sasuke was that it seemed that the entire village knew something about Naruto that he didn't. But he couldn't think of anything Naruto could have done to deserve the hatred of practically the whole village.
And then there was how they looked at him, like he was some sort of disgusting creature that should be killed. But he had also noticed that there was not only the obvious hatred of him, but also fear. At first Sasuke denied what he saw, thinking that they had no possible reason to fear Naruto, hate him was one thing, but to be afraid of? It was almost laughable.
But within the last year he found that with every person who looked at the blond in hatred also looked at him in fear. He was confused, now and then, what did they fear about Naruto?
When Kakashi arrived, he immediately noticed that the people seemed slightly perturbed and were muttering in a way that Kakashi always associated with the fact that something bad could have happened. He noticed that Sasuke was glaring at them and that Naruto was kicking imaginary dirt and looked neither left nor right until they left the square. He decided not to ask and led them to a more secluded spot.
"We were originally going to have a mission today," he told them, "but there's been a change in plans."
Naruto looked up at him in surprise and Kakashi couldn't help wonder why he was looking so glum.
"The Chuunin exam is coming up and I have decided that I am going to enter you as a team."
They stared at him blankly and Kakashi was beginning to feel slightly annoyed.
"Alright, what happened?" he asked, "You're quieter than usual today. What happened in the square?"
Naruto shrugged, "Nothing, Kakashi-sensei. We're just tired, because you keep making us get up so early," he said, grinning slightly, though it seemed to Kakashi that he was just faking it. He decided that he probably wasn't going to get anything out of him and dropped the subject.
"Do you even know what the Chuunin exam is?" he asked them.
Sasuke and Sasumi both nodded and Naruto said, "It's…uh…a test?"
Kakashi ignored the urge to roll his eyes and began to explain the basic parts of the exam. When he was done, he looked to his other students who were both, who were both staring off into space.
"Well," he said, breaking the awkward silence, "You all get some rest, because tomorrow is going to be a long day."
He watched them walk off and he shook his head in defeat. What a weird team.
Naruto stared listlessly as people passed him and his teammates on both sides. He felt strange, like he was empty, because right now he didn't really know what to feel. He had been slapped before. It wasn't really a big deal. But they had made it a big deal. Sasumi had stood in front of him and if that wasn't enough she had hit the woman right back. And by the sound of her slap, she had hit that woman hard. And the fact that Sasuke was glaring at all the people that were staring didn't go unnoticed by him. It was a good feeling he supposed, but he was just so confused and just needed to think it over.
"Oi, Sasumi," came Sasuke's voice, "Did you eat breakfast?"
It had become standard procedure for them to ask every morning if Sasumi had eaten anything yet. Ever since she fainted, they had made a silent agreement that if Sasumi couldn't take care of herself then they were going to for her. At first Sasumi had seemed sort of surprised that they actually cared, but slowly she became used to it. He looked up to see Sasuke shaking his head slightly. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"Sorry," came Sasumi's calm voice, "I forgot."
"Well," said Sasuke, "We'll just have to fix that. C'mon, moron, we're going out for ramen."
As he was dragged away to his favorite restaurant Naruto got the feeling he was missing something.
A/N: Next chapter: Chuunin Exam! And you get to meet our favorite psycho-killer Sand-nin! I'm sure you just can't wait. But, unfortunately you have to, 'cause surprisingly, I have a life outside of writing fanfiction (it's amazing, I know,) so review. Now. Or I'll be forced to do something drastic.