Invisible
By I.K.A. Valian
Disclaimer: I claim no right of ownership to the copyrighted material contained herein.
Chapter One: Echoes in the Dark
Naruto beat his way through the underbrush of the wooded area just outside the gates of Konohagakure with a large stick. His lips were pushed together into a pout and his eyes were overshadowed by his knit brow as he huffed and puffed and beat those bushes down. If he'd seen anyone around, he would have been quick to smile and be nice. There could be a chance they'd be the one person who'd see him as a real person instead of some kind of monster. But seeing as he was alone, he felt no need to hide his true feelings.
He was angry. "I hate it!" he shouted as he beat another bush several more times, shouting "Hate!" every time his stick fell upon the poor, abused bush. "I hate being ignored! I hate being alone! I hate the Academy! I hate being me!"
With one final whack, the bush slumped onto its side, thoroughly defeated. Naruto screamed into the air and threw the stick into the forest as hard as he could. Huffing heavily from the exertion, Naruto started forward again. He didn't have any destination in mind, rather, he wanted to just walk until the overwhelming burden of his emotions ebbed enough for him to face the streets of Konoha again.
Without really paying attention to where he was going, Naruto suddenly stumbled on a rock. He looked down to make sure he wasn't going to run into anything else and when he looked back up again, he wasn't in the forest anymore, but a clearing. One that he hadn't seen before stumbling.
"What the…" Naruto took two steps back and suddenly the dense forest was back in front of him again. "That… That's so cool!"
The next fifteen minutes were spent hopping back and forth through the illusory wall. All thoughts of his anger were lost in the joy of his activity. Laughing loudly, Naruto moved into the clearing and fell onto his back, breathing hard.
"Dattebayo! I found a secret spot," he said, still laughing as his body calmed down. "If no one can see this spot, then I bet I could run here whenever I want to be alone and no one would be able to find me." Naruto chuckled conspiratorially to himself and stood.
Once more full of energy, Naruto began to run around the clearing, checking out every nook and cranny he could find. He did five circles around the clearing until he came to a stop and stared curiously at the crumbled remains of a building at the center.
"It looks like something stepped on it," he said. "But what could be big enough to step on a building this big?"
Carefully entering the ruins, Naruto began to inspect the moss covered rocks that used to be walls and the moldy floorboards. As carefully as he could, he moved further into the ruins, making sure to check out the floor with a light foot to make sure it wouldn't collapse if he put his full weight down. The whole thing was creaking wherever he walked, the last thing he wanted was to fall into some dark hole or well or something.
At that very moment, a piece of the ceiling, rotting away for going on six years, gave up the fight to hold onto the rest of the roof and tumbled end over end downward. Straight below was young Naruto's head. Just as the bock of wood was about to collide with the blond's head, he took another step forward. The floorboards creaked loudly as Naruto moved to another spot, and then groaned loudly until it snapped when the heavy block of wood smashed into it.
Naruto's eyes widened as he hopped into the air. That loud smash had scared him. The sound of the floor falling away from beneath him didn't even register until he was being swallowed into the darkness below the ruins.
The fall didn't last long. He fell for maybe all of five seconds before he crashed into a much harder, rocky floor. Naruto landed on his side, his right arm pinned under him as more floor boards from above rained down on top of him. Eventually the faining splinters of rotting wood slowed to a halt.
"Naruto…"
"Wh-what?!" Naruto pushed himself up to his feet, the pain in his arm quickly forgotten. "Wh-who's there?! It b-better not b-be a g-ghost! I'm a s-s-scary ninja! Run aw-way while you c-can!"
"Naruto, we don't have a lot of time. But we wanted to leave you a message before we died."
A shiver went from the soles of Naruto's feet to the top of his head. His body froze as he continued to listen to the ghosts voice.
'Maybe if I stay absolutely still,' he thought, 'it won't see me.' The desire to run away and the desire to survived warred within him and neither side won, freezing his feet to the spot.
"I know that this may be hard for you to hear, Naruto," the deep and ragged voice said, "but I'm afraid that you must."
Naruto swallowed loudly. 'This is it,' he thought. 'The ghost is going to find me and drag me to the underworlds. I don't want to die!'
"Naruto, the first thing you should know is that your father and mother love you. Very much."
Naruto unclenched his eyes and stared into the darkness. 'My father and mother?' The voice continued.
"Dattebane… We know we don't have a lot of time left, so that is why we are recording this message," said a female voice. "So that one day, you will find it."
"Mommy?" Naruto said. His voice echoed into the darkness.
"It's also important," said the man again, "that you know we will always be proud of you. We will always love you. We will always be thinking of you."
"We're sorry we can't stay with you," his mother said, "but the damn fox has made that impossible. Dattebane!" There was a short huff of anger and then his mother's voice continued, much softer. "We're just happy that you could survive, even if we could not."
"Mommy! Daddy!" Naruto shouted. He took a step forward into the darkness and tripped over the fallen floorboards littering the area.
"Naruto," his father said, "there's not much time left, and I-
"We!" his mother interrupted.
"Ah, yes, we. We both want you to grow up to be a strong, kind ninja. We want you to have a good life. We want you to get married, have lots of children, and grandchildren. In all that you do, Naruto, our son, know that we love you, we believe in you, and we will always be with you."
His father's voice echoed into silence in the dark subterranean chamber. Naruto sobbed from his prone position on the floor and clenched his fists and he pushed himself into a sitting position so he could hug his knees in front of him.
"Mommy," he sobbed. "Daddy."
'They love me,' he thought. 'Someone loves me. My mommy and daddy love me. They never even met me and they love me. And they believe in me.'
That thought lit a fire deep within his heart. His tears slowed to a stop as the warm feeling in the center of his chest grew larger and larger. Like a match in a sun-dried field of grass, that flickering flame engulfed Naruto's entire being until he couldn't stand to sit still.
He jumped to his feet in the darkened room and shouted, "I'll do it!" He punched his fist forward and added, "I'll become the greatest ninja ever! Dattebayo! I'll do it because Mom and Dad believe in me! Thank you! Mom… Dad…"
Naruto stood in the dark room for several moments, glaring at the darkness and daring it to tell him he couldn't. Then he turned around and scratched the back of his head. "But how do I get out of here?"
Naruto knelt down and began feeling around on the ground with his hands. After clearing away a lot of the rotten wooden planks from the floor, his hand hit something hard and cold that made a metal scraping sound on the stone floor. Reaching out, Naruto grasped the small metal object and lifted it up in front of his face.
"If only there was some light down here, then I could see what I'm holding," he said, mostly to himself, as he tried to see through the darkness. He felt along the edges of the metal thing and discovered three prongs and a cloth wrapped handle. "It feels like a kunai, but not like one I've ever seen."
Shrugging, Naruto gripped the handle of the strangely shaped kunai and began his search again. As he moved about, he struck his new kunai against the stone floor accidentally. The contact between steel and rock caused sparks to fly. Then, as if by magic, Naruto was back in the clearing above, just in front of the broken down building.
"What?" he asked. "How did I get here?"
Naruto checked around where he was standing, but found nothing. Then he crept up to the hole now in the rotting floor of the building, but he still couldn't see anything in the darkness. Having found nothing to explain how he'd miraculously teleported, Naruto made his way back to the spot he'd entered this hidden clearing from.
"I'll come back here to do secret training," he said excitedly. "But first I got to become a ninja. That means I got to get into the Academy. But those stupid teachers won't let me in and the classes have already started." Crossing his arms, Naruto tilted his head to the side as he thought. "I can just ask Gramps to let me in. He is the Hokage. No one can tell him no."
His mind made up, Naruto turned and exited the clearing and began making his way back to the village. He tore through the forest and out onto the road. He bolted through the doors before the guards could do anything but shout at him. Up the main thoroughfare he went, ignoring all the sneers, jeers, and snarls sent his way by the people who saw him. He ran straight up to the Hokage's Tower, charging forward as if there was a heard of Rhinoceroses chasing him. He had a mission to do and he was going to do it.
Unfortunately, before he took two steps into the tower, one of the ninja guarding the door, a man wearing a chunin vest, reached out and grabbed onto the back of Naruto's jumpsuit. With half a snarl, the man tossed Naruto back out the door where he landed on his butt. Scowling and trying not to let tears fall, Naruto looked up into the eyes of the Chunin and saw the same thing he always saw when people looked at him. Well, everyone except for Gramps and those really nice ramen people.
"Get lost, brat," the chunin said. "Hokage-sama doesn't want to see the likes of you."
Instead of shouting at the man and raising a ruckus, like he had done the last time, Naruto stuck his tongue out and made a funny looking hand seal with his middle finger that he'd seen a jounin use to make another jounin angry. He thought maybe it was a genjutsu of some kind that makes your opponent stupid-angry. The chunin's face screwed up as he attempted and failed to reign in his anger. With an angry shout, the chunin gave chase to the fleeing Naruto who was still flipping him off as he ran.
Naruto, of course, vanished mid chase and left the chunin wondering where he'd gone. For the next half hour, the man continue to search with no luck whatsoever finding the boy. Naruto was already half way up the Hokage's tower before the chunin even got back to report on where he'd disappeared to during his shift.
"Dattebayo! Easy as ramen," Naruto shouted with a victorious grin on his face and a fist pump. "Now to get Gramps to tell those mean people at the Academy to let me in."
As Naruto approached the large wooden door of the Hokage's office, he slowed down. This was usually where those super ANBU guys showed up and stopped him from going in. But for some reason, they hadn't appeared yet. With a shrug and another wary glance, Naruto walked up to the wooden door and gave it a push.
The door let off a loud hiss, as if an airtight seal had been broken, and then gave wooden groans as it swung open. Before anyone inside could say anything, Naruto marched right up to the Hokage, and loudly announced, "Gramps! I want to be a ninja! Let me in the Academy! Dattebayo!"
The occupants of the room were silent and stone faced as they looked down upon the blond haired hellion that had just entered into the supposedly secret and sealed meeting they were having. Naruto looked back and forth between the Hokage and his guests. There was the creepy old dude with his arm in a sling who was staring at him. The old hag who looked like she'd just eaten a bunch of lemons and wanted to spit the juice all over him. Another old man, less creepy, who looked like he wanted to start shouting at him. And finally there was the ANBU guy with black hair that had a mask on.
The Hokage sighed and laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto," the old man said. "Now isn't the greates-where did you get that?"
The Hokage pointed down at the three pronged kunai still in Naruto's hand. Naruto lifted the kunai up and shrugged. "I got it from where Mom and Dad were. They said I should be a strong ninja, so are you going to get me into the Academy or not?"
At the mention of 'Mom' and 'Dad' the room fell deathly silent. Naruto watched the old people's mouths open and close a few times.
'That's strange,' Naruto thought, 'never seen anyone do that before. Usually it's all, 'shut up' or 'get out of here you demon brat' or even 'go back to hell'. Something like that. I've never seen anyone make a fish mouth at me before. I wonder if they're talking in the fish language so I can't hear what they're saying.'
"Naruto," the old woman said, "your parents are dead. They can't talk to you."
"I know that, old hag," Naruto said matter-of-factly. "I heard their voices and they told me they love me and want me to grow up big and strong and have babies. Not sure why they want me to have babies, but whatever. I'll do the ninja thing first." Naruto turned back to the Hokage who was staring at him with a calculating look. "So Gramps," Naruto said, oblivious to the looks he was still getting, "can you get me into the Academy. The teachers said I couldn't because I was too old, even though I told them I wasn't. Can you even be too old to get in? I think they were lying just so I'd go away."
"Old hag?" the old woman muttered quietly to herself.
"Yes, Naruto," the Hokage said. He let out a deep sigh and failed to repress a dark brooding from overtaking his face.
Elsewhere…
Mizuki was walking down the hallway of the academy with a pompous step and a smirk on his face. Nothing like a day of torturing new students and screwing with their heads.
Suddenly a deep chill ran down his spine and a sneezing fit over took him. The sneezes were so forceful that he had to lean against the wall to keep from losing his balance.
"Oh great… I'm getting a cold," he muttered. "Damn hay fever."
Hokage Tower
"They were lying to you, Naruto," the Hokage explained. "I'll have word sent to allow you in."
"Sarutobi," the disgruntled looking glasses man said incredulously, "you can't seriously mean to allow him to enter into the Academy midway through the term. He'd be behind his classmates in every subject. Wait till next year when the new classes start."
"You could always give him to me," the bandaged up man said. Naruto shivered as the man continue to stare at him with that weird look.
"You are right, Homura," the Hokage said. "And no, Danzo. I've another idea. Itachi."
"Yes, Hokage-sama?" the ANBU said.
"You will teach Naruto what he needs to know over the next six weeks so that he won't drag his classmates behind." The Hokage raised his hand into the air to silence anyone from objecting yet. "Your other duties will remain the same, this is just an added on D-rank mission. For a couple hours in the afternoon every day, you'll teach Naruto. I believe he'll be in the same class as your brother, Sasuke, right?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Itachi replied. "He just started attending the academy. Mother has been a little out of sorts with all the extra time she has on her hands and has insisted on family meals lately."
"Very good," the Hokage said. "In the mean time, I believe we've finished discussing our earlier issues." At this the Hokage sent a look at the one he'd called Danzo. "So this meeting is now complete. We'll meet again at the normal time."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," everyone said.
Naruto looked back and forth at everyone in the room. "So does this mean I'm going to be a ninja?" he asked. "Cause I have no clue what all that was you just said."
"Yes, Naruto," the Hokage laughed and patted the small blond on the head. Naruto grinned up at the old man. "Itachi here will come to collect you every day after classes to teach you what everyone learned before you started. You better be on your best behavior."
"Yes! Dattebayo! Thanks Gramps!"
"Perhaps it would be a good idea to begin now, Naruto," Itachi said. "Do you know where training ground nine is?"
"Uhh…" Naruto scratched his head as he thought.
"Very well," Itachi said with a small shake of his head. "Follow me. We'll have an hour today and maybe two tomorrow."
"Awesome!"
The Hokage watched Itachi and Naruto leave before he turned back to the three elders still in his office. With an arched eyebrow, he gestured toward the slightly agitated Danzo. Danzo cleared his throat.
"Sarutobi, we both know that the academy will be a waste of resources on that boy. He's far too valuable an asset to be turned into anything but a weapon. Not to mention how the academy staff will undoubtedly work against him, if for nothing else than out of spite."
"We're at peace now, Danzo," the Hokage said. "What use would a weapon of that caliber be when there is no one to turn it against. Turning Naruto into a weapon would only incur the wrath of Kumo or Iwa, or whatever other great power out there decides to take that move as a precursor to invasion or an arms race. No, that is something we can not afford this soon after the Fox attacked. We've only just finished rebuilding most of the city. A war would drain our resources even further, to the point that we'd likely lose said war. And also, I'd like to think we should have a little more faith in the moral standing of our own shinobi."
"You're too soft, Sarutobi," Danzo said. "It is only through superior force that we remain the pre-eminent power among the elemental nations. Doing anything less than turning that boy into a weapon is a waste, and you know it."
"Duly noted," the Hokage said. "Now, I've got a lot of nasty, ugly, paperwork that you're welcome to stay and help with. If not, thank you for coming on such short notice today. We'll meet at the appointed time next week."
"Hokage-sama," the three elderly people in front of the Hokage said as they bowed. After that they filed out of the room and left the Hokage alone with the rather large stacks of paper on his desk. He grumbled to himself as he pulled the top request form and began to read.
"Naruto, before we get started, tell me exactly what you already know about being a ninja right now?"
"Uhh…" Naruto crossed his small arms across his chest and squinted as he went into deep thought. "Ninja are awesome warriors who use magic to make ninjutsu and other awesome cool things. Like explosions!"
Itachi, sans mask, remained stony faced as Naruto beamed up at him like he'd hit the nail on the head. This was about what he expected, though not what he was used to. He could already tell that Naruto was perhaps several years behind Sasuke. It wasn't fair to compare them, yes, but he had to find a baseline.
"I'm sorry, Naruto, but that's incorrect."
"What?!" the diminutive blond shouted, throwing his hands into the air dramatically. "But whenever I hear people talking about ninjas, it's all about flying through the air, saving princesses, blowing things up, and fighting bad guys to the death." Naruto struck a gutsy pose with his small fist clenched and his arm stretched out in front of him, as if he were challenging the invisible 'bad guy' to a death match.
At this point, Itachi had to physically repress a sigh from escaping past his lips. 'What are they teaching kids these days?' he thought, then admonished himself. 'No one has taught him anything yet. I suppose I'd better make a good impression from the start, and snuff out any of these bad ideas before they take root too deeply.' Then he said, "Ninjas don't do any of those things, Naruto."
"B-but…" Naruto stammered, his lower lip quivering. "But, why?"
With a small nod to himself, Itachi said, "I believe I know where to start your education in becoming a ninja." Before Naruto could respond, Itachi continued, "First, let me tell you what a ninja is and does. A ninja is a warrior. They fight with their chakra, not magic, that can make explosions, yes, but also other things such as spitting water or fire, making the earth move, and so on. That's called Ninjutsu. Ninjas can make people see things that aren't there as well, which is called Genjutsu. When a ninja fights with his body, hands, and feet, that's called Taijutsu.
"Ninjas, during times of peace, are more often not fighting at all. Flying is rare and maybe only one or two ninjas alive today can really fly. And we don't save princesses on a regular basis. Actually, shinobi are usually the ones who are kidnapping them."
At this point, Naruto wore the same expression that everyone a the Hokage's meeting had. Itachi continued, "It takes a lot of practice and a lot of training to become a ninja and only those individuals who have the strength of will to tough it out will ever become a real ninja. Do you really believe you can do this, now that you know the truth."
Naruto snarled and pointed dramatically at Itachi's face, shouting, "You better believe it! Mom and Dad believe in me, so there isn't anything I can't do. Even if I have to go around all of Konoha and convince everyone I'm a good ninja one by one, I'll do it! I'll become the greatest ninja ever! Dattebayo! I'll… I'll… I will be come the greatest Ninja, the greatest Hokage, of all time-ttebayo!"
Itachi watched Naruto for a few more seconds impassively. Maybe not as knowledgeable as Sasuke, but he seemed motivated enough. "Very well," Itachi said. "We'll start with the basics then."
Itachi then spent the rest of the hour explaining what was going to be expected of Naruto at the Academy. What supplies he would need and what manners he was expected to have. Naruto soaked it up like a sponge.
The next few weeks went by similarly. Everyday, after classes let out, Itachi appeared at the school wearing his mask and led Naruto away to the nearby training ground for an hour or two. Near the end of the fifth week, Itachi started showing Naruto the beginner taijutsu forms and the basic hand seals. At the end of their two hour session on the last day, Itachi sat down at the side of the training ground in a cross legged meditating pose.
"What's that?" Naruto asked.
"It's called meditating," Itachi said. "Many shinobi do this to clear their minds so they can think clearly about a pressing problem. I am doing this now to prepare for my next mission."
"That doesn't look very cool though!" Naruto said. Jumping up, he stood on one foot, held his other leg out in front of him, and put both arms up like a bird flapping it's wings. "This would be a more cool meditating pose! You should do it like this!"
Itachi opened one eye to look at Naruto attempt and fail to hold the ridiculous pose. "Naruto," he said, "let me ask you a question."
Naruto dropped his pose and stared at Itachi inquisitively. "Yeah?"
"What do you think it is that separates the best ninja from the worst ninja?"
"Pff, that's easy," Naruto said waving him off and rolling his eyes. "The best ninja have the most power… or chakra, or whatever. And the worst ninja don't have any."
"I suppose that might be true," Itachi said. "Then again, if a ninja who had the most chakra of anyone on the planet went up against a ninja who had no chakra at all, the winner wouldn't be determined by who had the most chakra. It would be decided by who practiced the art of the shinobi better."
"Wh… huh?" Naruto now looked more confused than ever.
"The art of the shinobi is the art of invisibility. To be invisible while standing in plain sight. If a ninja with a lot of chakra doesn't practice the art of the shinobi, then he'll never be a good ninja. Likewise, if a ninja with no chakra did practice the art of the shinobi, then he'd be a better ninja than most."
"I don't get it," Naruto said. He had his arms crossed and his eyes squinted shut. Clearly he was thinking very hard, just not connecting the dots. "How can you be invisible while standing in plain sight. Everyone would see you and you wouldn't be invisible."
Itachi nodded and stood. "Allow me to demonstrate then." Naruto nodded as he watched intently. Itachi pointed at a small grouping of trees on the side of the training grounds. "See those trees. I will walk through them and vanish before you eyes."
Itachi walked over to the trees, Naruto watching the whole time. As Itachi walked in, Naruto's eyes widened in surprise when the older boy seemingly vanished behind a tree. Naruto dashed over to the trees, searching behind the trees and up in the branches for Itachi, but he couldn't find him.
After several minutes, Naruto shouted in frustration. "Alright, I give up. Where did you go?!"
Itachi quietly stepped from behind the tree next to Naruto and coughed softly to catch his attention. Naruto whirled around and gasped. "How did you get there?! Did you teleport?! Did you do that one substitution thingy?!"
"No," Itachi said. "I used no chakra at all. I just moved behind the tree silently. That is the art of the shinobi. To be invisible in plain sight. You knew I was there, but you could not see me. If I used a transformation jutsu to look like a civilian, I could blend in with a crowd without looking like a ninja. In that case, I'd also be invisible while standing in plain sight. To practice the art of the shinobi is to hide the truth from your enemies and use that advantage to protect what you hold dear."
"Huh… this invisible art thing doesn't sound hard." Naruto rubbed his chin a few times and then he clenched his fist. "I'm gonna try it and you tell me if I get it right."
"Naruto, I hav-" Before he could finish, Naruto had dashed behind a tree and was obviously pretending to not be seen, even though he could see the younger boy's white shirt sticking out on either side of the tree trunk. Itachi shook his head in slight amusement and said, "Naruto, I have to go now, but keep practicing. Only the greatest ninja ever will be able to fully master the art of invisibility, even if that ninja had no chakra."
As Itachi laced chakra into his legs and jumped from the training grounds, Naruto stuck his head out. When he found that he was alone he slumped back against the tree and sat on the ground. Squinting his eyes again, Naruto thought about this invisibility thing.
'Being a ninja is hard work,' Naruto thought, 'but if Mom and Dad believe I can do it, then I can. And if I want to become the greatest ninja ever and make Mom and Dad proud, then I gotta master this whole invisible thing.'
After several more moments of thinking, a sharp pain grew inside of Naruto's head. "Aaagh! I can't figure this out! It's too hard! At this rate everyone's going to think I'm an idiot who can't ever be a real ninja! But I'll prove them wrong! I mean, if a ninja with no chakra can be a greater ninja than a ninja with a lot of chakra, if only because he's better at being invisible, then I can become a ninja too! I'll show them! I'll… Wait! That's it! Dattebayo!" Naruto jumped up with the biggest grin on his face that he ever felt he'd worn. "I'll trick the whole village into thinking I'm an idiot with no power. And then like the ninja with no chakra, I'll master the art of the shinobi and become the greatest ninja ever!"
Naruto continued grinning as he nodded to himself. 'That's my greatest plan ever!' he thought. 'No one will ever see that one coming.'
"After that," Naruto said as he began walking back to his apartment, "I'll just need to work on getting married and making babies, whatever that means."
A/N: Based on the premise of Naruto using his seeming lack of recognition to his own benefit instead of striving for open acknowledgment. This shift in Naruto ends up shifting a great many other things and people. You'll see what I mean in the next chapter, later.
Thanks for reading. Leave a review and let me know what you think.
~I.K.A. Valian