Immortal Phoenix
Author: The Phoenix is Immortal
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.
Chapter 4: That Look in their Eyes
What had I got myself into? Once I had accepted, Naruto had ran up to me, and attempted to hug me. Since I was still the size of a sparrow, this did not go well. I think he did not realize where I was….and almost stepped on me. I lost a few tail feathers…
After that, I had decided to fly onto his shoulder, worrying for my own wellbeing. I also decided to ask him about the water that came out of his eyes. "Why was there water coming out of your eyes?"
"I wasn't crying!" was the defiant answer. So water coming out of human's eyes was called crying? That was interesting. I could not…cry. At least, I had never done so before. Some of the crocodile demons in Makai could though. Or at least water could come out of their eyes. But I do not think it was for the same reason this human did. He seemed to cry out of sadness and joy, judging from my experience with him anyway. Sadness and joy? Two opposite emotions, yet they seem to cause the same reaction. How unusual. Humans are strange.
"So, where are you going?" I was curious. He was heading somewhere, and I did not know much about the town. The more I knew about the town, the more I knew about the humans. I had to satisfy my curiosity.
"I'm going back to the orphanage…" Naruto, I could tell by his tone of voice, did not really want to go back there. I wonder why? What was an orphanage anyway? I guessed that I would find out soon.
Then he said, "Don't you have a home to go to?"
"Me? Not now, I do not."
"Well, you can come with me then!" He sounded so…delighted and hopeful. Why not? I had nowhere else to go anyway.
"I will then…thank you for the offer." I liked this little human. He was much better than the other humans. That is for sure. The ones that had chased him without reason.
"Yay! Now I have someone to talk to! Even if it's a talking bird."
"What? I am much more than a talking bird! You should be pleased to know me!" This human child was definitely annoying. But he was fun to talk to. I was not alone anymore…and now it seems, neither was Naruto.
As we passed by other people, other humans, on the streets, I could feel people glaring at Naruto. I turned to look up at them, but only cold and harsh eyes met my vision. I do not think they even noticed me on his shoulder, too engrossed in their hatred for the human child Naruto, and their eyes locking onto him. That was what their eyes expressed, hatred. Why would they hate Naruto? What could a seven year old child do to them that could make the whole village look at him that way? It was not just the two adult humans in that alley back there, but all the adults that we had passed so far.
I could hear voices as we passed.
"Demon child."
"Oh, it's that thing."
"Why is it still here? We should just be rid of it."
I did not doubt that Naruto could hear it too. Since I was on his shoulder, it was easy for me to feel the way his shoulder hunched up. But even so, his face retained what seemed to be an automatic expression for him. A somewhat silly looking grin.
He ignored them, he did not even look at the glares and stares and whisperers. He must be used to this. Again I wondered why? Why would they do that? I guessed that it was just a human thing. A disgusting human thing.
I decided to try and make him feel better. I said I would be his friend, so his friend I will be. "Do not worry, one day you will prove to them who you really are."
He seemed to perk up at this. "Yeah, one day I will! I'll be the greatest! Believe it!" He really was a determined human was he not? Determination is a good value to have. Without it, no one would ever be able to best a challenge or even try to best the challenge.
He continued on his way to the…orphanage. Whatever that was. I was still on his shoulder, which was not a bad place to be. I could see more from up here on his shoulder than the ground and I could ask him various questions about the things that we passed. He was happy to answer what he could. In his own hyperactive way.
"What is that?" I would ask, trying to indicate what I was asking about with a wing.
"Oh, that's Ichiraku's! It's my favorite place in the world! It has the best food ever! Believe it!"
"Not that! Over there." The questions pretty much went on like that.
We went through a maze of tall buildings and structures, finally turning onto another street. This street was emptier of people than the one that we had just been on. It was a sort of a relief for me to be out of the sight of those hatred filled eyes that had been on Naruto.
We were soon in front of a fairly large building. It looked slightly rundown. I could also hear loud voices issuing from it. The voices sounded higher-pitched than the adult voices I had heard. The kind of higher-pitched voice that I had come to associate with Naruto. There must be children in there I deduced. So this is an orphanage. A place where many children stayed? They must not have parents or guardians of that sort I guessed.
Naruto and I entered the building. I was correct. There were more children in there, and no adult parents that I could see. Some children were even shorter than Naruto. I did not know that was possible. I thought Naruto was midget-y enough. Now there are even smaller ones? How small could these humans get?
I noticed that all the children kept their distance from Naruto though. Wow…even these children did not seem to like him. I asked Naruto about it. "Why are all the children they staying away from you?"
"…The Matron tells them too…" I thought I heard a sniff coming from him, but when I looked at him, he just had that silly smile on.
I was about to reply and make a comment about not-very-nice humans when I heard loud and heavy footsteps approaching. I turned my head and saw one of the full-sized humans. An adult. "The Matron," Naruto whispered to me.
"Oh it's just you, really, I only keep you around because the Hokage pays me too." The Matron human had a condescending look on his (her?) face. With that said the Matron human turned and walked away.
I did not like him (her?). While Matron human did not chase Naruto around into alleys, he (she?) had that look of hatred in his eyes. He or she…whatever gender the Matron was, I did not particularly care.
I looked up at Naruto. He must have noticed, because then he said, "Don't worry! This always happens anyway. It could have been worse."
If he said so. I was glad that I became his friend though. He should have friends. He is the sort that should have a lot of friends, yet he does not…
Deciding that he might be feeling a little bad, I jumped up onto his hair and began picking at it. "Akarui-san, what are you doing?" Naruto asked.
"I am trying to help. This always makes me feel better. I will not light your hair on fire, I promise." He just looked at me weirdly, or tried to, since I was on top of his head. But he did not do anything to stop me. So I just continued picking at his hair. I do not think anyone noticed. The adults, of which none were present, only glared at Naruto and the children ignored him.
With me still in his hair, Naruto started to head into another room. Curious at where he was going, I stopped picking at his hair and jumped back onto his shoulder.
He entered a door and behind it was a room. In the room was a piece of furniture that looked like it served the same purpose as a nest, another piece of furniture that looked like it was used for storage, and a table. It held all those items, yet it was not a large room. Was this Naruto's room? I think it was.
I wanted to look around, so I flew off Naruto's shoulder and started to inspect the furniture. I questioned Naruto about the furniture and learned that the piece of furniture that seemed to be used like a nest was a bed. The storage piece of furniture was a cabinet. The table was indeed a table. Curiosity semi-satisfied, I flew back onto Naruto's shoulder.
He then wandered over to the bed and fell on it with a "plop" sound, almost crushing me. I had to jump off his shoulder and fly out the way to avoid losing anymore tail feathers. I could not afford to lose anymore. I puffed up with righteous anger and was about to tell him that he almost crushed me (and my tail feathers) when a loud clanging noise could be heard.
"That's the dinner bell!" Naruto jumped up and started to run out of the room. I flew back onto his shoulder as he ran. Really hyperactive child. No patience at all.
The dining area was quite large, made to fit the many eating children. Naruto lined up and in the front of the line was that Matron human, giving out food from a large gray container. Matron human had a bad look on his (her?) face. It reminded me of a sour fruit that I had once seen before. Matron human must be in a bad mood.
Naruto advanced up the line. We were getting closer to the detestable Matron human. Then he was in front of the Matron human. Matron human glared at him but handed him the food anyway. That was when it happened. Naruto must not have had a good grip on the bowl of food when the Matron human let go of it. It dropped on the floor, spilling and revealing the contents of the bowl. It had held soup, but now the soup was all over the floor.
Matron human looked at the spilled soup. I guessed that the human would have to clean it up later. Then the human turned to look at Naruto. "Look what you did! Oh, that's it! I don't care what the Hokage going to say. I've had enough of taking care of the demon brat! Get out, get out now and don't come back!" The human was yelling at top volume. The human must have been in a very bad mood.
"I-I…" Naruto was frozen, unable to do anything. Then Matron human lifted up the soup ladle that had been in the large gray container. At this Naruto unfroze and started to run away. The Matron human followed.
Since it had worked so very well last time, I spat another ember at Matron human's hair. Human hair was very flammable, it seemed.
While the Matron human was…distracted, Naruto high-tailed it out of the orphanage. Once he deemed it far enough from the orphanage, he stopped. He then turned to me. "…Thanks for that."
"It is never a problem, Naruto. But what are you going to do now that you cannot go back to the orphanage?"
"You'll stay with me right?" He looked at me with almost desperate eyes.
"Of course I will. I am you friend, am I not?"
But what were we to do, indeed?
Author's note: Ok, finished. Almost 2,000 words, this chapter is. My chapters are getting slightly longer and longer. Oh what is Naruto to do now? Not much happens in this chapter, it's kinda like a filler. I was attempting to develop the character's personalities more. Akarui will probably be like a brother and a very good friend to Naruto. And the picking at the hair thing, well my parakeet does that all the time, either preening himself or his parakeet-y sister.