Chapter 14

The bowl of oatmeal was left forgotten in a sea of notebook paper, all of it was scattered across the large desktop, piled haphazardly to where some papers fluttered off of the desk and settled on the floor. The oats had stiffened, and chilled eventually, looking a lot like the flooring of a desert. The tutor, Kakashi Hatake, had left hours ago, and had mentioned that he would return promptly at eight in the morning the next day. Naruto hadn't stuck around either, he crept up the stairs and barricaded the door behind him.

He had no intention of learning any more math for as long as he lived, and he intended to keep it that way. He didn't want to be around for when Fang ratted him out over the uneaten breakfast either, even if the scarred teen didn't mention it, Rose would find out eventually, and he would already be prepared. Safely tucked away in the high up bedroom where she couldn't reach him. He should have just dropped the bowl, he scolded himself after he had locked himself in.

There wasn't much Naruto could do inside of the attic turned bedroom, and boredom was quick to set in. He supposed he could continue looking through the boxes that lines the wall farthest from the bed. They had started in columns from the corner and piled haphazardly until Naruto almost believed that the wall was supposed to be made of the dull cardboard color.

He could always get on the computer, try and figure out what had gone on at school during the days that he was gone, but that didn't seem like much of a solution considering he had found himself enrolled in homeschooling. He didn't really have that many friends, none that would actively speak with him outside of class no less. So he was stuck. Stuck looking for something to do.

Instead of jumping onto the mattress like he would have done if he was bored, he dropped onto the floor unceremoniously. His fingers laced behind his head as a form of awkward cushion. His knuckles started to ache under the weight of his head on the wooden floorboards.

Luckily there was a skylight above in the ceiling above him, and not just blank ceiling, the clouds were moving quickly. Gray cotton balls that were sewn together moved across a dull navy blue background. The clouds hung low like fog, brushing against the glass of skylight in a passive caress.

Naruto folded his legs over at the knees and wiggled his foot to an unperceived beat. His boredom was starting to sink in, like pins that held his brain, slowed the thinking process until everything was just blah. He couldn't really think and the silence annoyed him, it rang in his ears in a deafening sort of way. A high pitched whine that crawled through his ears and tangled around his unthinking brain like a parasite would.

"Ugh" He groaned, throwing his flopping foot onto the floor like a dead fish. It banged and crashed around the small room like thunder then stopped. It did little to ease the ringing that had wormed into his head. The heel of his foot ached and he regretted every decision he had made that day starting with waking up.

The skylight was starting to lose its interest quickly, the sight became as dull as the ceiling around it and to Naruto, it was just like the ceiling around it. The clouds moved in a numbingly slow pattern that seemed to beg for release. The clouds moaned like prisoners, rattling their chains against the glass of the skylight, Naruto knew it was only the wind that shook the glass in its hinges, but the sound sent a searing chill fluttering down his spine.

Isolation had been a large factor in Naruto's life, at home, at school, always around, and he could not figure out why it was suddenly bothering him. He felt like an eight year old, the ones that saw creepy shadows against their wall and called in their parents to alleviate their sorrows. Naruto didn't have parents to call in to save him. He hadn't for a long, long time, it had never upset him before and he had assumed that growing up with the sense that he was the only one who could save him from trouble made him strong. But he had never felt as weak as he did at the moment, his dad was not snoring or laughing in the next room over, he couldn't hear Minato banging around in the early hours of the morning through their paper thin walls.

The sensation that wrapped around him like a scratchy blanket was an unusual one, the feeling of being truly alone. He had no idea how to fix that, he supposed he could go downstairs, sit on the couch with Rose and Fang and hope some of their warmth rubbed off on him until he didn't feel alone. But that seemed like a far fetch from what would really happen. Fang nor Rose seemed like the type to snuggle up on the couch, sharing a blanket and share their condolences, and Naruto didn't want to impose on them with his selfishness.

Besides, dealing with people had never really been his strong point, even when he cared what people used to think of him. Now, now he had no idea how he would even go about asking for attention from his kidnapper and accomplice.

Thinking about affection was really doing on his brain, memories of forgotten moments with his parents brought tears to his eyes, no matter how hard he tried to suppress them. At least, he thought they were memories, he didn't really remember a lot of what his did was like, let alone what his mother was like, he really couldn't see them as the couch cuddling type, but Naruto had been surprised before. This whole situation that had become his life surprised him on a day to day basis.

Naruto stood up, but his head continued to stare at the skylight above like it had some ulterior meaning, something he couldn't quite grasp if he lost his focus on it now. He almost squealed when something started to trail against his neck, thinking it was a spider he had quickly batted at the back of his head and ended up slapping himself several times before the sensation disappeared all together. A thin black string strode into his vision like a pendulum and smacked him lightly in the face. This was what must have been on his neck, he assumed and tugged on the string, the ceiling banged like the slamming of a door and Naruto crouched slightly.

Until he looked back up at the skylight, then back at the string. They were connected! How could he not have noticed that before, a long black string attached to the window he had been staring at for the past eternity, he would have thought that would be the first thing he would have noticed, a way out. Or a way in for something else.

Slowly, Naruto applied some drag on the other end of what was assumed to be a shoelace at one point, and watched as the skylight started to crack open. The presumably old hinges didn't squeak like the ones the bedroom door made, and for that he was glad, he didn't need Fang figuring out that he had found a way out, not yet any way.

He pulled on it hard, dragging it away from the entrance of the skylight and towards the opposite wall so it opened quickly. All at once it went from silent to an indoor earthquake, and Naruto's heart was spiraling out of the safe zone. He breathed out when he saw a crooked looking staircase had been dropped onto the floor where the skylight opened instead of a body, dead or not.

It was natural for him to assume the worst possible situation with every action that occurs in his life, and finally something turned out to be something better than expected. He did expect the window to open, but he didn't expect the window to hold a way out. Piling everything in the bedroom below the skylight would not have made a good escape plan after all.

Naruto released the string and wiped his hands on his pants, a habit he had picked up after touching anything in the house, and walked around the staircase that had fallen from the sky. He shot a look at the door and stood still, trying to remain as quiet as possible in case Fang decided to show up.

The steps didn't seem to creak and the bedroom door didn't move any, so he assumed he was in the safe zone and turned back to the stairs that he was about to climb. The wood that made up the staircase was not as clean as it could have been and signs of rot were obvious all over the steps. But at that moment he really didn't care. He climbed up the steps as quietly as he could.

It wasn't really as hard as it should have been, his feet were bare, and the steps didn't creak, so only small smacks were the noises that escaped him, or his feet rather, and stairs as he made his way out of his prison.

The roof was colder than he had expected, it shouldn't have been, but it was. It had been cold in Konoha for months now, and why the cold suddenly surprised him was a mystery to all. His bare feet skidded across the cement smoothly, but occasionally a scrap of gravel or a pebble made odd noises against the roof.

Naruto stopped at the edge of the building, a stubby stone banister was all that shielded him from falling off the roof, or jumping if he had really wanted to, and he stepped onto the ledge.

Of course he had thought about taking his own life before, just not now, his whole body seemed to unwind, the muscles in his back relaxed despite the cold that yelled at them to contract. The breeze was subtle against his face, not enough to make him colder than he already was, but a force that was presented with the cold nonetheless.

He leaned against the side of the connected building, one that was conveniently taller than the banister that he was now sitting on. Naruto looked over the bright streetlights that glowed a strip down the sidewalk. Cars crawled along the roads, something that was unusual to see in Konoha, especially this part of town, everything was fast-paced, and action oriented, but at this moment. Everything seemed to be moving with the fluidity of a blocked stream. A dripping faucet or something of the like.

One car, then another, dripping down the asphalt like watered down paint on a smooth surface. Again, it was an unusual sight. Naruto looked up, towards the stars. They weren't as breathtaking as they were in the movies where someone from the city saw them for the first time, but similar feelings seemed to course through his veins, in a contempt underwhelmed sort of way.

They were still pretty.

He had always liked stars, not as a hobby or anything special, but he did like to climb to the roof of his old building and stare at them every once in a while, at least when he was a kid. The heights scare him too much now to ever climb back up there. Not that he could go back any time soon to see if he had alleviated his fears, but the memories that he had seemed to hold a certain fondness, one that he wasn't used to. One that made him uncomfortable.

Naruto looked away from the stars, and away from the lamp lights, and decided to stare into the blankness that was the forest across the street. It wasn't much of a forest, more of a clump of trees. The rest of the field seemed barren at this time, Naruto wouldn't expect any less. The only people that hung out in parks at night were drug dealers and pedophiles.

Naruto was neither a pedophile, nor a drug dealer, and neither temptation was what had led him to pushing back one of his fears to scale down the building. Fire escapes still held a bad memory for him, but at the moment, he just tried to focus on his breathing.

The cement was cold under his bare feet, a feeling that he wasn't entirely too comfortable with. He liked having two -normal- feet, and intended to keep it that way. He would return back to the roof before they started feeling numb. He couldn't exactly climb with tingling limbs anyway.

He made sure to pay extra attention to the way his body was feeling, any sign of hypothermia or frostbite and he was going to bolt towards the house. Climb through the window, or even knock on the door, if it got that way.

The grass crunched under his feet. It was frosted in ice, looking like a wicked sort of miniature forest, or an amateur attempt at frosting a cake. It squished with resistance under his toes, molding around it like dead bugs, the cool guts of the grass seemed to ooze out in between the creases of his toes and leave unnoticeable residues there.

A steel swing-set lay in the distance, and Naruto rushed towards it. He loved the swings after all, there was an unnatural attachment inside of them that made him get on all possible swings in the nearby area. He did nothing to resist as he padded over the frozen gravel and plop down into the swings bar like an unceremonious king.

He was the king.

The swing set a pale imitation of a throne, but it held the same chill in cold that a solid gold seat would. That thought always made Naruto feel better about being poor. Gold and steel were pretty much exactly the same. Both solid, shiny, minerals of sorts. That's why money no longer mattered to him, nor physical possessions.

It would seem like a very hippie kind of thing for other people, but to Naruto it was just his way of life. Something that he had grown up believing, a psychologist would call it a coping mechanism, but it wasn't. He wasn't coping with anything, he was just trying to make the best of what he had, and didn't want to give himself any false hopes for things that he knew that he would never be able to afford.

The seat felt weird under him, his butt was starting to chill, but for the moment Naruto could deal with it. The swings meant peace, and what was peace without sacrifice? The pads of his feet rested lightly against the gravel below, and the small momentum he had picked up allowed him to push around a thick twig with the ball of his foot without moving his leg at all.

With a drawn out breath, one that came out in a flurry of smoke, a dragon crouching, ready to erupt. Naruto swung his legs. First back, then forwards until they were extended fully, parallel to the gravel slope below him. He curled back up, calves resting against the bottom of the seat, afraid that he would skid his feet and fall.

He wasn't exactly the spitting image of a graceful swinger, if he were in the swinging Olympics he was sure to come in the back of the pack. His back was cold, the lack of jacket allowed wind to claw into the openings of his shirt and they wormed like tentacles and worms all over his torso. Shorts were not the best thing to be wearing when everything was covered in ice, each pore seemed to have an army of goose bumps around it, they swelled like bruised skin and Naruto should have taken that as his sign to go back inside, retreat while the damage was still fixable.

But Naruto didn't get off the swing, instead he extended his legs once more, he swooped like a bird, a hawk, as it dived and then pulled back, the thrill was straining and made his stomach spin in a strange way. Like an amusement park ride. The reminiscence made him swing his legs ever harder, he imagined that he looked like a human shaped flounder, trying to swim on land. But he only managed to swing higher, and higher, and higher.

The frame of the swing set wiggled from where it was buried into the dirt below the gravel. Naruto paid no attention to the sign of danger and continued to swing. His feet swished past the top of the frame, moving fluidly like a pole-vaulter, then he was pulled back down by an invisible force, gravity, he thought dully. Then pulled his legs back, accepting the flow of things, then pushed back with all of his weight, he thrust forward, a stubborn stallion on the track and his knees got past the bar.

Naruto didn't let go of the swing's chains, he may be reckless but he wasn't stupid. He wasn't about to fall off of the swing going at the speed that he was currently going. He would probably break his neck, or at least a few other bones.

Feeling exhausted suddenly, both physically and mentally, Naruto stopped swinging. There was something odd about the way he was suddenly tired, maybe he had just been warped into an alternate universe, where he wasn't practically an orphan, with two loving parents, and a werewolf friend who wasn't a jerk. Naruto scoffed, and let his head fall slowly in between his shoulders, his hair fell into his face, blinding him of the things in front of him. Something that he was actually grateful for at the moment.

With a sigh, Naruto urged himself forward from the swing, not bothering to lift his head, until it was completely necessary. The hairs on the base of his neck started to crop up creepily, a shiver of ice slithered down his back. He didn't bother to look around, it didn't exactly feel like his moment. Then again, people probably didn't expect to die in cornfields, or in parking lots, but Naruto could tell. This wasn't his time, maybe it was his body's way of telling him that something bad was going to happen, but he felt that it was best to keep out of things that weren't directly related to him.

He made haste towards his new home, ignoring all of the obvious signs that he was indeed in a horror movie, fog rolled in, thick in mysterious waves, the moon stopped glowing bright and remained a pale, translucent useless entity in the sky. It seemed to glow green from where Naruto was standing, but he didn't stop long enough to get a good look at it.

Naruto stopped when he was below the fire escape, his heart was hammering in his chest, from both the physical exertion and the way his brain was running. He didn't have the energy to stave off any attackers and check around him once more before he crouched down, eyes set on the lowest rung of the ladder. It seemed too far for him to jump, he wasn't exactly the tallest guy around, nor did he play enough sports that required jumping.

He tried anyway, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable reaction from someone that was having a paranoia attack. His first attempt, with both hands straight up so he could scramble up the ladder, had gone terribly. His hand managed to rub against the bottom of the ladder, tearing the fist layer of skin on his palm straight across, it didn't bleed, but a trail of rust was left behind, looking a lot like dried blood.

The second attempt went much smoother, Naruto was able to grab onto the lowest rung with one his hands, he could have fallen to his knees and thanked whatever was real, but he didn't have the time, nor the mindset, to be thinking about the higher powers at the moment.

Climbing a ladder without any foot support was awful, the muscles in his arms started to burn from just hold himself up, even after he had managed to get his second hand on the ladder. The ladder seemed to chip off under him, feeling a lot like holding frozen sand paper. It grinded against his palms in sharp edges.

With a boost of something that was hopefully adrenaline, Naruto hoisted himself up two steps, then pulled his feet up. It might have been a compromising position to be caught in, but Narutow could not care less as he ascended the rest of the ladder swiftly. He was not dealing with this right now, he wanted to get up into his home, and sleep the rest of the night away.

The roof was cold, and equally gritty on his feet. There wasn't much farther to go, and Naruto was almost thankful for the semi-smooth half-chill that the wooden floorboards of the attic provided. The only thing better than floorboards were a semi-soft mattress, which Naruto wasted no time climbing into.

Naruto struggled getting up the next morning, and he was fairly sure that he was sick. He also had no intention of going into the same room as that creepy tutor, so at least he had an excuse. Nobody came to knock on the door in the next few minutes as Naruto thought out his argument for the reasons why he shouldn't have to learn today, considering that, he assumed it was still quite early, despite the fact that the sun was currently shining over his head.

Ignoring the way his body told him to stay in bed, Naruto rolled off the mattress and landed on his feet. He scuttled along the sanded floorboards and settled under the skylight, where a large rectangular beam of sunlight was currently lounging about. He wiggled his feet on the floor, thankful for the additional warmth and lingered for a few moments, trying to wake himself up, despite not even wanting to be awake.

Moving the obstacles in front of the door on an empty stomach was not Naruto's idea of good training, nor was it helping the mood he had woken up with. Eventually he settled for kicking things out of the way and ramming the larger pieces of furniture until they budged. The doorway was not clear when Naruto exited the bedroom, and was probably a safety hazard, or would have been if anybody else was currently occupying the room.

The stairs creaked under Naruto's bare feet, it didn't really matter if he had tried to sneak or not, so he settled for jumping down a few at a time until he was on the floor. The kitchen didn't exactly smell like food, much to Naruto's disappointment. He supposed he could cook his own breakfast, something he'd been doing since he could reach on top of the counter with his hands.

He tried humming, something that usually sounded cheery even when he wasn't, and started drumming on the door of the fridge as he looked for something to cook. He pointedly ignored the package of bacon that was mocking him from the corner of the top shelf. He settled for making eggs. Everyone could make eggs.

He hoped that he counted as a percentage of everybody, Naruto may be an experienced cook, but that didn't mean he was a good one. Naruto found himself suddenly nervous as he stood in front of the range, flame burning with the same expression the bacon held. Mocking, everyone mocked him, so he all but slammed the skillet down onto the eye and squished an egg into it.

There wasn't a lot that Naruto knew about eggs, so he settled for scrambled, and started stirring the eggs in the cookware, seeing as how had forgotten to do so before when he thought that a range could hold a human expression.

He scoffed at his brain and waited for the eggs to look... eggy.

The eggy part was narrowly missed, well, actually totally missed. But at least they weren't burnt and Naruto applauded himself for such an act of cooking prowess. He took a portion of the eggs and some pepper on a plate, leaving the rest so everyone could see how much he had improved, well, more for Fang's benefit, who probably wouldn't have let him near the kitchen again if he could help it. But Naruto did good, so Fang could shove it.

Naruto didn't make it his directive to eat as quietly as a mouse, it just sort of happened, but at least he was eating instead of sulking in the attic. Rose was the first one to catch him, the met eyes for a moment before Rose procured herself a plate full of eggs, with enough left over for a few more helpings. She added pepper like Naruto did, and a few other things from containers Naruto didn't recognize before taking a seat adjacent from him.

She seemed pleased enough with the meal, he wasn't exactly a five-star chef, and didn't have experience in feeding people who weren't drugged out. Naruto hadn't really learned much about flavor, but if it kept him alive, it counted as food.

The silence stretched on, except for the scratching of forks on plates, which stopped when Fang stepped into the kitchen, thankfully looking human, and even more thankfully a dressed human. Naruto suppressed a shudder and nodded at Fang, who stepped into the kitchen and sniffed at the skillet. He didn't look exactly pleased with the meal that he was getting, but Naruto couldn't care less, and rose in his seat to a position of a higher class person. His shoulders straight and chin up, looking as if he didn't care about such trivial things.

But he did, Fang didn't need to know that though. It wasn't exactly life-threatening, and it sure wouldn't hurt his feelings that much if Fang didn't like them.

The dog-boy seemed to notice his stiffness about the way he was sniffing at the eggs and decided to play nice, it was obvious who had made breakfast, there were no spices in the pot, and there was a layer of fresh yellow that was crisped onto the surface of the skillet. But he didn't say anything and picked up an array of little bottles and sprinkled seasonings onto the eggs, since regular eggs were gross.

He took the seat across from Naruto, at the far end of the table, which was closest to the kitchen door. Which meant he could block Naruto if he decided to make a run for it, but Kiba doubted that he would, it was only breakfast, he should just be happy that he has a meal. Naruto harrumphed silently into forkful of eggs.

The rest of the meal went on silently, and dishes from breakfast were cleaned, courtesy of Rose. Naruto wandered around the living room a bit, just close enough to the staircase to escape quickly if he wanted to. But there wasn't much that would force him to escape, unless Fang turned crazy and tried to kill him. Then he would try to escape.

It was strange how bright a dusty room could get when someone, namely Rose, took the time to clean things up. The walls, that had once been a blurred barrier between rooms were now decorative separations between realms. Naruto noticed that they actually held color, versus being plain entities that barely stood out. The entire living room was a crusty orange color, that probably looked a lot better when it was fresh. Naruto imagined that it had once reflected evening light in a poetic way, now they were just walls. That happened to be a pale sunset color.