Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and this is non-profit fanfiction.
A/N: Hey! This story is one of a scared child thrown into the darkness of the shinobi world with something that everyone wants for themselves. How the prophecy of the Chosen One can be taken backwards. It is a curse to be chosen by crazy adults to fix the problems of the system they have been feeding for a millennium.
What if F!Naruto Uzumaki, with the yin half of the Kyûbi sealed inside her was expected from birth to be the hero of the prophecy, the one to save the world from its' darkness, to better the shinobi world? Feeling the negative emotions of the people surrounding her, Naruto feels trapped between crazy people who don't want to let her alone… Governed by fear, she thinks she can't to rely on anyone…
X
Chapter 1
Naruto was three years old when she started feeling the negative emotions of the people around her.
She could feel the darkness and the sadness in her grandfather when he left with the ANBU one day. She could feel the sick emotions approaching five minutes later. Then she saw him. Orochimaru. He moved so fast that she couldn't see him as he cut the throats of the two ANBU guarding her. He grabbed her and dashed out of the Sarutobi mansion.
Grandpa appeared out of nowhere with his ninja technique and his emotions were conflicted. He was angry, sad and also very disappointed. Orochimaru made a copy of himself that fled with her while he fought against his former master.
After a few minutes, she felt a change in the one who was carrying her away from home. His emotions came out of nowhere. Fear, anger, loneliness, a feeling of being misunderstood.
Some time later, someone else appeared in an instant with a ninja technique. The man had white hair, a red and green outfit and a giant scroll on his back – bigger than Naruto. He was really really angry, disappointed and sad, but she could feel his wrath over everything else.
Orochimaru did the same as the first time, trying to flee with her while he fought his former friend. Two minutes later, she felt the other man's emotions right before them and he appeared. Did he beat the other Orochimaru? Or did he copy himself with the same technique?
He dashed on them. Naruto was terrorized. She couldn't do anything. They were so strong and so fast that she didn't even understand what was happening.
She was on someone's shoulder. Who was it? Red? It must be the man she didn't know then… What did he want from her? Was he a bad guy too? She could only feel dumbed down emotions similar to what he had earlier. He moved and soon, they were back home. So he wasn't a bad guy?
Grandpa met them at the Hokage tower and took her in his arms, hugging her. The giant man was still angry, but it was unfocused, all over the place. They spoke on a serious tone, their barely restrained anger behind their words. They seemed to be upset at each other. Then the giant left with a warning glare at grandpa.
Her grandfather brought her back home and she could feel the number of guards had increased.
After these events, her grandpa sent her a ninja to teach her how to do cool ninja things. The man, Ebisu, was everything but cool…
X
At six years old, Naruto was told who her parents were, what a demon host was and that she was the host of the Nine-Tailed Fox that had attacked Konoha the night she was born. He told her that she was a hero. It lightened up the mood for a moment, but then…
"But grandpa…how can I be a hero if I didn't do anything?" she asked.
"You don't have to do anything to be a hero, Naruto. Just by keeping the Kyûbi sealed, you are saving Konoha everyday…"
"But why do I have to be the one to do it? If the Fourth Hokage was my dad, why did he do that to me? It's not good to have a demon in your belly, is it? You know, I feel it when people fear me. When they want something bad to happen to me. I feel their pain too. It's like they think I was the one to hurt them…"
"Some people look for a scapegoat, Naruto. They can't hurt the one who hurt them, so they decide to direct their anger towards what is in front of them, even if it's unfair… People are complex and it's hard to accept the loss of one's friends or family… But one day, they will see you as the hero who kept the demon in a cage so that he couldn't hurt anyone."
"Why can't I just be like everyone else? Being a hero is wacky! I just want to be normal…"
"But you can't be normal. Your parents weren't normal people and you're not a normal child. You're special, Naruto, and it's a good thing to be special. You'll do great things when you're adult!"
"I don't want to do great things! I just want people to leave me alone! I'm sick of feeling everyone's negative emotions! It's like everyone is always angry or sad or disappointed! Why can't people just be happy so that I'm not feeling their emotions all the time? …I just want some peace, grandpa…"
He hugged her, but she could feel his internal conflict. She knew that he would never leave her alone. He would always expect her to do great things, even if she didn't want to…
X
Two years later, as she was close to her eighth birthday, she felt the tension peak. It came from the Uchiha district. There had always been tension in that area, but now it was higher than ever. Then it happened.
Pain. Fear. Pain. Anger. Pain. Betrayal. Fear. Hurt. The wave of negative emotions assaulted her from across the village as the school day had just finished and she was walking back home, watched by her ANBU guards from a distance. She placed her painful head in her hand, the other hand on her intestine, the real heart of emotions. One of her guards appeared and tried to get to her, but she was completely unable to move, to speak or even to think. She was on her knees, her head and belly hurting like they never had. She cried in pain as visions, smells and sounds of a massacre being committed was forcefully fed to her in real time, in short bursts.
After a whole hour of emotional and mental suffering, it stopped. She fell unconscious.
X
She didn't remember much of her awakening. Only that she was scared. Scared of everyone. Of the red eyed guy who had killed her hundreds of times in the visions. Scared of the sounds. Scared of the smells. Of the concern of the people surrounding her.
She woke up several times in this condition, terrorized, fearing for her life, remembering the suffering.
She remembered his eyes, his ANBU blade stabbing her, his ANBU outfit, his horrible illusions, his cold stare. She remembered agonizing hundreds of times. The smell of blood. The screams of fear, of pain. The children beheaded, stabbed, cut in half, she remembered every single death.
She remembered another man. A man with a spiraling mask leading to a similar red eye. This man was worse than the first one. He didn't just kill people, he made them watch as their families were butchered. He said stupid things on a light tone, as if this was all a joke, while gouging out the eyes of his victims, sometimes after killing them, sometimes before. This man treated this slaughter like a fuckin' joke…and he was impossible to catch. Each time someone attacked him, the attacked passed through him without doing anything. Then he disappeared and reappeared somewhere else and resumed his carnage.
Naruto would never be able to look at a black cape, an Anbu outfit, blade or at a mask without being terrorized ever again…
X
Four years later, she graduated from the academy with ease. It had taken her two years to be able to go back to the academy, to look at a kunai without crying and getting into a foetal position on the floor, to look at the Konoha symbol without being assaulted by memories of the assassin. To go back to some semblance of normalcy…
She was mediocre in taijutsu. Her ninjutsu was quite good and she was already too advanced for academy standards thanks to killjoy Ebisu. She was the best at sneaking and escaping from danger. Her ranged weapons skills were great but she was bad in close quarter combat due to her own mental instability. She was already able to make illusions without hand signs, it came naturally to her. She had even been forbidden to use genjutsu on anyone from Konoha after traumatizing an academy student from a civilian family. The poor boy had never left the hospital. Konoha didn't have a proper psychiatric institution despite being a village of ninjas.
She had been placed in a team with Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. Two clan kids, one good at close range combat, one good at disabling his opponents before they realized it. Both had good tracking skills. The jônin assigned to them was Kurenai, a genjutsu specialist, but there would always be ANBU guarding her everywhere she would go.
X
They were in a clearing, on training ground 8, the training area assigned to team 8, their team. Kurenai turned to face them with her beautiful…red…eyes…
Before she managed to say anything, Naruto felt a wave of fear assault her, a vision of the assassin appearing in her mind, and she curled up on the ground, shaking, crying in silence. Someone tried to shake her out of it, someone else tried to comfort her, but all she could see was the assassin and the butcher with their red eyes and their killing intent radiating in waves. All she could hear was the crazy one's stupid jokes as he tore apart civilians, ninjas, adults and children alike. All she could smell was blood, all she could taste was the metallic state of blood.
X
She woke up in a hospital bed, her grandfather at her bedside. He immediately came closer when she opened her eyes.
"Naruto, how do you feel?" he asked, concern radiating in waves due to her always improving negative emotion sensing ability.
"…Why did you put me in a team with someone with red eyes…?"
"…I see… I thought placing you under a genjutsu specialist would help you master the art. And I thought that maybe you would be past this trauma, but I was wrong, it seems…"
"…Can she make me strong enough to defend myself?" she asked.
"Yes, I believe so. She has the best affinity with your fighting style of any of the jônin who were available…"
"Then I'll try…I'll try to get used to it. Her eyes, I mean… I saw them again. Itachi and the psychopath. From my vision…"
"Did you see anything you had missed until now?" he asked, his curiosity transparent.
"I don't know who he is, if that's what you want to know. He sounded like a young man, that's all I can say…"
"…Well, I will keep trying to identify him… I swear if we find him, we will kill him."
"It's useless, grandpa. All attacks pass through him. He's untouchable. He's like an evil spirit, as impossible to damage and as crazy as them…"
"…I will let you rest, Naruto. Take this day off, if you feel better tomorrow, let's try again, okay? If you never overcome this trauma, it might cost your life and those of your teammates one day."
"No pressure, gramps… As usual…" she said, cynically.
He sighed, placed his hand on her reassuringly and left.
"It's just a little trauma, Naruto… You're a ninja, toughen up… Kakashi has seen the same horrors and he's an elite ninja, leading A and S rank missions… Ninjas must endure… Cut the crap, old man… It's not like I have a choice… Why was I born? Huh? Why do I have to suffer through all this shit while my parents are enjoying retirement in the Pure World? At least my mother…father preferred sacrificing his life rather than using…I don't know…ANY other seal to put that thing inside me and raising me himself… Thanks, daddy, I love you too, let me carry the weight of the fucking world on my tiny shoulders, and thanks for the mission of dealing with the problems you left me with… If only you had adopted, you'd both still be alive and I wouldn't have to fix your shit…" she ranted in the wind.
X
She arrived early the next day at their training field. She saw Shino arrive a bit later and saluted him. He wasn't much for conversation, so she didn't know what to say. Kiba and Akamaru arrived right on time, looking like they had just hopped out of bed.
"Hey guys…" he said, tired.
Akamaru yapped in echo to his human.
Kurenai arrived at this exact moment, cutting Naruto's salute.
"Good morning, team 8. how do you feel today?" she asked, directed at her more than the others.
"Hello… Sorry for last time… I'll try to get used to your…eyes…" managed Naruto, slowly raising her gaze from the grassy ground.
"I can put a genjutsu on them if you don't feel right…"
"No! I…I have to overcome it…otherwise it might cause a tragedy if we have to face it and I'm still unable to deal with it…" cut Naruto.
"Alright… Let's go slowly, okay?"
Their gazes met for a second before Naruto felt the usual wave of terror start resurfacing and had to look away.
"Sorry…"
"No problem. Take your time. Little by little, you'll be able to get used to it."
"Hey, are you alright?" asked Kiba while Akamaru rubbed himself against her leg.
"…Yeah, it's gonna go in a moment."
"Alright," Kurenai grabbed everyone's attention back, "let's start with a warm-up. I don't remember what genin are supposed to do so I asked the taijutsu specialist of Konoha about his training program for his team. When you're ready, run five laps around Konoha. The first lap on both legs, the second on both hands, the third on one leg, halfway through you'll swap legs, the fourth on one hand, swap halfway through and the last one crawling."
"Haaa? What the fuck is that training from Hell?" complained Kiba.
"This training program seems to be too advanced for our team," stated Shino on an analytical tone.
"Did grandpa tell you to as Gai Maito for the physical training?" asked Naruto, already aware of the answer.
"Yes, his team has been doing it for one year and they look fine, strong for their age I guess…" replied Kurenai.
"Of course they're strong, they've survived a madman. What kills you not makes you strong, grandpa always said…"
"If you can complain, you can run. Come on! Hop!" encouraged the woman.
And the training from Hell started. Kiba and Akamaru obviously had the best stamina out of the four of them. Shino had the lowest stamina and Naruto was in the middle, closer to Shino than she was to the dog and the dog smelling boy.
After the mad warm-up, team 8 was asked to focus on genjutsu dispelling. Since Naruto had no issue with it, Kurenai started teaching her how to better control her illusions.
Once their stamina had recovered a little, they went into team formations and other teamwork stuff.
X
Six months later, they had performed a hundred D rank missions and were sick of it. Their morning warm-up had been doubled, Shino was good enough at genjutsu to trick his opponents into attacking his bug clone while more bugs drained their chakra, tested and approved during team fights with Asuma's team under the evil gaze of the two jônin enjoying their bet, which Kurenai won each time, but team Asuma had gotten motivated by their losing streak and started taking their training seriously halfway through. Kiba was perfectly able to identify and dispel genjutsu thanks to his team's specialty, but he was really bad at making them.
Their taijutsu had greatly improved, surpassing Asuma's team individually, Kiba besting Chôji, Shino and Naruto besting Shikamaru and Ino by a large margin. Naruto still preferred ranged combat, not liking the feeling of fighting in close quarters. It still reminded her of the Uchiha genocide.
Kiba and Akamaru's collaborative techniques were great, Shino was seriously dangerous and Naruto had picked up a bow and basic wind transformation with a few low rank techniques. She would also learn to use her wind element to spread the explosion of exploding tags faster and cause more damage in an instant, which would limit her exposure to negative emotions like pain and fear. She focused her skills on dealing with enemies as fast and painlessly as possible. Her genjutsu skills would greatly help with that, coupled with her home tutoring in singing from childhood, she managed to change her vocal cords into a weapon. She was able to make three different sounds at a time, maybe as an ability from her prisoner.
Team 8 walked to the Hokage tower and the genin crossed their arms over their chests.
"Grandpa, please give us a real mission," asked Naruto. "We can handle a C rank, I know it. I'm stable enough, old man. And we're the best team of our graduating class."
"Are you sure? Usually you don't want to advance too fast. Why makes you want to get a more dangerous mission?" Hiruzen asked.
"I'm ready. If we don't start now, we'll never do anything. Do you have something not too bad, like an escort mission? With some luck, the worst we'll have to face will be some outlaws trying to steal the client's goods, we can easily deal with that."
"Is your team okay with it?" he looked at Kiba, Shino and Kurenai, who nodded.
"I was the one to ask for it," declared Kiba. "The others were taking it slow. Naruto was the last one to agree."
"That's true," she confirmed. "They were ready two months ago, I was the one holding them back. But now I know I'm ready for this."
"Well then, let's find you an appropriate mission. Escort mission… Escort mission… This one should be suitable. Protect the caravan of food merchants going to Suna. It's the only C-rank escort mission in the pile. You can always try a different kind of mission, something closer to Konoha would be more appropriate for a first mission? I have a delivery mission to Keishi on hand for a minor noble family. I would prefer giving you this one to get used to moving outside of Konoha, getting used to night guards, trusting your team in a potentially dangerous environment…before throwing you to the lions, you know?"
"We will take the delivery mission to Keishi," decided Kurenai, causing Kiba to whine. "Kiba, we have time before we have to step up our game. Let's play it safe until you three get the hang of an outside mission. And it's also an occasion to meet the nobility of our country. You should try to sympathize with some nobles, it could help you climb the social ladder faster. Getting support from wealthy and noble families is always a plus."
"Whatever…let's go deliver this and come back in no time so that we can get a real mission…" he mumbled.
"Have a safe trip," cheered the Hokage.
"Good bye, Lord Hokage," said Shino, Kiba and Kurenai.
"Bye gramps," saluted Naruto unceremoniously. "Thanks for taking the delivery mission, captain Kurenai. When he suggested the Suna mission, I felt there was something bad about it. It smelled like bad luck."
"I noticed your unease. That's why I chose the mission to Keishi. The capital is not the best place for a ninja, but it's less dangerous than crossing the Land of Rivers and part of the Land of Wind to Suna, where our alliance stands on shaky legs. I think the Hokage was testing our team's decision making."
"Well then we passed his test, I guess…?" said Kiba.
"The team passed, but your unprofessional behaviour at getting a safer mission made you appear less apt at taking the good decision," explained Shino. "Had you been in charge of a team, you would have rushed them in a dangerous situation for some adrenaline. This means you will need to improve your decision-making if you want to be promoted to chûnin."
"Alright Shino, I got it. Let's go."
Kurenai ruffled his hair and they left the Hokage tower.