Well, it's my first time writing a Naruto fanfiction here, so hopefully it doesn't end up poorly. If I can find somebody to proof read these posts in the future, I will immediately take them up on it. God knows my grammar and syntax is atrocious.
Before anybody reads, however, I want to make several points clear - I am only going to loosely follow the direction of the canon storyline, but within a different set of parameters. For one, want to aim for a balance in realism and loyalty to the tone that Kishimoto initially set with the Naruto series.
So, please don't expect constant darkness and bleak narratives - I want to stay loyal to the original feel of the Naruto series, and avoid forcing something that was never intended for it. To that same degree, I am taking on what characters would behave like given their age, experiences, and so on. So, no, I'm not going to create an twisted evangelical god-complex to mirror that of Jim Jones.
And since I don't recall ever seeing actual written evidence that Naruto was physically abused in any of the manga, I won't be running with that assumption - he was, however, insulted and neglected, so that will take its own form of trauma separate to what we don't see in the manga. People sometimes seriously forget that these kids are in their early teens; even if you were raised in a place like southside Chicago, you can see a clear difference between a fourteen year old, a twenty year old, and a thirty year old that grew up around the trenches.
Anyway, as always, any and all intellectual property pertaining to Naruto and Boruto are not mine, and no direct profit has been made through the distribution of this story and character therein.
She's lost track of time with how long she'd been staring at the ocean, its waves crashing repeatedly against the rocky beach far beneath her feet. Tilting her head ever so slightly, she felt the positioning of her weight shift by the smallest margin. However, it was still enough that the gently squeal of giving wood echoed through a flimsy cottage - a reminded of how long it had been since it was last cared for.
Within the confines of that same small and beaten down shack, a few rays of light managed to break through the numerous holes and cracks that littered the clearly damaged planks. The building itself, if one could have even found the gall to call it such a thing, was dilapidated and only just barely clinging to what little bit of strength the foundation had left. Even now, as she stood at the middle of it, her nostrils picking up the years of mildew and must, the wooden beams above her head creaked and groan in protest at the years of wear and duress they had seen and weathered.
It was perfect for what Nagato had in mind, given the recent change in plans.
Reaching up, she clasped the first few buttons of her cloak's neckline, securing it before fastening the waistline - once that was done, however, she tucked both arms back underneath the fabric and wrapped them around her waist. As easily as she could bare the chilly and humid weather of Nami no Kuni, she was not about to start needlessly punishing herself with discomfort.
As she began to return her attention to the ocean before her, a small butterfly slowly hovered in front of her and silently descended onto her shoulder. Gazing down at it with her ever impassive expression, though, she watched as it beat its wings a few times, before dispersing into a cloud of smoke. Looking back over her shoulder, Konan narrowed her eyes on the still form of a young figure, their pink kimono just as fresh and clean as it had been when she first came upon them in the flower fields.
It was time.
"My back…" he groaned, his voice coming out as little more than a desperate wheeze. Rolling over onto his side, he placed a hand gingerly against the small of his spine, wincing at just how tender the skin and nerves were. "Ah, ah…" he whimpered, before slowly rolling further until he was laying on his stomach. Finally in a more comfortable position, he turned her face and rested a cheek against the cool ground, smiling sheepishly as he sighed in relief at no longer feeling any pressure on his back.
Shutting his eyes, Naruto began to steady his breathing, enjoying the crisp and fresh air, as he allowed the soreness to dissipate. He'd climbed the tree again and again, but he couldn't afford to stop until he had it just right - as much as he had improved, he was still behind Sasuke and Sakura. Opening his eyes once more, Naruto pressed both palms to the ground and gradually pushed himself back up, resting on his knees for a minute before he stood to his feet fully.
He would have resting some more, but he was still far behind Sasuke and Sakura. With Zabuza still alive and likely to return, he couldn't afford to waste any time by laying down on the ground - he had work to do, he was a shinobi, after all.
Looking around his surroundings, however, Naruto furrowed his brow in surprise -what had once been bright yet cloudy skies had since turned a dark gray, and what was once a clear hint of sunlight was now slowly turning orange and purple. He knew that he had lost track of time a while back, but since it was still only his second day into training, he hadn't been too worried about it. Shaking his head, however, he began pacing forward - his eyes scanning the ground for the kunai he had thrown after failing to reach his prior highest mark.
"What are you doing?" asked a voice, drawing Naruto's attention as he turned on his heels to face the direction of its source. Squinting in the growing evening darkness, however, he struggled to make out the shape of the individual among the treeline; he could see the movement of where they were walking, but little beyond that.
It wasn't until they - she - came closer, that he could actually detail the young girl standing across from him. She wore a navy blue kimono that was a shade or two darker than her azure hair, and he could easily say she had to be one of the cutest girls he'd ever seen - solely based off how smooth and soft her complexion even when compared to Sakura. However, it was her eyes that stood out the most, their amber and gold color shining at just the right angle of the waning sunlight.
They were gorgeous, but they looked strange, he thought to himself. They actually reminded him of Kakashi-sensei's, whenever he was fighting Zabuza and those two Demon Brothers, he realized. It was a strange thing to see, just how sharply different her eyes looked when compared to her face - one seemed so innocent, but the other was sharp and piercing.
"Training…and you?" Naruto finally replied, finding the words that he'd wanted to speak. It took him well over a minute to do so, but once he'd done it, the girl nodded in silence, before looking him over. He just couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about the girl really wanted to put him on edge - a voice in the back of this mind said to be careful, yet nothing she had done or even said was evidence that she was dangerous. Thinking back to the hunter-ninja that Kakashi had corrected him on, he even tried to see if something was off about her.
But nothing came to mind, other than that aloof and detached look in her eyes.
"I was actually taking a stroll to collect some herbs; I live by myself a few miles from here, so I wanted to stock up while the weather was lovely," she answered, before taking her time to look him over. "I heard some noises and decided to investigate - didn't think I'd walk by to see somebody as young as you training out here among the trees and fields," she responded, earning a wide grin from the blonde boy. Crossing his arms behind his head, Naruto laughed sheepishly at her compliment - or what he took to be one, at least.
"Yeah , well, what can I say? I'm training to be the next Hokage of Konoha, so I gotta make sure I never skip training - there's no shortcuts to becoming the most epic ninja in the world!" he replied, his voice suddenly rising a few steps in volume. When he opened his eyes, however, he could see a brief flash of disapproval on the girl's face, though it quickly vanished when she collected herself once more. "Hm? You okay? You looked a little annoyed there for a moment," he pointed out, though the young woman shook her head.
"No, I'm fine - I just didn't expect you to be so loud," she replied. "I used to be a shinobi for Amegakure, though I quit some time ago. All of us were trained to be calm and focused back then," she added, drawing Naruto's attention.
"Wait, you were a ninja for a village, but you left it behind?" he questioned, his voice echoing clear disbelief. When she nodded, though, Naruto immediately leaned in a bit as if to look at her with evident suspicion. "Why'd you do that? It's a great honor to be a shinobi - don't you have people that you were close to or something that would have stopped you?" he asked. The girl shot him a withering glare that caused him to stumble back, instinctively bringing his hands up in defense as if expecting the girl to strike him.
When the beating never came as it would have with either Sakura or Ino, however, Naruto looked back at the young woman, who was simply staring at him impassively.
"Why did you flinch?" she asked.
"I…you, well, I thought you were going to hit me?" he responded, though it was more of a half answer and half question. He wasn't even sure where the flinch had come from, all he knew was that it was his initial response to danger when it came to girl close to his age.
"But you're a shinobi?"
"I am? No, wait, I mean I am!"
"Then why did you flinch?"
"Well, it looked like you were going to slap me!"
"Then defend yourself, but don't flinch like a small and insignificant child."
The girl took a step back, causing Naruto to let out a frustrated grunt at her words. Moving his way towards her, he reached out to poke a finger at her - though no sooner had he begun to open his mouth when her hand shot up and latched onto his wrist. Before the blonde could mount any form of defensive attempt, his weight was lifted off of his feet and over her shoulder - sending him flying into the base of a nearby tree, causing the foliage to rattle violently.
Rolling across the ground, Naruto's eyes briefly rolled into the back of his head; his stomach and ribs roiling in pain from the abrupt impact. He'd handled his fair share of beatings during his time in the academy, but this was far worse than anything he could have imagined - even as his muscles and bones cried in sincere agony, his lungs barely managed more than an audible gasp of air.
When his vision returned, all he could see from ground level were the feet of the same girl who had launched him through the air; amber eyes still looking down at him with contempt. Struggling to move, Naruto felt his ribs scream in pain, though he still forced his weight onto the palms of his hands, before he stood back up on shaky and weakened knees. The girl shook her head, however, and slapped his injured side with the back of her hand, causing the blonde to yelp once again.
"They aren't broken or fractures, just bruised," she stated, as if her words would somehow absolve his discomfort.
"Wh-what…what wa-was that for, you psychopath!?" he shouted, gritting his teeth to stifle a growl as he fell back down to one knee. "All I said was…th-that there was honor in being a shinobi!" he argued back, though the girl stared back down at him with that same impassive gaze.
"The throw was for being so tactless and careless with your life as a shinobi…the slap was for being so foolish," she answered him, before wrapping her arms around her waist. "My family died to the hands of Konoha shinobi; no, I didn't have anybody to stop me from leaving," she explained, causing Naruto to slowly stand up again.
"Wh-what do you mean? Konoha shinobi don't kill famili-"
"It's called war," she interrupted him, before shaking her head. "Every village has killed throughout history, from enemy soldiers to innocent civilians. That's just a part of the shinobi world...and it will be a part of your world soon enough, as well. I left because I got tired of it," she added. Naruto glared at her, before shaking his head as well.
"Yeah, well, that isn't me - I don't intend on hurting innocent people!" he protested.
"And if the Hokage orders it? What if the civilian in question had information that could cause your loved ones to die in an ambush?" she asked him. Without a moment of hesitation, Naruto lunged forward, only to trip as his ribs cramped up once more and fall back onto the ground. He could see the girl still watching him, but he didn't stop to worry about how he looked.
"I'm going to be the Hokage - and I'm going to make sure that I'm so strong, nobody will ever mess with us! If Konoha doesn't need to fight, then there's no reason they'd ever be in danger or have to kill others!" he cut back, his voice growing into a snarl. It was enough to give the mysterious girl some pause, though her eyes narrowed ever so subtly.
"And how will you manage that? By simply training blindly?" she questioned him.
Naruto came to a halt at that, glancing back at the girl's eyes.
"What else is there? You have to be strong to be a Hokage," he replied.
"There's more to it than strength - do you even know what it means to be a leader?" she asked. As Naruto fell into silence, she continued. "You will be responsible for an entire village, for the civilians and shinobi underneath you - do you understand what that means? They will look to you to be a voice of reason and security, do you even have the maturity to be such a thing? Do you have the intelligence to lead people in times of disaster or war? What will you do when you have to send somebody on a suicide mission?" she proceeded to question, rendering the blonde into further contemplation.
"I…I don't know," he admitted, swallowing hard.
Rather than comfort him, the girl nodded.
"As long as that's your answer, you'll never be Hokage," she responded, before catching a look of defiance in his eyes. She quickly opted to stamp that out, however, because a spark igniting through denial and ignorance was no better than srrow and darkness. "Shinobi that become leaders didn't do it by only being strong, they did it by being clever and knowing their flaws and strengths. They did it by having a goal in mind and realizing what they needed to do in order to achieve it, even if it came in steps," she stated.
Naruto opened his mouth to speak up, but quietly closed it instead.
He wanted to argue, he wanted to shout at her to shut up, but as he thought about it…he realized she was right. If he did want to become Hokage, he still needed to go beyond where he was at - Kakashi and Zabuza weren't Kages themselves, but they were well beyond his league. If he wanted to be powerful enough to lead a village, their level was the very bare minimum he needed to reach, and even then that wasn't the final goal.
"...you're understanding what I'm trying to tell you?" asked the girl, finally earning a nod from Naruto.
"...Iruka-sensei said the same thing for a long time, I just never listened," he murmured, before wincing at the pain in his ribs. It as beginning to finally dull down, but he still knew it would be tender for days to come; not that the girl seemed to care much for his condition. "Who are you, anyway? You show up and nearly break my ribs, and now you're trying to talk to me like you're some kinda mentor?" he demanded. She didn't respond initially, though she eventually managed to give him a simple answer.
"Konan, that's all you'll ever need to know."
Oh, great, first a freak in Zabuza, and now a maniacal sadist in this girl, Konan…
"Well, since you're so wise, Konan, what the hell is the first step in becoming a better shinobi for the sake of being a Hokage?" he grunted. To his surprise, though, Konan didn't hesitate to respond.
"Do you truly want to be a better shinobi?"
Naruto could only offer her a look of disbelief, before he growled.
"No, I'm just asking for some brand new fashion advice," he grunted, before slipping into a defensive stand as Konan raised her hand to slap his ribs once more. Rather than lash out at him, she simply eyed him down.
"Good, you're actually learning something," she replied. "Well, if you actually wish to improve, then tomorrow you will meet me by the shoreline a few miles further down the water…bring an extra set of clothes, as well," she informed him, before strolling past him.
Naruto furrowed his brow in confusion, before turning to call out to Konan - however, she was gone by then.
All he could see were floating wisps of strange origami white flower petals.
"...damn wierdo," he muttered under his breath. Holding a hand to his ribs, however, he did manage one final set of thoughts as he limped his way home.
She did have one hell of a throw; and she had a point that he needed to do more than just train blindly.
"Great, now I owe Iruka-sensei an apology, dammit," he huffed. He'd learned his lesson this time around; careful who you mouth off to, because not only were his ribs aching, but his back was beginning to hurt once again.
