"NARUTO!"
"SASUKE!"
Two powers clashed in a sound akin to thunder. Kakashi, their teacher, ran even faster to the battle. When he got there, he saw Sasuke fleeing the scene, his headband gone. But it was his other student that had him worried.
Naruto was lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood. His pack, which had been stuffed full of things for a trip with Jiraiya tomorrow, lay beside him. Next to it was a bloodied headband, the leaf carelessly scratched out. Naruto's headband was tied half-hazardly, and looked like it was about to fall off.
Before Kakashi could get to his student, a flash of light, which had been growing ever since the Chidori and Rasengan clashed, began to grow at an alarming rate. Kakashi tried to reach his student, but the light enveloped Naruto before he could get near him.
All that was left was Sasuke's headband, and a large pool of quickly cooling blood...
Isshin stared at his current patient. The boy had appeared without warning inside their clinic, and Karin had been very quick to get him. The boy had a large hole in his chest, which was healing at an abnormal rate. There would undoubtedly be a scar later, if he lived through it. There was also a very large bump on his head. If he didn't come out of the coma he was in without amnesia, he would be very surprised.
Two weeks later, Karin took off the bandages...and noticed the kid was stirring.
"DAD! He's waking up!" yelled Karin.
Isshin walked into the room just as the blond was waking up. The scar on his chest was a lot smaller than he would had thought. The bump had vanished a few hours after he had treated the kid, but it was hard to tell whether he would remember anything.
"Ow...where...am I?"
"Glad to see you're awake. You're in our clinic. Do you know your name, or your home address so we can get a hold of your parents?" asked Isshin.
He had tried everything to find this kid's family, and it all returned negative. Not even the few ninja villages knew who he was.
(Isshin only knew where they were because he sometimes treated the few people who came into town for supplies. They liked him because he didn't ask questions aside from whether or not it was an internal matter. He rarely had to call the cops.)
"I...can't remember..."
"Not surprising, with a lump like that. Do you know where you can stay? Or any place familiar?"
The kid looked out the window. Upon seeing his confusion at the passing cars, Isshin quickly ruled out the city. The kid was definitely from a very small village at the least.
Once it was clear that the boy hadn't suffered from any severe brain trauma, he debated on what to do with him. It was pretty obvious that the boy would have some difficulty adjusting to society.
Before he turned off the light in the clinic, he noticed something odd. The boy who was half asleep looked different...almost feral.
Isshin paused, and looked at the boy straight in the eye.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"My name...is Kurama."
Isshin knew something was up now. The kid's eyes were a bloody red, and the odd whisker marks were thickened.
"Who is the boy? And what are you?"
"The boy...is my container. And I...am a demon. A nine-tailed fox to be precise."
"Why...?" started Isshin.
Kurama looked at him amused.
"You wish to know why I am so calm? Why the boy is a container of a demon fox?"
Isshin nodded.
"The day this boy was born, I was forced to attack his village. Someone had placed his mother in a state of near death. His father died sealing me into his son, while his mother died from the claw I had in her body. For the last fourteen years of his life, he was hated, shunned and attacked for being my container. It is only recently that he has gained even a small measure of respect."
"Why? Why would anyone do that to a child?"
"Humans are foolish creatures. Because I was forced to attack their village and in the process killed their loved ones, they blame an innocent for my actions. I used the energy generated from an attack that he had used on his best friend to give him even a remote chance of a happy childhood...whatever was left of it anyway."
Isshin had nothing to say to that. He left the room after turning off the lights, and Kurama went back into his seal. The next day, when the children were at school, he spoke to Kurama again. And learned more about the boy that had fallen into their world.
Naruto had a sad life indeed, and it would only become worse before it got better. He kept trying so hard just for a small amount of respect, which was unlikely to even occur. Kurama was perfectly calm, even polite, but Isshin held no illusions about the demon fox. It was quite clear that Kurama wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who harmed his container.
Two days after his discussion with the fox, Isshin offered to have Naru stay at the clinic to work off whatever debt he felt owed for saving him from that wound he had. Naru eagerly accepted the offer, since he didn't have any money to pay for his treatment.
A full month after being found in the clinic, Isshin brought up something with his kids.
Karin liked Naru and so did Yuzu. Ichigo treated Naru like a younger brother, which wasn't surprising considering the kid was a few months younger than he was, but was more mature for his age group.
It was little wonder Ichigo took to him, because they were so alike.
Since it was clear Naru didn't have any family to speak of, and all leads they had went dead rather quick, he wanted to know how they felt about Naru becoming an official part of the family.
The twins were all for it, and surprisingly so was Ichigo. Naru was extremely helpful around the house, and he got along well with the family.
It was a very short vote.
Two weeks later, the adoption was official. Naru was now Naru Kurosaki.
The blond couldn't be happier about the news. He had been going to Ichigo's school for nearly a month, and had quickly caught up to the current grade level with Ichigo's patient help.
It seemed that while he couldn't remember a thing about who he was (only bits and pieces that were never really helpful) his IQ more than made up for it. Ichigo really wanted to beat up whoever taught Naru basic maths. He was so behind it took almost the entire month to get him up to speed. Naru was behind in almost every subject except physical education.
In that subject he even trumped Ichigo and his friend Chad.
Naru just relaxed on the riverbank. It was his day off, and Ichigo was out doing his thing. Karin and Yuzu had told him to relax for a day while they cleaned house. In reality they were helping Ichigo put a new bed in his room, since he didn't mind sharing with his new little brother. They wanted it to be a surprise to Naru.
As he lay back watching clouds, his mind brought forth a memory of doing this exact same thing...but he wasn't alone that time. There was someone with a pineapple style ponytail laying next to him, and a boy munching on chips beside him. Two names came to those faces.
Shikamaru...and Chouji. Two of his closest friends.
His mind didn't let up. A few more images came to mind. A girl with pale lavender eyes that made his heart race for some reason. A boy with a dog on his head that brought to mind images of pranks. A boy who commanded bugs. A boy with a shield of sand that resembled a tanuki. A girl with a large fan. A girl who used countless amounts of weapons. A man with a scar across his face with a warm smile. A father and daughter cooking ramen and smiling at him. A trio of precocious little kids who followed him like ducklings.
Most of their names came to mind along with the visions of their face. He treasured each of these people, because they were the first hint of memory he had for nearly two months.
Hinata Hyuuga. Kiba Inuzuka. Shino Aburame. Subaku no Gaara. Temari. Tenten. Iruka-sensei. Old Man Ichiraku and his daughter Ayame. The Konohamaru corps.
All of these people brought warm feelings to his chest. Yet he still couldn't remember his own name. Images of these people also brought knowledge of something important. Something he had forgotten but was allowed to remember.
Climbing trees without hands.
He sat up and stretched. Spotting a grove of trees nearby, he decided to try what his memories provided. He didn't see the harm in it.
Placing his hands in a strange form, which felt very, very familiar to him, he began to climb. He almost fell down when he found himself on the top of the tree...and he hadn't used his hands once! He sat on a thick branch...and looked at his feet. A pale blue glow was on his shoes, and every time touched it, it felt sticky like glue.
A name came for this energy of his. Chakra. An amalgamation of spiritual and physical energy. The two combined to create something bigger when used properly in the correct amounts of both.
Somehow he knew that this...tree climbing thing...helped to regulate the amount of chakra he had in his body. It helped to minimize the effort in which he used it.
Another odd exercise came to mind that involved water. Jumping down from the branch...and landing perfectly on his feet with ease, Naru walked over to the river.
Placing a single foot on the water, he took a step. And nearly fell in with shock.
He was walking on water like it was ground! An inner knowledge that this was normal came to him, and he relaxed.
This was a more advanced version of walking on trees. He had to constantly regulate his chakra to walk on the water. He remembered doing this before, and it was much harder.
He could also figure out why that was, because he got memories back about how excitable he was before he lost his memories. He was still antsy, like he needed to move just to stay still, but he had an outlet for that energy by joining the Karate team with Ichigo's friend Tatsuki.
Tatsuki liked him because he was one of the few new recruits that treated her with respect. Some of the other boys looked down upon her because she was a girl, but Naru followed her lead without question.
By the time the sun set, Naru had already walked along the river and back. He found running on the water as if it was ground rather fun. He realized that he could do it without falling in as long as he didn't think about regulated this chakra. He ran as fast as he could back to the house...and to his shock he was home in five minutes! He was several miles from the clinic.
"Welcome home, Naru-nii! Did you have fun by the river?" asked Yuzu.
"Yup! Climbing trees was a lot of fun," said Naru.
After that day near the river, bits and pieces kept coming back to him. At first it was a trickle, but it quickly became a flood. Out of all of it, memories of his own history remained a blank. Every time he felt like he would get something back it seemed like something was holding it back for a reason.
After a while, he quit caring. Though he did wonder why there were blurs around a few people. Like a pink haired girl and a raven haired boy. Every time their image came up, he felt a deep fear and anger.
Especially when he thought of the raven haired boy. A dull ache came whenever he thought of that boy. Somehow, he knew that the boy was responsible for the scar on his chest.
Naru found himself training in secret in the forests...he just felt at home there. Ichigo sometimes came with him, and occasionally he joined him. Ichigo was surprised at how strong Naru was...and was surprised that his stances were so sloppy. Ichigo didn't mind correcting them.
It had been six months since Naru had come to live with the Kurosaki clan...and he had remembered an odd skill of his.
Ichigo watched with interest as Naru used the hand signs with practiced ease. He had seen what Naru called jutsu before, but it always amazed him.
Naru called out in a half remembered daze: "Summoning Jutsu!"
Ichigo coughed at the smoke...then stared.
"Is that...a toad?"
"I think so. Pretty cool!"
"BOSS! Where have you been? Jiraiya's been lookin' all over for ya!" said the toad.
"It...can talk."
"Of course I can talk! What summon animal can't?!" said the toad indignant.
"Sorry, I've never seen a summon animal before."
"Wait, who's Jiraiya?" asked Naru.
"Who's Jiraiya? He's one of your teachers! The one you like to call Pervy Sage!" said the toad in shock.
"Naru can barely remember anything. He took quite a knock to the head six months back, and he can't even remember his name," Ichigo explained.
"So that's why you haven't contacted anyone. They've been going nuts since you went missing in that light ball."
"Light ball? I could barely remember a thing before waking up in the clinic!"
"Naru appeared out of nowhere with a deep hole in his chest and a serious blow to the head."
"Well I'll try to fill in some of the blanks for ya then. Your name is Naruto Uzumaki, and you're a genin of Konohagakure. Your birthday is October the tenth and your sensei is Kakashi Hatake."
"Wait, his name is Naruto? I wondered why dad named you Naru."
"So do ya have any letters I could send back to let them know you're still alive?" asked the toad.
"Hang on a sec, let me write one. What's your name anyway?"
"Name's Gamakichi. The Boss Toad will be happy to know you're alive!"
Naru wrote a short but to the point letter, explaining about his condition. Ichigo wrote his own letter, asking for explanations. Gamakichi took them and with a poof vanished. Isshin, who was listening on the other side of the door, came in.
Ichigo looked at his father.
"Dad? Did you know about...?"
Isshin sighed.
"I knew his name, and the reason he came here. But I thought it would be better if he had a normal life."
Naru rubbed his head absentmindedly. Whenever he was embarrassed or confused he rubbed his head. It seemed to be a habit of his.
"I don't mind. I like it here. It's so peaceful...if you don't count that weird howling that goes off every once in a while," said Naru.
Isshin didn't know that Naru could hear them.
"Tell you what. How about I take Naru on a trip to see an old friend of mine. Ichigo, why don't you take the girls to the amusement park."
Ichigo gave his father a look, but even he wanted to go.
"After we meet my friend we'll catch up with you three there."
"Okay dad..."
Naru went with Isshin to a dinky little store with the name Urahara on it.
"Hello! It's been a long time, Isshin."
"Yo. Brought my second son with me today. He can hear hollows."
Urahara raised an eyebrow. He wasn't aware Isshin had a fourth child.
"Why don't we sit down and talk..."