Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Everything Remains in Memory ❯ Pain ( Chapter 7 )

He had been waiting for this day ever since that man, a ninja, had rescued him from the orphanage where he had been abused once, sometimes even twice a day and had almost died as an outcome of these beatings countless times. And then there were the children, who were even more ruthless than the matron, if it was possible. Unlike the matron, their abuse came not in the forms of being physically beaten, but they relentlessly taunted him for his inability to speak, and when they weren't verbally harassing them, they were ignoring Naruto; as if he weren't alive at all.

 

He could safely say that his life at the orphanage had been the worst experience in his entire life, and the only person who would talk to him was Kiyū, who was the same age he was. But he was Naruto's secret, someone Naruto could call his own They would talk endlessly as Naruto built a wall around himself and the outside world, alienating him even further from his peers, and when he was hurt, Kiyū would comfort him.

 

But Kiyū had left him, just like everyone else. Once Naruto was rescued and was given exclusive privilege to live by himself, Kiyū talked less and less to him, until, one day, he just disappeared without a trace; a whisper in the wind.

 

He was excited to go to school that he recklessly ran to the academy building and bumped into a man. Of course, it was accidental, but the man would have none of that, and the only thing Naruto remembered was the crushing impact of the man's fists and feet on his small, malnourished body. It was at this point that the world slowly started to darken at the edges of his vision, and slowly that darkness grew so that black was all Naruto could see.

 

“Did you miss me Naru?” asked a young voice; a voice that Naruto recognized well.

 

“I'm…I'm scared KiyÅ«. Help…help me…save me from this!” Naruto sobbed as he saw his old friend standing in front of him.

 

“Why should I help you? You have nothing to give me now except your tears. You're such a little baby Naru, crying just because your ass whooped by some old geezer? You make me sick with your weakness,” he spatt. Naruto visibly recoiled from the other boy. His words had hurt him so much more than the man had only moments ago.

 

“But…but…KiyÅ«, I thought…I thought that we were friends?” Naruto asked through his tears. At this KiyÅ« gave a large, feral smile.

 

“Friends? Who would ever want to be friends with a demon? No one, that's who. Now do us all a favor and just leave,” KiyÅ« snidely remarked as he turned his back to his childhood companion and walked away. Naruto began to cry even harder as KiyÅ« was swallowed by the darkness.

 

He couldn't believe what his only friend had told him; he just couldn't. After all of the good times they had gone through, he meant nothing? After all of the laughter and tears, the other boy felt no attachment to him?

 

He cried himself to sleep in the suffocating darkness.

 

***

 

When he awoke, he was walking. He did not know how, but he was walking along side a man with semi-long black hair and clinging to the man's arm. Immediately, he sheepishly detached himself from the indifferent man's arm and was ushered into a room unceremoniously, only to be met by the presence of about thirty other kids his age and an older man at the front of the room, who began staring severely at Naruto.

 

“Name?” the adult, a ninja, asked him rudely. He tried answering, but he froze up. Being with other children, it only brought back unwanted memories from the dark crevices of his mind.

 

“I asked you for your name you little shit!” snapped the older man angrily. However this caused Naruto to physically recoil from the man.

 

“His name's Uzumaki Naruto,” answered the ninja who had escorted him to the room. The teacher visibly flushed as he noticed the man in the door.

 

“Ah…th-thank you I-I-Itachi-sempai,” thanked the man nervously as Itachi's eyes seemed to bore into his very being.

 

“Take care of yourself, Naruto-kun,” Itachi whispered as he left Naruto in the wrath of the teacher and of his peers.

 

“Uzumaki-san, go take a seat before disrupt our class any further,” snapped the teacher.

 

Naruto dejectedly walked up the aisle in between the double desks, his head low. He could hear them whispering about him, laughing at him. This only caused him to hang his head even lower as he clutched his eyes shut, for he knew that if he didn't do something, he would explode, and closing his eyes seemed like such a harmless action. After all, what harm could closing your eyes do? Naruto soon found out as someone stuck out their foot in Naruto's path, causing him to fall down onto the hard wooden steps.

 

“Can't you even walk without making a disturbance Uzumaki-san?” the teacher asked exasperatedly. Naruto quickly scrambled on to his feet and ran the rest of the way up the aisle to the only empty desk in the room. It sat there, alone in the back with layers and layers of dust on its surface. It was like himself, in a way.

 

He fell down into the seat and laid his head down on the table in between his arms. Somehow, he knew that school would not be as fun as he thought it would be.

 

But in his slump he didn't notice to pairs of white eyes watching him ever so subtly.

 

Naruto snapped his eyes open expecting him to be on the floor of Ami's apartment, where he had fallen asleep, but instead he was running, surrounded by trees that casted dark shadows under the light of the full moon.

 

“What the hell?” Naruto tried to yell, but no sound came out of his mouth.

 

“Oi, Arashi, what's the deal?” Naruto yelled at his father.

 

“I took control of your body temporarily; and show some respect towards your elders,” he admonished as he frowned slightly.

 

“What the hell? I never told you that you could do that!”

 

“Getting Ami out of here wouldn't work if you were half-asleep now would it?” asked Arashi as he shuffled through Naruto's weapon pouch before he withdrew what he was looking for.

 

“Wait…what?” asked Naruto. He may have been pissed off at Arashi for stealing his body, but now he actually wanted to hear why.

 

“I was asked by the Gobi no HÅkÅ to “kidnap” Ami and take her away from her father. Because you had been walking for half of the day, you wouldn't have been able to keep a quick enough pace to escape undetected, so I took over your body, convincing it that it has more stamina than it actually has. But watch out, within the next twenty four hours, you won't be able to move at all so we have to get as far away from here as we can while avoiding confrontation,” explained Arashi.

 

“Well I guess we already failed then, `cause we're surrounded by four ninja,” said Naruto.

 

“Don't worry, I wasn't the Yondaime Hokage for nothing,” boasted Arashi as he twirled a kunai on one finger.

 

---

 

“Why is he special?” Hanabi asked him.

 

“Who?” asked Sasuke, although he knew very well who the HyÅ«ga was speaking of.

 

“Uzumaki Naruto,” she bluntly answered. Sasuke smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

 

“You could never understand,” Sasuke said.

 

“Of course I could, I'm a HyÅ«ga; the HyÅ«ga understand everything,” Hanabi retorted.

 

“Do you?” Sasuke questioned.

 

“Of course,” snapped Hanabi. “That's why my clan is still thriving and your clan is all gone except for two traitors,” she boasted. Sasuke clenched his hands into fists as she said this; the condition of his clan was still a very tender subject for him.

 

“Then why are asking me to explain Naruto to you?” Sasuke asked. Hanabi opened her mouth to answer, but she could find no words; she had been trapped by her own words.

 

“You may understand a lot about the world about the world around us, and you may be physically strong, HyÅ«ga Hanabi, but you are blind to much about humans,” Sasuke explained, smirking as he delivered the devastating blow to Hanabi's ego.

 

“You're wrong,” Hanabi stated flatly.

 

“Am I now?” Sasuke asked, now starting to enjoy the mind games he was playing with the younger girl.

 

“Yes, the HyÅ«ga are all-seeing,” Hanabi indignantly answered.

 

“Then why can't you see the strength behind your sister's tears Hanabi? Why can't you see the inner strength that your own sister has lying dormant within her at this very moment? I saw how you looked at her on the day of Neji's funeral; with disgust. You think that she's weak, that she's inept at leading the HyÅ«ga clan. But you're wrong; she's stronger than Neji, your father, or yourself. Stronger than I am,” Sasuke said.

 

“You're wrong,” Hanabi growled. “I love my sister and I think she's perfectly capable of leading the HyÅ«ga clan.”

 

“Do you, or are those just thoughts implanted into your brain by your elders?” Sasuke asked her.

 

“I didn't come for a damn lecture Uchiha; I asked about Uzumaki Naruto!” Hanabi shouted.

 

“This is why you'll never understand Hanabi; you haven't yet learned to look beneath the underneath. Until you learn to see the strength behind your sister's tears, you will never understand Uzumaki Naruto,” Sasuke declared wisely as he slowly got onto his feet.

 

“And what makes you the expert on him?” demanded Hanabi as the jÅnin began to walk away from her.

 

“Because, Hanabi, I love him; he is my brother. And the only person who knows him more than I is your sister,” Sasuke said. “It was a nice talk, but I need to go get some sleep, after all, those genin won't train themselves,” Sasuke called over his shoulder as he began the walk home, his uneasy mind set slightly more at ease.

 

“…the strength behind your sister's tears…”

 

The words played over and over in Hanabi's head, even as the man walked away from her.

 

“…you are blind…”

 

`How dare he insult the Hyūga clan so? He's lucky that he's under the protection of the Hokage or else I'd make sure that he'd be given he deserves,' lividly thought Hanabi.

 

But there was something else, a little voice in her head that told her otherwise.

 

`He's right you know; you may love your sister but you think of her as weak and defenseless. Deep inside, you know that you would be a better clan head than her. Secretly, you despise her for being born first. Because you know that she's going to royally screw everything up,' her inner voice whispered.

 

“Damn you Uchiha,” cursed Hanabi under her breath. She had expected to get at least some sort of answer, but now she was left with even more questions than before with no answers. `So…I need to understand Hinata to understand Naruto. It shouldn't be that hard. After all, we're sisters.' She thought as she sat down against one of the wooden poles.

 

`But how much do you know about your own sister?' the small voice in Hanabi's head whispered.

 

`Next to nothing.'

 

***

 

Slowly Inari began to wake up. At first, the pain was so intense that he could only lay still with his eyes shut as he waited for this enormous pain to subside. And as it did, he slowly opened his eyes, only to be met by the sight of his teammate sitting by the fire, the majority of her clothes hanging on the branches of a tree, drying out near the fire.

“You're finally awake,” Saaya stated as Inari tried to sit straight up against the tree. “Don't mind me Inari; I was only practicing my mizu jutsu and I got a little wet,” she said as she curled herself inward.

 

Translation; I'll kill you if you even think of leering at me.

 

Inari quickly turned his head to the side as he didn't want to be in even more pain than he was in now.

 

“Where's Takaharu-sensei?” Inari asked, breaking a tense silence that had settled over the two.

 

“Scouting; Eiji said that he had spotted a Konoha shinobi dangerously close to our location and decided that it would be best that he survey the area,” Saaya answered as she brushed a long strand of light brown hair from out of her face. “And don't worry about Eiji; I doubt he'll give you any shit for a while.”

 

“Al…alright,” Inari stuttered. He really didn't know what to say. Was he glad that he wouldn't be in any fights with his teammate or was he upset that he wouldn't have any more opportunities to prove that he's not usless?

 

“Hey, Inari, can I ask you something?” Saaya requested.

 

“Uh…sure,” Inari answered as, with great effort, he repositioned himself against the tree.

 

“Why did you become a ninja?” Saaya asked. “I'm just curious, that's all,” she added as she saw the look of bewilderment in the boy's eyes.

 

“Well…you know about the Great Naruto Bridge, right?” Inari asked.

 

“Of course, everyone knows about it; it brought economic prosperity to Wave Country,” Saaya answered factually.

 

“Well, I actually met Uzumaki Naruto, the guy that the bridge was named after,” admitted Inari. Almost immediately Saaya was almost right in front of him, her eyes wide.

 

“You met the Uzumaki Naruto?” she asked in disbelief. Inari nodded his answer. “No shit; is it true? Is he really six feet tall with gorgeous green eyes and long, gorgeous black hair?” she asked with stars in her eyes. Inari had to restrain himself from bursting out into hysterical laughing fits. “What's so funny?” she asked cluelessly as she noticed Inari's struggle.

 

“I'm sorry, but those are all lies. Four years ago he was a little shorter than even I am, had unkempt, spiky blond hair and had blue eyes,” Inari explained. Saaya's face instantly transformed into a look of comprehension as she heard these words.

 

“So you're saying that he was a blond midget?” Saaya bluntly asked.

 

“Pretty much,” Inari answered with a shrug.

 

“Well, all of my childhood dreams are effectively crushed,” Saaya confessed, visibly deflated. “But, anyways, continue.”

 

“He had come on a mission with his teammates, Haruno Sakura who had stunning green eyes, Hatake Kakashi, who was six feet tall, and Uchiha Sasuke, who had spiky black hair. It's hard to explain without taking all of the magic out of it though. Throughout their stay at our house, I acted miserable and kept denouncing their cause as useless and stupid. Then, eventually, Naruto got fed up with my complaining and practically exploded. He had told me that I needed hs