Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Insanely Yours ❯ We Looked Pretty Happy ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter Eleven: We Looked Pretty Happy.

 

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This had the potential to be the slowest car ride Naruto had been on. As the car continued on, Naruto was slowly leaving behind the city he'd lived in his entire life. The young boy did not know exactly how to react to this; he was leaving his home, the place he'd been born in, the place where every friend he'd ever made lived. He held his torn, and slightly charred, stuffed bear to his chest while still staring out of the window.

 

Naruto did not know what city he would live in now. His social worker, Miss Matsura, hadn't told him the name of the city. The only thing she'd told him was who he was going to live with. Truthfully, Naruto hadn't even known that these people existed. He'd never seen or heard of them; in fact, his father hadn't ever even mentioned their existence. Naruto now wished that he would have, because then this whole situation would've been a lot easier to deal with.

 

After a while, maybe an hour or so, Naruto couldn't recognize anything anymore. His city was far behind him, and this new one was nothing like home. There was nothing but open land everywhere. There were enormous houses, large yards, trees everywhere; this town was alien to him.

 

Soon, the car pulled up into the driveway of a house that was just as large as any of the others in this town. Naruto watched Miss Matsura getting out of the car, and so he did the same. He opened the door with his good arm, and once he was out, he grabbed his bear and closed the door. When he got out, he deeply inhaled the new air that surrounded him. It was different- cleaner, he decided. Naruto wasn't used to this country air. He'd lived in a city his entire life, and the air there was full of carbon and sulfur. The polluted air hadn't bothered him, but this clean, fresh air did. It just wasn't like home.

 

"Come on Naruto, let's not dawdle." Miss Matsura called to him in her sweet, high voice. The woman had Naruto's small suitcase in her hand. Naruto nodded slowly, and closed the car door. He held the stuffed bear to his chest tightly while they walked to the front door.

 

Walking up to the estate seemed to take forever, but once they reached the front door, all Naruto wanted to do was take his suitcase from Miss Matsura and run far, far away. He watched her use the knocker on the door to rap at it twice. For a few seconds no one came to the door, but all of a sudden Naruto heard a lock clicking from the other side. He held his breath as the white door slowly creaked open.

 

Naruto had not ever thought about what he expected her to look like. She was...beautiful. The woman wore slimming, short sleeved, white dress, with a pair of white high-heels to match. On her lips she wore ruby-red lipstick, and her light brown hair was pulled up into a neat bun. She wore lots of jewelry, Naruto noticed, and she wasn't smiling. Naruto was glad that she didn't smile because now he wouldn't have to fake a smile back. She also smoked cigarettes, and Naruto knew this because there was one dangling from her fingertips.

 

Miss Matsura motioned towards the gorgeous woman. "Naruto, this is Izari Namikaze." She told him. Naruto recognized the last name as soon as it left Miss Matsura's mouth. "She is your stepmother."

 

Naruto did not like that word. Stepmother. He took the word literally, he now thought of Miss Izari Namikaze as the woman who was a step below his real mother. No one could replace Kushina Uzumaki, and Naruto didn't think that he would ever allow himself to accept another mother figure into his life. Izari examined Naruto intently, and when her eyes lingered on his, singed, misshapen bear for a moment too long, Naruto childishly hid it behind his back. Even though the bear was hidden, Izari still found something to stare at- Naruto's broken arm. If he could, he would've hidden it as well.

 

The boy watched Miss Matsura hand Izari his suitcase. He looked up at Miss Matsura, who looked a tad bit distressed. As the woman's red hair blew in the wind, it almost masked her dampened cheeks- almost. She was crying...Naruto had never seen the woman cry before. He opened his mouth to say something, but before the words could even leave him, Miss Matsura kneeled down, hugged him tightly and kissed his forehead.

 

"Now, Naruto, you have to be a good boy alright? Don't give Miss Namikaze a hard time." She told him. Naruto only silently nodded, and his social worker smiled before ruffling his hair and standing up again. She reached into her pocket and removed a small card, handing it to Izari. "If there are any problems, or you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at my office."

 

Izari took the card from Miss Matsura's hand and nodded. "I'll make sure to do that." She answered.

 

The red-haired social worker only lingered for a few moments, before she turned away from Naruto and his new guardian. Neither Izari nor Naruto made a move to enter the house before Miss Matsura's car had disappeared.

 

"Well, boy, don't just stand there. Come inside." She stepped back to allow Naruto into the house, and then she closed the door behind him. Naruto realized that they now stood in what looked to be the living room. The ceilings were unimaginably high, and beautiful chandeliers hung from it. There were many pieces of expensive furniture in the room, all situated around a large brick fireplace. The walls were littered with paintings, and plaques with names of awards that Naruto couldn't even pronounce. There were fancy vases, which were taller than Naruto, in the corners of the room, and pretty flowers on top of each table. If the living room was this nice-looking, Naruto could only imagine what the rest of the house looked like.

 

All of a sudden, a girl dressed in what looked to be a maid's uniform took Naruto's suitcase from Izari, and left the room. "Follow Tsukiko- she'll escort you to your bedroom." Izari told him, right before turning away and walking towards another room in this house. Naruto wasted no time doing as he was told, for he felt that he'd get lost if he didn't follow the girl named Tsukiko. Hurriedly, he rushed to her, and caught her just as she was walking up the staircase. The girl, with her unusual silver hair, turned to look at Naruto as she walked.

 

"You look like Minato." She stated bluntly. Naruto didn't know how to respond to that comment, so he chose to stay silent.

 

The upstairs of the house had more rooms than Naruto could count. Most of the doors were closed so he did not get to see what was inside them; Naruto silently wondered how many people actually lived in this house.

 

Tsukiko took Naruto to a room on the east wing of the house. She opened the door and dropped his suitcase on the bed. "Put all of your personal belongings away, and make yourself comfortable, kid. Dinner is at six- I'll come to get you then, because I'm sure you won't be able to find your way around." Without another word, the silver haired girl turned on her heel and left Naruto to his own devices.

 

Naruto examined the bedroom. The walls were painted a cream color, and the carpets were a deep brown. There were plants and paintings all over the place, and in the middle of the room, there was a large bed which he assumed now belonged to him. He went over to the bed and reached out to open his suitcase. He followed the maid girl's instructions and began putting all of his things away. Of course, mostly everything had been destroyed, so he didn't really have much. He moved rather slowly while putting his things away, partly because he couldn't very well function with only one arm. But after a few minutes, his clothes and shoes were put away. At the bottom of the suitcase, there was a framed picture that Naruto had almost forgotten about. He picked it up with his good arm, and gazed at the photo. His eyes began to water immediately; it was a family portrait. Naruto's father and mother stood side by side while he stood in front of the two of them with a bright, dazzling smile on his face.

 

Tears slowly slid out of Naruto's eyes and down his cheeks as he stared at the picture. He knew that he'd never see their faces again and that simply tore him apart. He sniffed and wiped the tears away but the continued to come. He couldn't bring himself to put the picture away; it was the only thing he had left to remind him of them.

 

Suddenly, Naruto felt another presence in the bedroom. He looked up at the intruder, and saw a girl standing in the doorway. She was wearing a long white dress, and he noticed that she didn't have shoes on. She couldn't have been much older than him, and her hair was strikingly blonde, just as his was. There was a black ribbon in her long hair which cascaded down, way past her shoulders. The girl's eyes were a lighter blue than Naruto's, and she stared at him with an almost emotionless look on her face.

 

"You're Naruto, right?" she questioned in a completely uninterested tone. Naruto stayed silent, aside from the short hiccups he was suffering from now, and he nodded his head. "I'm Aya." She told him. The girl saw that he was crying, so Naruto wondered why she was still here. He wished she would leave him alone and let him cry by himself. She crossed her arms over her chest, and laid her head against the door frame. In that moment, a look of what seemed to be sympathy passed across the little girl's face, and she sighed before speaking to Naruto. "...There's no use crying anymore...they're not coming back." She only watched him for a second longer, and then the blonde little girl turned and walked away. Naruto didn't stop crying.

 

"...hey, Uzumaki. Come on, get up." Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder, shaking him vigorously. The dream slowly began to fade away in his mind as he opened his eyes. Staring down at him was the last person he'd ever expected to wake him up. "You awake now?"

 

Immediately, Naruto shot up into a sitting position, and Shikamaru took a cautionary step back. "...what's going on?" the blond questioned, as he ran his hands through his hair and over his face. He noticed that his cheeks were wet, and that his eyes were irritated and wet. Shikamaru yawned lazily, and scratched his head.

 

"You were having a bad dream, or something. And you were...you know, crying. The noise was troublesome, so I woke you up." He admitted. When Naruto didn't respond to Shikamaru's words, the brunet shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the room. He figured that leaving Naruto alone would be the best thing to do.

 

Naruto swung his legs over the edge of the bed and buried his face in his palms. The remnants of his dream were still lingering in the back of his mind, and he struggled to push them away. During his slumber, his mind had betrayed him and let loose the memories he'd tried to hard to keep locked away. He'd managed to not think about that event which happened so many years ago, but he had no control over his thoughts during sleep, and it had unfortunately slipped out.

 

He glanced over at the clock and saw that it was nearing noon. Naruto couldn't understand why he'd slept for so long, but he was not going to sit in bed and simmer in his thoughts. He stood up from the bed and decided that he was going to go and take a shower. He hoped it would help him clear his thoughts.

 

After grabbing his bathroom key and a change of clothes, Naruto went straight to the bathroom. He took a quick, hot shower and in fact, it did help him clear his thoughts a little, or at least push them to the back of his mind where they belonged.

 

When he was showered and dressed he left the bathroom and went walking back to his room. He dropped off his clothes in the hamper and then he left for the tv room. On his way there, Naruto saw some of his friends hanging around in the hallway. He greeted them all politely, with a cheerful smile. But, when Naruto came across him in the hallway, his smile just wouldn't come. The two of them stopped walking, facing eachother and not speaking.

 

Sasuke stood rigid, his hands in his pockets and a very strained expression on his face. Naruto held one arm across his chest, and rubbed his opposite awkwardly. Neither boy spoke for several moments, but they both knew what the other was thinking. Sasuke, surprisingly, was the first to say something.

 

"Sorry for yesterday." He muttered. "I should've taken my meds."

 

Naruto shook his head. "It's alright." The blond started. "Don't worry about it." Sasuke nodded, and so did Naruto. That was the most that either of them was going to say. Neither of them wanted to talk about the event, because it would've proved to make a very uncomfortable conversation. The two of them walked silently together to the tv room. But when they got there, they were surprised to find Shizune standing in the doorway, talking to all of the patients. When she noticed the two boys approaching, she turned to them and smiled.

 

"Oh good, you two are here." She started. "I was just telling everyone that Tsunade has given me permission to re-open the Art room." She turned to the patients "I'm sure you all remember the incident, and know why it's been closed for almost a year. But she's reopened it."

 

"Incident...what incident?" Naruto asked aloud. Everyone merely ignored his question, and Shizune continued talking.

 

"I'd like for you all to follow me to the art room." She said. And then, she turned around and began walking. No one hesitated to follow her. Naruto, on the other hand, hung back with Sasuke. He glanced over to the raven haired boy who too hadn't moved. As he watched the forms of all his friends leaving, he turned to Sasuke with questioning eyes.

 

"What was she talking about?" he asked. "What happened to make them shut down the art room?"

 

Sasuke only shrugged his shoulder carelessly. "Gaara tried to kill Haku with the blunt end of a paintbrush." Naruto's eyes got a little wider, and Sasuke shrugged again. "Gaara is a homicidal maniac, if you haven't noticed." Sasuke began walking to catch up with the others. Naruto frowned and then followed behind him.

 

"Homicidal??" he repeated. "You mean...he-"

 

"-we'll talk about it later."

 

With that comment, Sasuke completely silenced Naruto. The blond crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.

 

"Fine." He grumbled.

 

The raven haired boy turned to him with a smirk on his face. "Are you...pouting?" he teased. Naruto turned away from him with a fiery red blush on his face.

 

"No! I am not pouting!"

 

"...you are too."

 

Growling out of irritation, Naruto rolled his eyes at Sasuke. "Stupid teme..."

 

"Pouting idiot."

 

Their bantering continued up until they entered the art room together. Naruto stopped yelling at Sasuke so that he could stop to look around the room. There were paintings everywhere, and he could barely see the color of the walls behind them. Clay sculptures were all over one of the tables in the back of the room, they were all beautifully painted with vibrant colors and elaborate designs. "Who knew crazy people had such great artistic skills."

 

"Everyone please take a seat at a table." Shizune said as she motioned towards the patients who were currently standing. Once everyone was seated, she started talking again. "Now, while we're in the art room, I would like everyone to respect each other's personal space. We wouldn't want another incident to happen, now would we?" she stared at Gaara out of the corner of her eye, and he seemed to be completely oblivious. "I want everyone to go to the back of the room and get whatever you want, or whatever you think will be necessary for your artwork. There is no set theme today, just draw what you feel."

 

Naruto watched everyone get up and go to the back to start gathering materials. He realized that they did this as if it was a ritual, but it was then that Naruto realized that they'd done this before. He was the only patient who'd never been to the art room before.

 

The boy hadn't even noticed that Sasuke had left until he actually came back. In his hands were several pieces of paper, and in his arms he carried a few art supplies. "Here." He set some paper and colored pencils in front of Naruto.

 

"Thanks." Naruto grabbed a sheet of paper, some colored pencils, and then he paused. Shizune had told them to draw what they felt- what the hell was Naruto feeling? He sat there, staring at the blank piece of paper while contemplating his feelings. "What kind of thing is that to say? Draw what you feel- that doesn't make any sense. How am I supposed to draw my feelings?!" He sighed heavily and continued to stare at the paper. All of a sudden, Naruto heard the sound of pencil grazing against paper at a rapid speed. He turned to the side and saw that Sasuke was drawing on the paper furiously. That wasn't what was odd about it, though. What was odd, was that the entire paper was only one solid shade- black. Naruto glanced at Sasuke's face, and saw that it was completely blank. He turned his attention towards the steadily blackening sheet of paper.

 

"...is that what you're feeling today?" he asked quietly, in a whisper of a voice.

 

Sasuke didn't even bother looking up at him. "This is what I am always feeling."

 

It was obvious that currently, Sasuke wasn't in a very talkative mood, so Naruto dropped the subject. His eyes roamed around the room and he saw that everyone else had already gone to work on their artwork. He noticed that Gaara was the only one who wasn't drawing on paper; he'd chosen an easel and paint over paper and colored pencils. Naruto couldn't tell what it was that he was painting, but what he did know was the color that was most prominent was red. Red could mean a number of things; hatred, anger, blood, or anything along those lines.

 

Naruto picked up the red and orange colored pencils, and he began scribbling away at his paper. At the bottom of the page, he depicted very badly drawn flames. Shizune wanted to know what he was feeling? Well, this was it.

 

After a while, the entire picture turned into a mess of flames, and when Shizune walked around to observe everyone's art, she stopped at Naruto and hovered over his shoulder for several moments. "Good job, Uzumaki-kun." She said before she continued walking. Good job? Was she serious? This was the one thing that could actually prove that Naruto was insane and she'd approved of it. Naruto was beginning to think that the patients weren't the only crazy people here.

 

When Naruto finished his picture, he figured he'd go around and check out his friends' artwork. Shizune allowed them to roam from table to table, so he was free to go to whichever one he wanted. First, he stopped over at Kiba's table. The brunet was sitting with Sai, Haku and Shikamaru. As Naruto looked at their drawings, he couldn't help but find Haku's and Shikamaru's a bit ironic. Shikamaru, not so surprisingly, had drawn clouds and Haku's entire piece of paper was pink. He looked to Kiba's paper and saw that he'd drawn a picture of a dog. When the brunet saw Naruto looking at his paper, he spoke up.

 

"It's a picture of m-my dog, Akamaru." He explained. Kiba stared down at the picture, and sighed a little before he started drawing again. "I r-really miss him...I haven't been able to see him." Kiba didn't say anything else after that, and Naruto decided to leave him be.

 

"Hey, Naruto," Sai called out to him from the other end of the table. "Do you want to see what I drew?" Naruto smiled, nodded, and walked down to where Sai was sitting. The boy was holding the paper to his chest, and he had a mischievous smirk on his face. Before showing Naruto the drawing, he spoke. "This is what I feel." He turned the paper around.

 

In big red letters it said: "I feel like fucking Naruto"

 

If Shizune wasn't in this room, Naruto would've smacked Sai right upside the head. The boy's face was as red as can be, and his eye was twitching furiously. When Sai saw his reaction, he frowned. "What's wrong? This is what I feel."

 

"She said draw what you feel, not what you feel like doing." Naruto growled.

 

Sai took a deep breath and grabbed a black marker. He flipped the paper over and began writing again. When he showed Naruto the second drawing, the blonde wanted to bang his head against the table.

 

It said: "I feel horny."

 

Naruto just walked away from Sai without saying another word; he couldn't deal with Sai and his perverted ways. Instead of standing there any longer, he went over to where Neji and Hinata were sitting. He saw that Neji hadn't drawn anything on his paper, but Hinata on the other hand, was still drawing. Naruto stopped in front of her, and he was a little taken aback by her drawing. In her hand, she held a red colored pencil. Over and over, she struck the paper with the pencil, and by now the whole paper had red lines all over it. Some were parallel, some were crossing eachother- the pattern was so haphazardly drawn.

 

"...is this really how you feel, Hinata?" he asked her, knowing that he wouldn't get a response.

 

Hinata rose up her head, and she stared up into Naruto's eyes, tilting her head slightly. She only stared at him silently for a few moments, and then she covered her face with her hands quickly. It was as if she were trying to hide from Naruto. He slowly reached out and laid his hand on Hinata's. Carefully, he pulled her hand away from her face and he smiled at her. "You don't have to hide from me, you know."

 

She stared at him with what seemed to be anxiety in her gaze, and Naruto was shocked when he felt her hand closing around his. A ghost of a smile showed on her face.

 

"Alright everyone, it's time for lunch." Shizune announced from the front of the room. "If you haven't finished your drawing, it's alright. You can finish them tomorrow."

 

Shizune quickly ushered all of the patients out of the art room, and when they were all outside, she locked the door. Everyone obediently walked towards the dining area, and Shizune had been right behind them. But all of a sudden, Kurenai came walking toward her and whispered something in her ear. Shizune glanced over at the group and nodded.

 

"Sasuke," she started. "Come with me, you have a visitor." She told him. Sasuke nodded his head quickly, and followed Shizune and Kurenai to the front of the building. As Naruto watched them leave, curiosity struck in his mind. Sasuke actually had a visitor? Naruto couldn't remember one time when the raven had received a visitor.

 

"...and hadn't he said he had a brother...maybe that's his brother." Naruto let his curious side take over, and instead of going to the dining area with everyone else, he ventured to the front of the building. In the back of his mind, Naruto could hear the words 'curiosity killed the cat' echoing over and over again- he ignored it.

 

Upon reaching the front, he stopped and stood behind one of the walls. He could hear many voices, one being Sasuke's and another being a male's voice which he'd never heard before.

 

"It's nice to see you again, Itachi-san." Naruto heard Shizune's voice. "How have you been?"

 

"Fine Shizune, I've been just fine." The man, whose name was apparently Itachi, said. Naruto wanted to get a better look at the guy, and so he peeked out from the side of the wall. When he saw the man, he was completely sure that it was Sasuke's brother; the resemblance was uncanny. The only difference was that his hair was a bit longer, and his face was more matured that Sasuke's. He was a bit taller as well.

 

He didn't realize how long he'd been looking at Sasuke's brother, but soon Naruto's cover was blown when Shizune had looked his way. "Naruto-kun? Why aren't you at lunch with the others?"

 

All of a sudden, Sasuke turned and stared dead at Naruto. His eyes bore into Naruto's face, and the blonde could swear that Sasuke looked like he wanted to downright kill him. He scoffed, and tugged at his brother's arm. "Come on Itachi."

 

Naruto turned away from the lot of them, and hurried to the dining area. For some reason, he had the strangest feeling that he'd gone and done something that he shouldn't have...

 

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Peace & Love: DizziKatz