Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Owari Nai Yume ni Tamesarate mo ❯ The Boy Known Only as Demon ( Chapter 2 )

The Boy Known Only as Demon

 

`I like looking at the clouds. They never kill each other, they never hate each other, and they never cast one another out.' Uzumaki Naruto was watching the clouds slowly go by through a window in an all white room laying on an all white bed with red sheets. His right leg and left arm were supported by slings. Next to the all white bed with a simple table that held only one object; a bouquet of carnations given to him as a get well present from Hinata and Neji, well, mostly Hinata. She had just written Neji's name on the card for politeness.

 

`She's probably the closest friend I've got right now; she's eight months pregnant and yet somehow manages to get me this gift. Dammit I need to get out of her to get her some kind of present for her baby.' As Naruto let his mind drift off towards thoughts of the pale eyed Hyuuga, a certain pink haired medic nin walked into the room.

 

“Hey, Naruto; how are you feeling?” asked Sakura, almost laughing as if she were intoxicated.

 

`I'm so sorry, Sakura-chan. I'm so sorry.' Naruto said nothing in reply, he just kept his gaze transfixed upon the sky.

 

“Naruto, is something wrong?” asked Sakura, now sincerely worried for her teammate.

 

“Gomen, Sakura-chan. I'm so, so, sorry,” whispered Naruto, keeping his gaze fixed on the clouds that he admired so very much.

 

“Naruto, what do you have to be sorry about? You've just completed your first A-class mission. In fact, I'm surprised that you're not jumping off the walls in excitement,” teased Sakura lightly. Her words said that she didn't know what the blond boy was talking about, but her eyes betrayed her. Her eyes were expecting this for a long time.

 

“Sakura-chan, I couldn't keep my promise,” sadly apologized Naruto. “Sasuke, is dead,” he almost whispered the last three words. He was waiting for Sakura to break down crying and weeping, but the sobs never came. Instead, he felt her inspecting his wounds.

 

`I'm so, so, sorry Sakura-chan. I'm so, very sorry.' He repeated these last two words over and over gain in his head, thinking that swallowing himself in pity for Sakura would get rid of his own pain and grief. Eventually, she finished checking and retreating all of his wounds, without letting a single tear fall.

 

`Sasuke would have been proud of you, Sakura-chan.' Before Sakura left, he remembered Sasuke's dying wish.

 

“Oi, Sakura!” called Naruto, flashing one of her trademark grins.

 

“Yes, Naruto?” asked Sakura.

 

“Before he died, Sasuke wanted me to tell you that despite the things he said to you when we were children; he always thought you were beautiful.” Sakura could tell it pained Naruto to say so, and she smiled a smile laced with grief.

 

“Arigato gozaimasu (sp), Naruto,” softly said Sakura. She then left the room as if she were in slow motion.

 

`Just another scar to add to my substantial collection.'

 

`There was nothing you could do, Kit.'

 

`No, there was! I could have tried to talk with him! I could have…'

 

`He would have killed you.'

 

`No, he changed! I know that he did!'

 

`Get it through your damn head! It was either you or him, and the stronger of the two survived.'

 

`Why though? Why did it have to end up like that? Why couldn't he have just come home dammit?'

 

`You can't change the past, kit. You know that as better than anyone.'

 

`I know, but, it just hurts so damn much!'

 

`I'm fed up with your complaining. You're a ninja; learn to deal with the death of a comrade. I still don't know why he was so important to you. He just treated you like every other half-wit in this village; like garbage.'

 

Naruto had no response to Kyuubi. Doing so would just irritate old scars, not the flesh ones, but the ones that imprint themselves on your very soul; the only kind that Naruto had, and he had plenty of them. One such incident was always at the back of his mind…

 

“You are garbage! You will never be anything more than garbage! You have never been anything more than garbage!” shouted a sixteen year old boy, punching with immense power after each statement. It had been going on for ten minutes now, and the boy and his friend's victim was sporting two black eyes, several missing teeth, and was bleeding from various places. The victim's eyes were begging for this torture to stop, to leave him be, but it seemed like they felt that he deserved more, that he deserved this feeling of helplessness and weakness. His eyes darted from side to side, looking for a savior, a sanctuary that would save him. And then his eyes found someone; a boy his age with raven black spiky hair wearing a blue shirt with the Uchiha symbol on it. Their eyes locked, and the boy walked away, as if he hadn't seen the boy or the living hell he was being forced to live through. The boy lost all hope of being saved. His eyes seemed to lose their life as he realized that he was going to die. “Hold him up,” grunted the first boy. His two cronies each held one of the victim's arms as the leader moved into a taijutsu posed and brought his knee up, hard, into the young boy's jaw, cracking it. “Just do us all a favor and die, you worthless piece of garbage,” sneered the leader. The cronies let Naruto sag to the ground. The leader then picked Naruto up by the collar of his shirt and threw him against the dead end wall of the alley they were in. He hit the wall with a sickening crack and slumped down onto the ground, consciousness lost.

 

Naruto shivered at the remembrance of that particular incident. Now all he wanted to do was to watch the clouds continue their slow procession across the sky.

 

`It's been harder and harder to wear this mask.'

 

 

Two Weeks Later:

 

Naruto had just gotten out of the hospital and he had never felt better in his life; Neji had informed him that Hinata and him had chosen him to be the godparent (a/n: don't know if they actually have them in Naruto, just pretend they do), he had gotten out of a horrifyingly boring stay at the hospital, and it was his birthday! He had celebrated by buying a certain food that he hardly had the privilege of eating; ice cream. He had been saving up his spare money that weren't spent on hospital bills, electrical bills, rent on his apartment, or food just for this occasion, because the owner inflated the price five hundred percent whenever Naruto had ordered the cold, tasty treat. He was currently walking towards the Hyuuga estate with a shoddily wrapped package under his arm. Before entering the gates, however, he finished his chocolaty treat and devoured the cone in one bite. He entered the front gates and knocked loudly on the front door. Even though Naruto had next to no social graces, he knew how to act at the expansive Hyuuga estate. Soon enough a maid answered the door and Naruto politely asked if he may have the honor of talking with they Hyuuga heiress. The maid grimaced at the sight of the demon brat at her door, with a chocolate coated mouth nonetheless, but she knew how Hinata felt about him. She briskly turned around and led Naruto towards the Hyuuga heiress's room.

 

“Hinata-sama, Uzumaki Naruto here to see you,” expressionlessly announced the maid. Once she saw the door open, she briskly turned around and walked away, secretly disgusted with Hinata being friends with this, demon.

 

“Hey Hina…” Naruto couldn't end his greeting however, as two arms wrapped around his midsection, hard.

 

“Naruto-kun! What brings you here?” greeted Hinata with one of those rare Hyuuga smiles.

 

“Hi…na…ta yo…you're cru…shing my ribs,” choked out Naruto.

 

“Ah! Gomen Naruto-kun!” squealed Hinata, reverting back to her old habit of pushing her fingers together and blushing.

 

“Hinata, come on don't go back to old habits!” exclaimed Naruto. Before Hinata was forced into an arranged marriage a year before with Neji, Naruto and Hinata finally found their relationship to be blossoming. Hinata had eventually worked up the courage to ask Naruto out for a date. The relationship was shaky at first, but after the first couple of dates, Naruto and Hinata had officially declared themselves a couple. It was a cold February night when Naruto had spent all of his life savings on a fancy dinner and a pure gold ring. Naruto had planned to propose to Hinata on that night, but his heart had once again been broken; Hinata had told him that she had been forced into an arranged marriage with her cousin Neji. Even though Naruto felt angry and depressed, he kept his cheerful façade on and congratulated Hinata on her finally being officially acknowledged as the Hyuuga heiress. However, Hinata had broke down crying, because she finally had her dream come true; only for it to be stamped out of existence by her father. Naruto had held her in his arms, feeling the exact same feeling as Hinata, but couldn't allow himself to show it, for if he had, his façade would have been destroyed, and he would never be Uzumaki Naruto, just the demon brat; the Kyuubi. And over the past year and a half, Hinata had finally come out of her shell, if only a little bit. She could now talk without stuttering most of the time and only reverted back to her old ways if she was embarrassed.

 

The two chuunin then entered Hinata's room, with Naruto still holding the unnoticed package under his arm. Hinata slowly sat down onto her bed as to not disturb the baby she was currently holding inside her and signaled Naruto to sit down next to her.

 

“Hinata-chan, I have something I want to say to you,” grinned Naruto.

 

“Yes, Naruto-kun?” inquired the blue haired girl.

 

“Congratulations!” yelled Naruto, his wide grin somehow getting even wider. He held out the package and Hinata accepted it, but was staring at it oddly.

 

“Aren't you going to open it?” asked Naruto, his grin faltering slightly.

 

`I hope she likes it.'

 

Hinata cautiously opened up the spiky package and found within it a stuffed bear. It wasn't fancy or cute, it was just brown fabric stuffed with cotton with two black button eyes; she expected nothing less than a perfect gift from him, and this is what that bear was, simplistically perfect.

 

“Naruto-kun, it's…aghh!” Hinata suddenly felt a strong, sharp pain in her stomach and on instinct brought both of her hands over to it. “It's coming,” slowly panted Hinata.

 

“Now?” asked a bewildered Naruto.

 

“Yes, now,” panted Hinata. Naruto quickly, but carefully, picked her up bridal style and ran through the open door and down the hallway of the Hyuuga manor, hopefully going towards the exit. During Naruto's mad sprint, he came across an obstacle, namely one Hyuuga Neji, who blocked the hallway, causing Naruto to skid to a stop.

 

“Naruto, what do you think you're doing running around like a madman with my pregnant wife?” asked Neji, more than slightly ticked off.

 

“I…we…Hinata…room…present…SHE 'S HAVING THE BABY!” Naruto finally got out of his mouth.

 

“Give me Hinata and you go tell Aburame, Inuzuka, and Kurenai,” bluntly commanded Neji.

 

“But…” protested Naruto, he then saw the Hyuuga's eyes start to go Byakugan. “Fine…but I'll be back soon!” He smiled as he disappeared with a poof of smoke after slowly giving Hinata to her husband. But what was behind that smile would surprise even Hinata.

 

`That bastard Neji always steals Hinata-chan away from me. Someday, I'll get my revenge on him.'

 

Naruto couldn't help but smile as he found and delivered the news to all of Hinata's team members. Once he had finished, he decided to go inform Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji as well. A good four hours later Naruto was eating his ramen, once again staring at the clouds.

 

`How peaceful they look, I've always wanted to be like a cloud.' Naruto sighed as he set down his half-eaten ramen.

 

“Naruto-san, are you alright? You've never not finished a bowl of ramen,” inquired the waitress, Ayame.

 

“I'm fine Ayame, I'm just thinking. Could you give me my bill please?” asked Naruto.

 

“Sure thing!” perkily said Ayame. She left and then returned with a bill. Naruto reluctantly paid the bill and then left, heading off towards Sakura's house. As he walked towards her house, he passed Neji and Tenten, walking off somewhere together. He made sure to flash one of his signature grins, and he received one back from Tenten, but Neji showed no acknowledgment of him being seen.

 

`She can't fool me. I know that her smiles are a mask, just like mine are. I really should get to know her better, I mean; I don't even know her clan name. Maybe, like the masks we wear, we're the same inside. I wonder if she likes the clouds to.'

 

Naruto finally arrived at the doorstep of the Haruno household and knocked on the door. He could do nothing else but wait for the pink haired kunoichi to open her door for him.