Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Ties to Humanity ❯ Precious People ( Chapter 3 )

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Disclamer: I don't own Naruto

 

Chapter 3 Don't cry, everything will be alright.

Previously on Ties to Humanity

“Don't you know, Naruto-kun?” Mizuki asked mockingly. “You're the demon which killed Iruka's parents, Kyuubi no Youkai!”

Demon? He frowned at Mizuki's words.

He did not know of any demon that existed within him. And if it did, he would be the first to know...right?

But before, he could ask another question, a shout of pain reminded him of the real world.

He looked up and saw Iruka hovering over him, his Chuunin jacket stained with dark motley spots of blood. Tears were streaking down his face as Iruka struggled to speak. “Naruto…you..are one of my precious people..go..before.”

The scene was disturbingly familiar, with blood, pain and someone screaming. Usually he was the one screaming with people laughing, jeering, yelling. He shuddered as suppressed memories came back.

“Before what?” Mizuki gloated. “Before I kill you? You just gave up any chance you had of beating me! Ssacrificing yourself for the demon! Now that scroll is as good as mine!” Mizuki hurled his second giant shuriken at them. Naruto could only stare shell shocked as it hurtled toward Iruka and him. However, Iruka spun around and pushed Naruto out of the way.

Only to have the shuriken bury itself into his gut with a sickening sound.

Naruto watched in slow motion as the only person who acknowledged him fell on to the forest floor in an unmoving heap.

Naruto ran to Iruka the large scroll on his back hindering his speed.

“Naruto...It's too late …” Iruka managed to gasp out, the two wounds in his body were causing more blood to gush out.

“Sensei, it's never too late.” Naruto said softly, a small tear coming out of his eye.

Naruto quickly formed one of the healing techniques in the scroll.

“Shosen Jutsu”

However, it was indeed too late.

“Naruto, live….be strong..” Iruka whispered then he stilled forever.

Naruto stared at Iruka's stilled form. Even more tears coming out of his eyes.

Naruto stared and stared at Iruka's still form.

“Hahahahah.” The maniacal laugh from Mizuki startled Naruto.

“The fool got what was coming, hehehe, your turn.”

Rage bottled up from years of treatment from the villagers spilled out.

Iruka is dead.

Dead.

A blue glow surrounded the boy.

It was a split second decision when he decided what to do. He would not hesitate. He will take revenge.

“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.” Four clones appeared surrounding Mizuki.

Forming their hands into a different seal and taking a deep breath, they all murmured softly, “Katon: GÅkakyÅ« no Jutsu .”

Five small fireballs flew at Mizuki.

Mizuki jumped up over the multiple fireballs' range.

“Ha, you missed.” He gloated at the small boys.

“Kage Shuriken no Jutsu” Came the replies.

Each clone held a shuriken, and threw it at Mizuki.

Mizuki blocked two but never saw the remaining six tear his body to pieces.

Mizuki was now a pile of limbs and blood, shurikens sticking from his body. He was not even recognizable anymore.

 

Meanwhile, the ninja returned to the Sandaime to report their findings. All except Iruka.

“Where's Iruka?”

“Didn't he go to check south eastern part of the forest?”

“Did the demon get him?”

“Someone go find him!”

“I am going as well.” The Hokage seemed perturbed and followed the three shinobis.

The three ninjas and the Hokage were stunned at what they saw. Iruka's dead body, a bloody pile of shuriken that hid the remains of a body, and scorch markings on the trees. Naruto himself was sitting near Iruka's body, the scroll still on his back. He was curled up, with his head on his knees. The nins approached the child, uncertain as to whether he had went on a bloody rampage or not. Naruto stood up when they came closer. His eyes were dull, with tears streaking his face. The usual fox smile gone, replaced with a blank face. Specks of blood on his face and hands indicated that he was involved in this incident somehow.

The Sandaime had prepared himself to give a stern lecture to Naruto, but when he saw him, he could not bring himself to say it. He walked towards the boy and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. He felt Naruto flinch and then relaxed. When they were back at his office, Naruto explained what had happened, well parts of what happened. Naruto never told them of the technique he used on Iruka or the fire jutsu. The Hokage already knew, since he saw parts of the battle from his crystal globe.

The shinobi in the room were far too used to hating him to show any sort of sympathy or pity, they were too wrapped up in their own miseries and narrow mindedness to notice the child's own pain. Naruto was emotionless through the entire thing, not even twitching.

This only enforced the ninja's thoughts that the boy was a demon. After all demons don't show sadness, right? Sarutobi decided that there was no need for punishment, although silently most of the shinobi disagreed, they did not go against their Hokage.

Sarutobi brought Naruto to Ichikaru. He had discovered by accident that Naruto loved Ramen. Sarutobi had once tried and failed to introduce healthier foods to the boy, namely fruit and vegetables, but Naruto was adamant that Ramen was still the best and healthiest food of them all. It did not help that Iruka fed the boy Ramen all the time, or the fact that Iruka himself lived on Ramen as well. It seemed that Naruto ate Ramen to be like his mentor. Though now, Iruka was gone.

Naruto silently and slowly ate his bowl of Ramen, his first bowl in fact. He did not eat at the normal speed he usually ate.

“Naruto, how are you feeling,” Sarutobi said softly, not wanting to scare him.

Naruto turned slightly to face Sarutobi and whispered,” I feel pain, but not the physical kind.”

“Pain?” Sarutobi noticed that Naruto was actually showing real emotion, not the fake happiness he usually had.

“I feel empty, why do I feel like that?”

“Naruto what you are experiencing is loss, when Iruka died you felt his loss personally since you were his friend---.”

“Precious person, he said I was his precious person.” Naruto interrupted softly.

The boy's silence seemed to stretch for ages.

“Old man, why did people hate me?”

“They were blinded by their grief and forgot that there was a young child forced to carry a burden no should carry.”

“I don't want to be a shinobi.”

This surprised Sarutobi, Naruto had a dream to be Hokage and he shouted this dream very loudly and daily.

“Why is that?”

“The only reason I became a shinobi was to protect Iruka, but now…”

Iruka is dead, that statement floated around unheard but known.

Sarutobi sighed as he looked at Naruto; Iruka's death had affected Naruto greatly.

“Naruto, I am sure Iruka would want you to become a shinobi.”

“Why?” Naruto voice was cracked and tears were trickling down his face.

“Why, should I become a ninja for a village that hates me!” Naruto screamed and collapsed crying softly to himself. Warm wizened hands hugged Naruto as he cried for the first time.

“Not everyone hates you, I don't and neither did Iruka.”

“Iruka is dead.”

“Yes, I know.”

Silence again descended on the duo.

“Naruto, for Iruka's sake will you become a shinobi?”

Naruto hung his head and contemplated this thought, he continued eating without answering.

“Naruto, live….be strong..”

Naruto ate two more bowls before Sarutobi interrupted him.

“Did you learn every technique in the Scroll?”

“No,” The boy shook his head, “I got to the second last one before Iruka-sensei found me.”

The Hokage's voice turned grave, “Promise me that you will NEVER use them unless you're in an extreme emergency and never teach them to anyone else without my expressed order, understood?”

Naruto gave the Sandaime a puzzled look, failing to comprehend the situation.

“Those jutsu only cause pain to others, and I would not wish to see it be used for anything other than protecting the ones that are precious to you.”

“Oh, that'll be easy, only you are my precious person and no one else.”

Naruto's harsh tone made Sarutobi wince slightly.

“Naruto not all the people are narrow-minded, give them a chance.”

“Hmph.”

“Can I use the Kage Bunshin then?” The boy asked almost immediately and Sarutobi pondered for a moment. While it was in the scroll, it does not cause mass destruction and the only problem was chakra drain.

“Yes, you may.” He answered, “Though I suggest you keep that fact to yourself.”

“What about the healing jutsu? It could have healed Iruka if I had been more …..”

“Ah, Naruto it wasn't your fault that you weren't able to heal Iruka,” Sarutobi said a bit more cheerfully, trying to break the growing gloom in the atmosphere, “There are times when the wound is too huge for any jutsu to heal. You can use that though I suggest you use it only when the occasion demands it.”

The only non-offensive jutsu was the Scroll of Seals had been a high-level medical jutsu created by Tsunade, his now wayward student. It was capable of healing the most grievous of wounds though it demanded a great deal of chakra from the user; an amount that very few had to capability to give. It used to be taught although after the seventh medical nin died from using it, it was considered a kinjitsu.

Sarutobi reached into his robes to pull out a bundled scroll. “I have written for you a instruction manual of basic Genin techniques that you should already know. Burn it once you finish memorizing them.”

The boy accepted it before tucking it into one of his pockets.

“Don't worry about me going psycho and killing random people.”

“Oh, why is that.”

“That would dishonor Iruka, and I don't want to dishonor his memory.”

With that, they both ate in silence, then Naruto's voice broke the silence.

“I will become a shinobi, but I am only doing this for Iruka.”

Sarutobi grinned and took out a headband from his robes and gave it to Naruto.

“Since you were able to use Kage Busnshin, I feel you should be promoted to Genin.”

“Is that Iruka's headband?”

“Yes, he wanted you to have it when you graduated.”

Naruto looked at the headband, grabbed it, and tied it on his head.

Thanks Iruka-sensei he thought silently.

He turned to Sarutobi and whispered,” Thank you for being there for me, Hokage-sama.”

Sarutobi merely smiled,” Everyone deserves to be loved.” Even his wayward student Orochimaru.

 

Too be honest, this took a lot of time. It was hard to write how Naruto would react to having the only person in the world he believed in him die.

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