Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Vengeful ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

As the sun retreated, shadows growing long over the tall stones around, a single figure sat, a young man, eyes fixed forward, distant. Wild blond hair shadowed his eyes, and three whisker-like scars adorned both of his cheeks. The increasing cold made him shiver involuntarily, and wrap his arms around himself, but he didn't move from where he sat. He hadn't noticed the darkening around him, the coming of the night.

He didn't know how he had come to be in the cemetery. The last thing he remembered was that he was walking home for lunch. But here he was, alone in front of a familiar grave. He shivered again, but not from the cold. Although his eyes were too blurry to make out the writing on the gravestone, he knew every word on it, every mark. Drops of water trickled down his face - rain, he told himself, it had to be rain. He couldn't be crying like a little child. He couldn't be that weak.

He blinked away the irritating rainwater that had been collecting in the bottom of his eyes and spilling onto his cheeks, and glanced away from the gravestone, suddenly realising that he couldn't see anything around him, and he cursed silently. His mind told him sternly that his guardian would be worried, and shout at him, but he decided it didn't matter. He couldn't go home with the feeling he had now, the feeling of emptiness and loss.

A year ago he would have ran back home, the awful feeling causing tears to fall freely. His guardian would comfort him, hold him, and repeat softly the all too familiar words. `It's okay, Naruto, to feel like this.' Then further reassurance; `It's not your fault. None of it is your fault.' He liked them, the comforting words, familiar words - empty words. His mind protested against them, telling him that the words were false and meaningless, and he couldn't help but agree if he thought about it. But it hurt, and pulled him into depression.

His logical response to this was to ignore those thoughts, something that he'd perfected through years of being an outcast. He could push unwanted thoughts away, hiding any inner turmoil behind a practiced grin. Ignorance paid off, helping him cope with everything that hurt him. The loneliness, the hateful looks from the people of the village, the loudly whispered comments in the streets.

“Naruto?” Startled out of his reverie, he spun round at the familiar voice. Through blurry eyes he could make out in the darkness a head of pink hair, and soft green eyes. He blinked quickly to clear his vision, and offered a wide smile at the person who had joined him.

“Hi, Sakura!” He greeted, forcing his voice to remain steady. “What brings you here?”

“I went to your house to see you at lunch, but Iruka told me you hadn't come home yet.” She replied, and gave him a small smile. “I figured you'd be either here or the ramen stand.” He grinned back at her and scratched the back of his head, out of habit.

“Right, I was heading back but …” He stumbled over his words slightly, his eyes flicking to the gravestone. She caught the glance, and put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

“We should get back, Iruka is probably worried out of his mind.” Naruto looked up at her again, and chuckled, slowly standing up.

“Yeah, he's probably gonna lock me in my room for week.” He smiled at the thought of his guardian, who worried about him like a mother. Naruto didn't mind though; Iruka was the closest he had to actual family, being the only one willing to take care of him when his parents had died. He considered his stern but kind guardian the most important person in his life, and the person who saved him from going insane with the shock of that incident.

As this thought of the `incident' came, he quickly shook his head and pushed it away, turning his attention to the girl walking beside him, who was chattering happily about how lucky he was to have someone as caring and considerate as Iruka. He smiled back at her, nodding to what she was saying without paying much attention. Although he could have taken offence to the fact that she, with a secure and happy family, was calling him lucky, he knew she was only trying to make him feel better.

After a while, she had apparently ran out of things to say, and settled with smiling at him and occasionally commenting on how different the village looked at night. Naruto agreed, and looked around at the dark buildings they were passing warily. The village was unusually silent and empty however, which was fortunate; the villagers were less than friendly towards him. Again he shook his head and pushed the thoughts away. He grinned widely at Sakura when she gave him an odd look, but she didn't comment on his unusual behaviour or uncharacteristic silence.

As they neared their destination, he noted that there were people about, but they were out of the light of the few street torches, and he could barely make out the forms watching the pair from the shadows. Unconsciously he moved closer to Sakura, who was also uncertain. Neither of them minded when Sakura took his hand to reassure both of them.

When they finally came to the house, they stopped at the door and Naruto sighed in relief that the journey through the dark was over - not that he was scared. He turned to Sakura with a grin.

“Well I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow!” She nodded, smiling at the return of the blond's cheerful manner. “So, how about a goodnight kiss?” Her smile faltered, and she put on a mock-annoyed face while resting her hands on her hips. They both laughed at the familiar routine. He leaned forward to hug her and she grinned and put her arms around him. But as she rested her hands on his back, she felt him stiffen. She pulled away to see what was wrong. Naruto was staring at something behind her, and she followed his gaze to a window on the side of the house, before stiffening also.

The window was broken, shards of glass lying around it and reflecting the moonlight. She turned back to Naruto, whose cerulean blue eyes were wide, the earlier brightness gone.

He immediately thought of the most likely cause of the broken window, that being the villagers. It was not uncommon that they would harass Iruka in an attempt to get to Naruto, and they had attacked the house before, throwing rocks and other heavy objects. But what worried him more was the fact that although there were no villagers around that he could see, Iruka had not come out to clean up broken glass. His heart pounded painfully in his chest at the thought that Iruka could have been hurt. Hurt because of him.

Forcing himself out of his shock, he fumbled to open the door, and stumbled inside, looking around frantically.

“Iruka!” he shouted urgently. He waited, but the shout was met with silence. Shaking, he ran through the hall towards the living room, Sakura following silently. He pulled open the door and ran inside, but froze at what he saw.

Before him stood three masked figures, armed with swords that he recognised as katanas. They assessed him carefully through eye slits. Behind them stood at least a dozen of the villagers, unarmed but with clenched fists, looking at Naruto with cold and hostile eyes. He heard Sakura gasp behind him, but his eyes were fixed on the figures. His expression of horror slowly formed into an expression of anger.

“Where is Iruka?!” He demanded, surprising the gathered crowd with his boldness. One of the masked figures tilted their head slightly, as if wondering what he meant, before snorting.

“If you mean the man who was trying to stop us … he's taken care of.” Naruto felt his heart clench. Taken care of? What did that mean? It could mean he was captured or maybe …

“Where is he?!” He snarled at the masked man who had spoken, forgetting any fear he had as he glared threateningly. The man was slightly taken aback, but then laughed coldly. There was a tense silence, before one of the villagers, a middle-aged man, spoke up.

“Enough with the talking! Kill the demon!” The hate-filled voice made Naruto cringe, and the words cut into him. His left hand rose quickly to touch the scars on his cheek. The masked man turned sharply to the one who had spoken and glared.

“We are here to capture it, not kill it.” The villagers let out a cry of protest at the statement.

“It's a danger to the world!” An old woman hissed at the masked man. “It deserves to die now!” There was a murmur of agreement from the villagers, but it was cut off with a gesture from one of the other masked figures.

“Our orders are to take it back alive,” she growled at the offending old woman, “so unless you want to get in our way, I suggest you be silent.” The old woman paled in fear, and shrunk away to the back of the crowd. Everyone turned back to the subject of the discussion, who was standing in the doorway, his eyes wide in fear and realisation. But as one of masked figures stepped forward, his face returned to a snarl. Anger consumed him, and his vision began to turn red as he glared at the three alert figures.

“You will tell me where he is!” The shouted order was followed by gasps from the assembled villagers. The blond's voice was now different, deep and resounding, and filled with such ferociousness that it made many step back, trembling. Still in shock from what had happened, Sakura turned to look at Naruto, who had taken a stance of an animal ready to pounce. She let out a frightened squeal that joined those of the villagers as she saw that his eyes, before a brilliant blue, were now blood red and almost murderous.

The three masked figures quickly regained their composure, and readied their own weapons towards Naruto, but then stumbled back uncertainly, and it was obvious as to why. He was now surrounded by swirling, red-orange flames, which were not so much real fire as a powerful energy surrounding him.

Sakura, who was previously frozen with fear, now backed away, screaming. Although she had known Naruto was different, she wasn't expecting her best friend to turn into a flaming demon! As he leaped towards the shaking masked figures, newly grown claws gleaming, her mind decided it was too much to handle, and she fainted in the hallway.

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Naruto woke up with a dull pain at the top of his left arm, and he frowned as he touched it tentatively. As he shifted, he suddenly realised that he was not in a bed. There was cold wood beneath him, and his leg was draped over what felt like another person. Even more disturbingly, he was not only fully clothed but also soaked through.

He groaned and half opened his eyes to find where he was. He found himself looking at the door of his living room. He tried to move his head, wondering what he was doing in the living room. But as he surveyed the room, he frowned, and closed his eyes again. He sighed, and willed himself to wake up, deciding silently that he would keep this strange dream to himself, not wanting to appear crazier than people thought.

After a good five minutes of this, his frown deepened. Was there some trick to waking oneself up? He then nodded to himself and sighed again, moving to pinch his left arm. He let out a yelp of pain as his fingers rubbed against broken skin, and sat up sharply by reflex.

This time, he got a much clearer view of the room, and he shuddered in horror. The whole room was littered with bloody and barely recognisable corpses, the bodies and the furniture covered with deep claw marks. As his eyes fell on three particularly torn corpses, the black clothing and remains of masks gave him a flash of memory. He was unable to move as his mind put together scrambled images of what had happened.

When the memory in his mind was finally whole, he watched it through as if it were happening all over again. He saw that he was angry, furious, at the ones who had taken Iruka, the ones who were preparing to take him. His first instinct was to run, of course, his training in combat was basic, and he stood little chance against three armed swordsmen. But his anger took over, and he couldn't think of anything else.

Then, something unexpected had happened. Naruto knew that he, somehow, had a demon inside of him, but only once before had he felt the demon. The first time had been when his parents had died, when the pain of loss overwhelmed him, but nothing had happened, it had just scared away the villagers, and he had been grateful.

But this time was different. This time he had lost control. It wasn't him pouncing, teeth and claws bared, at the people in the room. He was there, of course, watching from inside his body, but he had no control, as if watching through someone else's eyes.

The images of the scene flashed through his mind, and he felt emotions and feelings threatening to overwhelm him. Not wanting to see it, he clutched his head, and screamed, seeing the blood everywhere, the cries of the dying villagers trying desperately to escape, and the feeling that their pain gave him. The villagers who hated him, tried to hurt him, destroyed his life. The mysterious masked people who took away the person most important to him and tried to capture him.

Killing them felt good. The feeling as he had sliced mercilessly through the terrified people was exhilarating, their screams giving him an incredible feeling of happiness and satisfaction. Nothing else had mattered. Had he … really felt that? Is that what he wanted? He closed his eyes tightly. Of course it wasn't what he wanted. It wasn't right, he didn't like it; it was the demon - the demon that had managed to destroy his life without even doing anything. The demon had killed all these people.

He fought a wave of nausea, and tried desperately to put everything together in his head, to maintain order in the swirling thoughts and emotions. But he was fighting a losing battle, he couldn't think, he couldn't move, and he couldn't breathe.

“Na-Naruto …” His mind froze, the voice pulling him back into reality. He looked up to see Sakura, on her knees at door of the living room, and glazed eyes looking towards him.

“Sakura!” Suddenly, all the turmoil had disappeared, and he focused on the pink-haired girl who was staring blankly at him. He crawled towards her, avoiding corpses, and placed a hand on her arm. She gazed into the now blue eyes of the blood-soaked blond, and slowly brought her hands up, her fingers tracing the whisker-like scars on his cheeks.

They both sat staring at each other for what seemed like hours. Finally, Sakura's confused mind kicked in, giving her full comprehension of the situation. The first thought being simply, `What now?' Her mind began to almost mechanically work to put forward a solution.

Of course, staying in the village after slaughtering 15 people was not a preferable option for Naruto, and if she was alive after being seen entering the house with him, probably not for her either. So logically, she thought, we will not stay in the village. Next was the issue of where to go.

This was a slightly harder question. If rumours spread all across the country of the demon boy, Naruto wouldn't be safe with his obvious whisker marks. It would be hard to lay low, especially after this. Staying in the Land of Thunder would be too big a risk. The Land of Fire was an obvious choice of destination; it tolerated all types of people, and was big enough that you wouldn't be found it you didn't want to be. So, she thought, we should head for there as soon as possible.

The third problem was that of Naruto. She thought briefly back to the red eyes and mysterious energy, and shivered. But this was the normal Naruto in front of her … that problem could be addressed later. Nodding to herself, she decided to explain her decisions to said blond.

Of course, this was easier said than done. She almost laughed at the situation they were in. She was involved in the slaughter of a dozen villagers, and was about to flee the country with a killer demon.

“Naruto …” he looked up at her questioningly. “We have to leave - now.” He stared at her for a few moments while processing this.

“But … Iruka …” He whispered. Sakura cursed to herself about not thinking of him.

“If Iruka is actually …” She paused, not wanting to mention that Iruka was probably dead. “We won't be able to find Iruka if we go to jail.” Naruto nodded slowly in agreement.

“Okay.” He whispered. She looked away, not wanting to see the sadness in the normally cheerful blue eyes. Sighing, she stood up shakily, averting her eyes from the blood-covered room.

“Wash yourself and change your clothes.” She ordered. “And find a bag, pack some clothes and food.” He obeyed silently, walking past her uncertainly. She drew a deep breath. Next, she had to return to her own house, and needed to tell her parents that she was leaving. Of course, that would never go smoothly … a written note would have to do.

She blinked back tears, knowing that is wasn't the time for being overly sentimental or emotional. Nodding her head in resolve, she closed the door of the living room, and walked as steadily as she could towards the front door.

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Sasuke looked around annoyed at the crowded, noisy street as he walked, scowling at the multitude of people gathered around the stalls, and was reminded again how much he hated towns in general. How these people did it every day was a mystery to him; the streets were noisy, smelly, always bustling with people and animals, and yet the people wore cheery expressions as they shouted at each other over other people, as though they enjoyed the hellish ordeal. He attempted to ask people to move out of his way as he made his way through the crowds, but was completely ignored. He growled angrily at this. He hated being ignored.

“Have these people never heard of personal space?” He said coldly to the two bodyguards who flanked him, and brushed off his shoulder with a disgusted grimace as someone pushed past him. One of the guards laughed, putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, which he promptly removed when given a venomous glare.

The guard smiled from behind a mask that covered half of his face, running a hand through odd silver hair. The trio made their way through in the direction of where they'd been told there was an inn. The progress was incredibly slow, as the crowd seemed to be working against them. By the time they reached the door they were all exhausted. Sasuke leaned back against the wall to catch his breath.

“Kakashi.” The silver haired man looked up at him. “You go in first, see if there are any rooms available.” With a nod, the guard entered, leaving the other two alone. Sasuke closed his eyes, praying inwardly that this inn would have a bed more comfortable than a block of wood. Sighing and yawning slightly, he saw the other guard watching him with inquisitive blue eyes.

“What?” He said irritably. She shrugged, and flicked a strand of light blonde hair from her eye.

“You look real tired.” She said, offering a smile. He sighed again and looked away, but she continued to watch him. “If it's too much for you, we could take longer breaks, I'm sure Kaka-“

“No.” He interrupted, glaring at her. “I'm fine, Ino.” She stared at him for a moment and then nodded, smiling again.

“There is space.” Kakashi informed them, reappearing at the door. Sasuke nodded at him, and straightened, but Kakashi hesitated. Sasuke looked at him questioningly. “But … there is only one room, so we'll have to share it.” Sasuke fixed an angry glare at the awkward looking guard. “It's okay, we have separate beds!” But this didn't seem to appease Sasuke either. “It's that or we wander around for another couple of hours trying to find somewhere else.”

Sasuke considered this, maintaining his angry stare. Finally, his shoulders slumped in defeat. He marched past the guard, who grinned at Ino from behind his mask. Ino grinned back, and they walked into the inn after him.

The woman behind the desk eyed the group thoughtfully, but was used to odd travellers. The one who walked in first was wearing a hood, but she could see part of his face and dark hair from beneath it. From what she could tell, he looked barely over 18, though his expensive clothes suggested high status.

Behind followed a man who had the bottom half of his face covered in mask, and one eye covered with a headband. Although the silver hair suggested he was quite old, she could tell from what could be seen of the face and body that he was actually probably quite young.

The third member of the group was a girl, probably of similar age to the boy, who sported long blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. Although from her appearance she could have looked like an innocent young woman, the dark clothes and armour she wore, and the quick assessing glance of her surroundings hinted that she was most likely a fighter of some sort.

The woman watched with mild interest as the hooded boy ordered his two companions to carry their bags to the room, whilst he drank casually from a water flask, following slowly. She nodded to herself before turning back to her registry book. An interesting group indeed.