/loy·al·ty/
/ˈloiəltē/
noun
a strong feeling of support or allegiance
//
About two weeks after the incident with Chitose, Naruto woke up unable to breathe.
He immediately panicked, thrashing about like a wild animal, but he wasn't able to do anything when faced with a much older girl kneeling over him, pressing a pillow down on his face– not that he'd been aware of that detail at the time.
All he knew was that he couldn't breathe and he was scared, he was scared and suffocating.
And then, suddenly his attacker is ripped off of him and thrown across the room with so much force Naruto swears he sees her hit the wall.
But he doesn't focus on that, all he cared about was getting the air back into his lungs, he could worry about the girl later.
His chest was heavy and he's pretty sure he can hear himself wheezing.
Around him the other orphans were starting to stir, finally noticing that something important happened while they'd been sleeping. Naruto didn't notice them; he only looked at his savior.
Crouched before him, in black-clad and a bone-white dog mask was a boy. Naruto could tell he was a boy, not much older than Aiya-chan by the way he smelled, too fresh and new to be fully grown like the caretakers and the matron.
His buzzing energy was big, it went everywhere and it tasted of lighting in the back of his mouth. It felt so angry and that scared him, was he going to hurt him too?
He's scared, and he's discovered throughout his life that the best way to get people to stay away from him when he was scared was to growl, the noise settles into his chest instinctively as he bares his teeth at the dog-boy, backing away slowly.
Where is Aiya?! He wants Aiya!
And then the dog-boy picks Naruto up despite his growls and his buzzing energy isn't angry anymore, even if he still has the left-over stench of rage sticking to his jacket.
"Captain," murmured another one of the strange masked people, "here, let me–" the woman wearing a deer mask knelt down and tried to reach for Naruto, only for dog-boy to snarl at her, in a way, not all that different from how Naruto did it actually. The woman flinched, going still and silent.
Naruto's crying at this point, he has been for a while, too many people and smells and noises and he just wants Aiya back.
"Don't touch him," dog-boy warns, a snarl in his voice.
Naruto bared his teeth at the woman, not wanting the stranger near him, one was more than enough.
Dog-boy smells like blood, sickness, and sadness, it makes Naruto's stomach churn.
Naruto looks wildly, searching for Aiya, and finally, see's her staring at him, shaken and wide-eyed.
"Aiya! Aiya!" He watches as she tries to move towards him and he does his best to focus on her sunflower smell as he kicks at dog-boy, why won't he let him go? Can't he see he wants Aiya?
And then the girl, the one who had tried to smother Naruto, stirred from where she'd been left in a crumpled heap, sitting up with a groan and rubbing at her head. He felt dog-boy stiffen as she spotted him and her face turned twisted and distorted with hate, hands balling into fists at her sides as she cried.
"Why can't you just die!?" She screamed, staggering to her feet. "You freak, why won't you just fucking die! I tried all the poisons they gave me, but nothing worked! You're not even human, you're a monster! You killed my parents! You're a dem–"
Whimpers began to crawl up his throat, what did he do?! What did he do to make her so angry?!
His enraged crying turned to confused sobbing as the world around him started to blur.
It was too much, too much noise, too many smells, so many people, why won't they all just go away?
Dog-boy moved too quickly for Naruto's eyes to follow. One second he was standing beside him, arms wrapped around him protectively, watching wide-eyed as the girl screamed her hatred, the next moment he was beside the girl, holding her limp body.
"Suru, take her to T&I," Dog-boy ordered, and there was something scary about his voice as he looked down at the unconscious girl. "I'm curious to know just who it is that's been supplying her with poison."
"At once, captain," the woman from earlier, the one in the deer mask, said, flitting forward to take the unconscious girl from dog-boy and disappearing.
"Go to sleep, pup," Dog-boy whispered, and despite his efforts to stay awake, he finds himself slipping away.
Tonight he finds comfort in his dreams in the form of red hair and sunkissed white sand.
When Naruto woke up in the morning, he was in a strange room, Aiya was next to him, asleep.
When Aiya woke up she explained that the matron had decided that the two of them would share their own room at night. The room was locked and only Aiya and the matron had a key.
"'Course, that won' stop someone from pickin' the lock," Aiya said, "so we gotta stick sommat in there before we go ta sleep, 'kay? We can't forget. Lock picks can't git in if there ain't no room for 'em," she explained and Naruto listened.
He was still in shock, kids had been mean and hurt him before as a form of 'punishment,' but his life had never been threatened.
Eiko, Naruto later learned the girl's name was, attempt on his life was the first but it wasn't the last. Eiko wasn't the only child in the orphanage who had been orphaned by the Kyuubi Attack, which was clear from the beatings he'd sometimes endure from the other children.
For some reason, they thought it was his fault, and they wanted revenge.
A week after Eiko's attempt, a boy who was enrolled in the ninja academy had smuggled home one of the funny-shaped knives they used to practice hitting targets and tried to stab him. Aiya managed to deflect the strike and the masked watchers– ANBU, Aiya later told him they were called– came out of nowhere and took the boy, Genku, away.
Naruto didn't see Genku ever again.
Kei was next to try; she hit Naruto over the head with a ceramic pot. It had shattered to pieces and the result had been painful and bloody. Naruto spent two days in the white place while the people in white coats picked the pieces of ceramic out of his booboo's (later Aiya told him that the white place was called a hospital and the white coat people were actually called iryo-nin– Aiya was a gift from the gods and nothing anyone said could convince Naruto otherwise)
Kei disappeared too.
So did Kenma and Riku after they tried their luck.
The next attack was different.
He and Aiya had been playing Oni Gokko when it happened.
The boy who'd lunged at Naruto was better trained than those who'd previously made attempts on his life. About five-and-ten years maybe with short violet hair, he had one of those funny knives in his hand, and even as Aiya screamed out, "Naoko, no!" he lashed out with his foot, hitting Naruto in the chest with his foot. His chest exploded with pain as he was thrown back with a meaty crunch. He could hear Aiya scream again as he landed and he couldn't even move, he was in so much pain.
He couldn't even breathe; it was like his ribs were grinding together and he could taste his own blood.
He smelled gross, sick, and desperate. And honestly, none of those descriptions were really wrong.
Then he sees red.
Just like magic, the pain in his chest was gone, the shattered bones piercing themselves back together, and when he heard Aiya scream, "Don't hurt him!" he easily gets back onto his feet, takes in the sight of Aiya sobbing, and Naoko standing over them, and roars.
It's deep, guttural, and not quite human. He feels a massive wave of possessiveness crash over him.
Corrosive, burning red flowing out around him in a buzzing cloak of scarlet and everything around him bleeds.
Hot-red-angry-wrong-wrong-wrong, it's bitter and vile and even though his chest isn't hurting anymore he feels like it's suffocating him.
Before anyone in the yard could react, Naoko made a loud choking sound and looked down. A long, scarlet-wet and dripping blade emerged through his chest and for a few, stunned moments all anyone could do was stare.
Then the blade was pulled back with a wet, slick sound and Naoko's body fell to the ground, revealing the same dog-boy from before, standing behind him. Aiya screamed again, crawling forwards and sobbing uncontrollably, bending over Naoko's head. Their hair, some part of Naruto vaguely noticed, was the same colour.
Holding his bloody sword and surveying the frozen children in the yard with a blank, impassive stare, dog-boy started prowling forwards, his gaze heavy.
Not one of the children moved under the weight of his presence Naruto felt the crimson shroud sink back under his skin as the familiar feel of dog-boy's buzzing energy washed over him.
"The next one who tries to hurt Uzumaki Naruto," Dog-boy said, and Naruto, who had been bullied his whole life, could hear the threat in his voice, "I'll kill slower. Understood?"
The pressure in the yard increased until some of the children fell over and others peed themselves, the smell of urine a pungent odor in Naruto's nose.
And then suddenly, the pressure disappeared and so did dog-boy.
One of the older children ran inside to get the matron and Naruto was locked in the bedroom he shared with Aiya while everything was "sorted", whatever that meant.
Aiya didn't come back to the room for hours. He wasn't sure if she would have been able to– not unless she was forced, which was unlikely. But to his surprise, she did.
The violet-haired girl looked so tired and broken as she locked the door behind her after entering the room then turned to face him.
"Aiya-chan!" he grins, words lisping slightly.
Aiya's face crumpled and she dropped to her knees, pulling him into her arms. Naruto tensed slightly, ready for violence. Aiya didn't seem to notice, instead burying her face in Naruto's mop of golden hair. "Ya ain't a demon," she whispered, voice hoarse and scratchy like she'd been crying for hours.
Naruto would know, he'd done that before.
"Ya ain't." She gave a quiet, wet laugh. "Yer a puppy, not a demon."
Finally relaxing, Naruto let the tension ease from his muscles and he leaned into Aiya's arms.
When they got out of here, he was going to make sure she never cried like that again dattebayo!
A/N
Ahhhhh, poor babies, Naruto and Aiya don't deserve this.
I suck at angst, I know, but I'm new so please cut me the tiniest bit of slack.
Naruto is my child, I just love him so much and he deserved so much better. Also, the iconic verbal tick is here dattebayo!
If you couldn't tell, Naoko is Aiya's brother. Poor baby :(
I'm enjoying developing the backstory, I have the basic idea sketched out, I just need to finish filling in the finer details, then will start getting into some good Uzushio content.
Anyway, how was your day, I had a test at school yesterday, and right in the middle of it my brain just shut down and out of nowhere started going 'Shakira Shakira' for no reason. I think I'm going insane.
Oh, and you're looking good today, per usual.
I just wanna say, you should smile more often ya know. Not the fake ones you show to your friends though, you should show off your real smile, it's super nice.
There's that beautiful smile! :)
So much nicer than mine, my smile is so ugly.
Remember you are loved and appreciated, take care of yourself, and have a great day/night!
Disclaimer
I do NOT own the Naruto series, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I own only my original characters and the plot.