I am running through the quiet streets of the village as more and more people joined the group behind me. The collection of people were holding a mixture of weapons. I saw flashlights, shuriken, kunai, swords, kitchen knives, and blunt objects that range from rocks to shovels and huge wooden staffs. We were currently in the red light district. The red light district is considered the more dangerous part of the village. So loud sounds and yelling were easily ignored around these parts.
I'm running. Running for my life. Running to see the next day. Running to find another love one day. Running to be respected one day. Running for the chance to be happy in the future.
Tears fall down my face as the cuts and bruises from the night before start to sting. I know the streets of Konoha like the back of my hand from trying to escape the violent groups at night. But it's late and I'm tired. The darkness obstructs my view of the street signs and landmarks.
I turned a corner and ran forward only to find that I came across a dead end. I hear the screaming and the footsteps of the other villagers behind me get closer. Looking around I see a trash bin, old newspapers, and a broken beer bottle. I reach over to grab the glass shards only to stop myself halfway.
I can't fight back.
I'll only prove to them that I'm a monster.
Screw that Kit, do it. I can't see you get hurt like this anymore.
I cant Kura-nee. I can't hurt the people that I aim to protect.
PLEASE NARU! PROTECT YOURSELF!
I closed my eyes as the horde came closer and closer. A tear rolls down my cheek. I open my eyes to be cornered in the alley. A man walks forward then turns his back to me and faces toward the other villagers. The group got quiet as the man spoke in a dark and twisted voice, "Let the night begin."
I wake up slowly to find my body drenched in sweat. I look around and I see that everyone has already left. Or so I thought. I hear a click of the door behind me. And the one and only Sasuke Uchiha walked out in nothing but a towel.
His hair was wet and wasn't spiked up with gel. His bare torso was still wet and glistening. He looked down and stared at me. He stopped moving in shock before his face heated up in embarrassment. His face became beat red as he quickly started walking to his futon where his ninja scroll is. He unsealed his clothes and turned to walk back into the bathroom to change. When he stopped mid-stride to look over at me. The look of worry and confusion written across his face. I tilt my head in curiosity only to remember that I must not look too good since I just woke up from a nightmare.
Sasuke gets down on one knee and puts his hand up to my forehead and asks, "Are you okay? You don't look good." he removes his hand and continues to say, " you don't have a fever."
"I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
"Well, I am."
He looks at me incredulously and sighs, "Naru, don't be like this. If you're feeling sick then you should tell me."
I freeze in shock.
Did he just call me NARU!
Yes, he did.
I look up to see Sasuke frozen in shock as well as his face heats up again for the second time today. He opens his mouth to apologize but I stop him by saying, "I like that."
You do?
He looked back at me with a poorly hidden smile and said, "You do?"
"I do . . . Sasu."
*Chuckle*
If the brunette didn't look like he was dying from embarrassment before, he sure was now. I feel a smirk creep onto my face but quickly mask it with an innocent smile. As the other boy got up and went into the bathroom I heard a quiet, "Dobe."
Teme.
So, Sasuke huh?
Oh shut up Kura-nee. As you said, he seems to genuinely care. And he's pretty cute too.
So, you're finally taking my advice?
Maybe. Why were you surprised earlier?
What do you mean?
You were surprised that I liked being called Naru. I mean, you and Gaara call me Naru. Why is it so surprising?
Well, Gaara and I are like your siblings. We call you that regardless of what you think about it because it's cute. I was just surprised that you'd actually let him call you that.
Awww, are you jealous?!
Shut up, you know I'm not. It's just . . . You don't let people in that easily.
Yeah, I guess. But he's given me this feeling that makes me want to trust him.
I hear the door behind me click open behind me and Sasuke walks out already dressed. But his hair is still damp and without gel. He walks over to me and says, "Come on dobe. You have to get up and get ready for the day."
Listening to him, I grab my stuff and get out of bed. As I head over to our bathroom. I undress and call out to the other teen, "So, where'd the others go?"
"They got up earlier and went to go get breakfast. If we head out now we can catch up to them."
I call out okay as I start to undress and start the shower. I step in and feel the warmth of the water trickle down my back and overall of my bruises and scars. I grab the soap and start to lather my body. I turn my head to the glass divider and see water trickle down slowly. My thoughts wander to what happened this morning between me and the Uchiha. I could practically hear his voice:
Naru. are you okay, Naru-chan?
Naru-chan?
Naru. . .
A familiar click of the door brings me back to reality. I see the silhouette of a slim teen walk in through the smogged glass. The figure freezes and looks over in my direction. Then hear his hurried voice yell out, "Sorry, forgot my gel here."
As he grabbed his gel out of the cabinet and rushed out the door. I finally felt my body relax as I heard another "sorry" through the door. I feel a new heat rush to my face. Then I froze in realization.
What if he saw my scars? The shower has a glass door! What if he saw my scars?!
Calm down Kit. You freaking out won't help your situation.
YEAH! I KNOW THAT! I know I said that I'm ready to trust him. But not yet!
Breath, Kit. The glass is foggy. We don't know what he saw.
You know what, your right. I'll just. Go out there and ask him myself and figure out what he saw.
Okay, good. Now calm down and get control of the situation.
I rinse all the bubbles off my body and turn off the water. I get out of the shower and grab my towel. Before I start drying off I immediately lock the door.
Don't want that happening again.
I throw on enough bandages to cover my scars and pull on pants and a shirt. I look in the mirror and see the shirt cling to my body. I'll have to admit I do have a pretty voluptuous body for a guy. I walk out of the bathroom to see a blushing teen on the floor in the corner of the room trying to put on his hair gel. He was failing miserably as his hands flusteredly tried to pull his hair together.
His eyes glanced up and to see me in the reflection of the mirror. His pink cheeks turn red as he looks away and tries to fix his hair again. I feel a smirk creep onto my face and sit behind him and grab his hands. I pull his hands away from his hair and he looks at me through the mirror in a confused manner. Still, he stayed silent and did not oppose what I was doing.
So I continued. I took the gel out of his hands and the comb in his other. Looking in the mirror I saw Sasuke's eyes looking away and the redness on his face not fading. I started combing his hair back. I grab a small scoop of gel with my hand and continue to slick back the raven's hair. When I finally finish, combing through his hair I look up into the mirror and see the finished product. It's not his everyday updo but it was the classy slicked back look. He turns his body to look at me as he finally starts to calm down and says, "Thanks. And sorry. . . for earlier. . . Naru. Um - I didn't really see anything if that helps. The glass was smoggy so. . ."
I chuckle and softly smile at him before saying, "It's fine Sasu. "Get up and continue my thoughts, " Are you ready to go? We still have to go get breakfast."
Sasuke gets up and "hnn"s before grabbing his jacket on the way out. When we walk out into the hallway a comfortable silence sets in. I walk faster to match Sasuke's pace and walk up next to him. As we go down the hall I feel our shoulders brush against each other. When the food area came into view I realized that I wasn't really acting. I wasn't acting like that one idiot that annoys everyone.
And I did that subconsciously.
Now that you mention it, you're right. You didn't act so stupid.
Oh, shut up.
What? You said it first.
Wow, well this is developing faster than I thought it would. I only started to get along with him; I don't know, like yesterday.
You've been wanting to trust someone like this for so long. Even if it is as small as being your more calm self around him. I guess you can call it a relief?
Yeah, maybe you're right. I've been waiting for an opportunity like this for a long time.
I hope you don't regret this later.
WHAT?! This was your idea in the first place!
It is! I just don't want you to get hurt. But, I have a feeling that this is a good thing.
Me too.
"Hey, Naruto?!"
I shake myself out of my thoughts and see Ino trying to talk to me.
"Naruto, did you hear anything I said? You looked a little dazed."
"Um, sorry Ino," I reply while smiling and scratching my neck for more effect. "I was just thinking of something random."
Then I hear an annoying screech call out from a pink-haired banshee, "I bet it was nothing Important. He was probably thinking about ramen again."
"Don't be like that Sakura-chan. I think about you too." I say while sporting a good blush and wide smile.
Why did I choose her to be my 'crush' again?
I don't know but look over your shoulder. There's a brooding brunet 3 o'clock
I glance over to see Sasuke glaring at sakura. But Sakura being the way that she is, doesn't notice. She looks to the right of me and squeals, "Sasuke! Your hair! Don't get me wrong, it looks amazing but what's with the sudden styling change?"
I see Sasuke quickly glance my way but looks away before anyone notices and says, "I wanted to style my hair differently for the ceremony today. I didn't want to deal with it later so I did it now."
"Speaking of the ceremony," Ino announced, "that's what I was trying to tell you about naruto before you went all zombie on me."
"Hehe, won't happen again Ino. believe it!"
"Sure, okay." she sighs before continuing, "Well like I was saying earlier we are expected to come in formal wear. I was asking you if you have any."
"Any what?"
"Formal clothes. I don't know. Like a tuxedo, or kimono or something."
"Ahh, well."
Ino raises her eyebrow while she taps her foot expectantly on the ground."
"Not really, But I can figure it out, I'll go out into the shopping district and look around. Can't be that hard."
"No, I am not letting you choose your own suit. You'll probably get something stupid or orange."
She turns to Sasuke and says, "Hey Sasuke, do you think you can help Naruto find a suit? I assume you have better judgment on things like this than he does."
The Uchiha nods his head with a "Hnn."
"Cool!"
The rest of breakfast went well without incident. We talked and ate food while Kakashi read his porn, Kiba argued with the staff that his dog Akamaru should be able to be near the table, and I laughed a little too much. When we all finished our food we went on our own.
Sasuke and I make it to the shopping district and as we pass by the shops we are kindly greeted and given small tokens of friendship. This wouldn't normally happen but since everyone in the village knew me or knew of me, I'm not surprised that this has happened. Then Sasuke suddenly stops. I look back at him and ask what's wrong. He replies with a question that I have been knowingly expecting, "How does everyone know you? They're always coming up to you like, 'Hey Naruto! It's been a while since I last saw you!' or 'Naruto, have this as a token of our friendship!' What's with that?"
"Why're you so curious? Oh! Are you jealous?"
"I'm not jealous." he replied sassily with air quotations on 'jealous'.
"I'm just curious is all. You've never mentioned visiting this place. You and Gaara even pretended like you didn't know each other at the beginning of the chunin exams."
"Well, that's where it gets a little bit complicated. I can't really go into full depth now, but I'll tell you more about that later."
The other teen lets out an annoyed, "Hnn." before I continue.
"And as for me visiting this village, now I've known Gaara for years. Jiji knows this so he let me come over here to visit. And I guess I left a good first impression because the villagers have always been really nice to me."
"Hnn, that's good."
"Yeah."
Then we enter the shop for formal wear and a man walks up to us and says, " HEY, NARUTO! It's been a while. I haven't seen you here in. . . what? Four years?"
"Yeah, it's been a while. It's good to see you again Old Man Renji."
"So," the older man says while picking out a variety of clothes for me, "you headed to the ceremony too? I remember that you're friends with the new Kazekage-Sama."
"Yup! Sure am!" I say back while bouncing on the balls of my feet and putting my hands behind my back.
I grab a few tuxedos from Renji and sneak a glance at Sasuke. He looks back at me with a confused look on his face. I ignore this and start to talk to Renji the way Naruto would. That means loud and obnoxious. If it were really me, I would make small talk as Naru instead. But I can't do that yet. They're not ready for that. I'm not ready for that.
I tried to choose the orange and black suit but Sasu got angry and changed it to a normal black one. So, I begged and pleaded for some orange and he let me have an orange tie and pocket square.
I guess this will be enough color to keep up the persona.
Just start complaining about how you wanted more orange or something.
That could work.
It will work. Who do you take me for? An amateur? Ha! Guess again.
Yeah yeah, whatever.
When we finally get back to our room it's noon and the ceremony is in 2 hours. Kakashi and Shikamaru are changing into their tuxedos while Sasuke is getting his suit out of his scroll. I grab my tux and go to the bathroom to change. When I close the door I lock it so no one will accidentally walk in and start to take off my clothes. I look up to see my body riddled with scars.
Burns, tears, and slashes paint my body. I feel tears prickle at the corners of my eyes threatening to spill over.
They've made me ugly.
I start to silently cry. Covering my mouth with my hand to stop the sobs from coming out. Then I hear a knock from the door behind me. I quickly wipe my face and rush over to the sink. Then I hear the familiar sound of Kakashi's voice call out to me through the door. "You okay there Naruto?"
After that I hear two sets of feet shuffling out the door while hearing Sasuke's voice ring out, "But I don't wanna. Fuck off will you?"
It may seem rude to those who don't know how close we've gotten to each other in the past 48 hours. But in reality, I can hear the concern lacing each of the brunette's words; hearing this makes me feel happy. And with that, I wash my face and calm down before saying, "Yeah! I'm fine. Just thinking about how my true loves: Ramen and Sakura will never become one. It made me a little sad."
"You don't have to lie like that Naru. The others walked out, it's just me and you right now."
I unlock the door behind me before turning around to look back up in the mirror to see my body adorned with hate and negativity. I hear the door slowly open. Looking away from my body I see Kakashi poke his head in. His eye widens in shock before engulfing me in a hug from behind. I close my eyes and take in the warmth of the older man's body and say reassuringly, "I'm okay now Kakashi-nii. Plus, didn't you already see all of this earlier?"
I say while gesturing to my body with my free hand. The grey haired ninja then cleared his throat before speaking, "Yeah, I did. I wanted to hug you back then but it would have been weird."
Thinking about it now, it would have been.
Yeah, REALLY weird.
I chuckle lightly while Kakashi unwraps me from his arms. "I guess I was too shocked to really react yesterday. But seeing you like this made me realize," the joinin says while turning me around to face him, "that after Shuin died we became distant. Instead of sticking with you, I threw myself into my work, constantly asking for more and more missions. This distance that we now have between us is there because I put it there and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you go through all of this by yourself."
I smile at him and say, "It's okay. I forgive you. Yeah, I was pissed at you for a while. Then I realized that it wasn't just me that lost him. It was you too. And if you weren't ready to talk then that was okay. To be honest, It was difficult seeing you too, ya know?"
I grab my shirt and pull it on and over my scars before continuing, "Seeing you reminded me of him because of how close net we all were to each other."
I button up my shirt and grab the blazer off the counter. Kakashi looks over to me and grabs the tie. He wraps it around the collar of my shirt and starts to fix it for me. "You know," the one eyed man says, "I remember when I first met you."
I chuckle and say, "Me too." before being pulled into the memory.
FLASHBACK {KONOHAGAKURE} WHEN NARUTO WAS 4 YEARS OLD
I'm walking through the streets of Konoha and it's snowing. These men in front of me stumble out of a bar. I try to stay as quiet as I can while slowly backing away but they turn around and see me. Next thing I know, I'm being beaten up in the nearby alley.
Most of their punches miss or are sloppy so it didn't hurt too much. Up until the point where they took their finished sake bottle and started hitting me with it. Over, and over, and over again. They wouldn't stop as they threw their slurred comments my way. I closed my eyes and suddenly the pain stopped. I look up and see a masked teen that looked around the age of 16.
The men stop and say, "Hold on man."
"Why?"
"He was trained by Minato."
"Who's that?"
"You can't be that drunk. Minato was the Fourth Hokage."
"OH SHIT."
After that, the men started stumbling away erratically. I look away from the disappearing figures to the teen standing above me. He holds out his hand and I take it. Warmth starts to creep into my system as we walk out of the alley. He brings me to this small ramen stand. We walk in and are greeted with smiling faces.
I carefully look up to greet the owner, and the owner freezes before walking to the back of the shop. Tears well in my eyes and spillover.
So this mysterious grey haired teen is the only one that can bear being around me.
Wait naru, look up.
The man walks back over with a bowl of steaming ramen and bandages.
"Hi there Naruto."
"How do you know my name."
"Well, you're pretty well known around the village."
"Oh."
Then I hear the teen next to me speak while grabbing the bandages from the Ramen shop guy. "Yeah, just for the wrong reasons. Anyways, my name's Kakashi. And that man over there is Teuchi."
"Thank you Kakashi-nii, Teuchi-san The rest of the night was just us laughing, eating, and getting patched up
FLASHBACK ENDING
Who Would have thought that those two other people would become so important to me?