Chương 8: What is Life?
"What is The Cost of Lies?" - Valery Legasov
Naruto stood on his bed motionless, his forehead resting on his forearm, his eyes puffy and red, his eyes hurting from the tears, and yet Naruto felt nothing but his heartbeat. Nothing made any sound, and the silence had taken over the whole apartment; Naruto couldn't make himself utter a word.
There wasn't a mother, father, or sibling to talk to him and tell him that he wasn't alone. The only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat, hurting like a stab, hurting more than anything else before.
Kurama watched with sadness, he tried to talk with him, but Naruto did not once respond to him, almost like he couldn't hear him. He hoped for the best, and inside he cursed the damn Uchiha child for calling Naruto a 'Monster'.
The kid didn't know what a 'Monster' is; a 'Monster' are the likes of Juubi.
Kurama felt a shiver of fear on his body, just the thought of that monster.
Naruto kept his eyes on the floor; he kept asking himself the same question in his mind. 'What is Life?' 'Why do we exist?' 'Is there any point in all this?' Naruto didn't know the answer to any of these questions.
"Tou-chan, Kaa-chan, Why am I here? What can't I just be with you? I don't want to feel so Alone," Naruto murmured impassively, no tears rolling down his cheek.
"Naruto, you're Not Alone", Kurama spoke, trying to ease his pain.
Naruto was grateful for his friend, but he wanted someone; he wanted to see that look again, the look only his father could give him.
Naruto closed his eyes and felt everything change around him; opening his eyes again, his eyes saw the trees that had grown in his mindscape; he had hoped that Kurama would like it more with trees rather than just a sewer.
"Kurama," Naruto said, thinking his friend had brought him, but from behind a tree in front of him came out a man Naruto knew he had never seen before but he recognised him, but he was sure he had never seen him before.
The man had long dark hair, a long white kimono around his body, two fangs of hair in front of his ear, a blue paint just below his eyes, but his Mangekyo Sharingan was as clear as day.
"Indra", Naruto whispered; he didn't know how he knew he was Indra.
The man stood in front of Naruto with a friendly smile on his face, and a War Fan tightened behind his back.
"You're right young Uchiha; my name is Indra Otsutsuki", Indra introduced himself.
Naruto felt no malice coming from him and wondered how he was here.
"Why are you here? And how are you here?" Naruto asked calmly, his body still a bit tense from the new person, something that Indra noticed.
"When you became my reincarnation, a bit of my chakra was sealed inside you, as did Ashura's chakra; this allows me and my brother to talk with you whenever you might need our advice", Indra explained.
Naruto noticed there was no ill-feeling coming from him whenever he mentioned Ashura. Naruto had assumed that Indra hated him for taking his place as Heir.
"Now, I felt the feelings coming from you; the Uchiha brat insulted you. You asked yourself what the point of Life was," Indra said, kneeling in front of Naruto and pulling out his left hand, showing his moon symbol to Naruto.
"Life has no point until you give it one. My advice to you, Naruto is to find your point in Life, what you truly want, is it Revenge, is it nothing, or Is peace," Indra said.
Naruto didn't want any revenge; despite the village hating him, he didn't want harm caused to any of them.
"I want Peace", Naruto replied; at this, Indra nodded his head in acceptance.
"We will talk again, young Uchiha", Indra said, and his figure disappeared.
Suddenly Naruto was back in the apartment again, slowly standing up; he wondered if peace would bring him happiness. What even is happiness?
Naruto took a deep breath and left the apartment.
Soon Naruto reached the training yard and noticed both Itachi and Shisui talking to each other, and a small smile appeared on the Blonde's face.
He jumped and landed near them; Shisui noticed him and immediately smiled.
"Oooh, Naruto, you're Back," Shisui said, clearly surprised; from what Itachi told him, he had suspected that his student would spend the whole day sulking in his apartment.
Itachi turned his head with an uncertain look on his face. "Naruto-kun is good to see you again," he said, walking closer.
"Can we train Itachi-san? I want to continue what we left yesterday," Naruto said almost in a hurry; the last thing he wanted was to remember what happened yesterday.
Both Shisui and Itachi gave each other a glance in understanding and decided to talk with him later.
Shisui groaned and dragged a hand down his face. He stared at the two others from between his fingers. Then he remembered his original goal.
"Hey, you two!" He yelled, popping back to his cheery attitude.
"Yes?"
"Yes, Shisui-san?"
"Itachiiiii enough already. Naruto just stopped with the San, not you toooo." Shisui moaned, then he bounced up into a fighting stance. "We should have a three-way spar!"
Naruto's eyes narrowed, honing in on Itachi and Shisui, sending shivers down their backs. It was like his eyes had suddenly turned into chips of ice. They could tell that Naruto was ready for anything.
"Any rules, Shisui?" Naruto asked innocently.
"A-ah yeah. No maiming and first to surrender loses, I guess."
The three boys took up fighting stances, two textbook Uchiha interceptor stances, and one academy stance. All three-eyed a leaf that was gently floating downward. As soon as the leaf touched the ground, they all disappeared in a burst of speed.
Naruto sat on the branch of a large tree, eyes darting in every direction for a possible attack.
A brace of shuriken came flying towards Naruto, sending him jumping away to the right, right into Shisui, who twisted and kicked out at him. Naruto blocked the kick and was sent flying to the ground. He hit the ground with a roll as Shisui chased after him. Naruto threw three kunai directly at Shisui as he lunged towards Naruto. Shisui pulled out his own kunai and deflected the three Kunai into Itachi, who had been silently sneaking up to Shisui. Itachi dodged the kunai, throwing his shuriken towards Naruto and leaping up to engage Shisui in a furious taijutsu bout.
Naruto was a bit peeved, having been written off so quickly, he flashed through hand signs, Futon: Great Break Through! Naruto sent a great burst of wind towards the fighting duo.
The two boys turned toward the wind bullet simultaneously and leapt apart, narrowly dodging the bullet which drilled into the ground, sending great chunks of dirt everywhere.
Itachi retaliated, his hand seal speed so fast that Naruto could barely make them out; Katon: Great Fireball! a giant fireball flew at Naruto, who kawarimi-ed out of the way, leaving a scorched log behind him.
"Hey! Don't leave me out of this!" Yelled Shisui, who flipped through signs until a Katon: Phoenix Flower jutsu flew at both Itachi and Naruto.
Naruto used another Great Break Through to block the fire but hidden inside the flames were shuriken that he had to kawarimi for.
Itachi had simply avoided the fire and shuriken combo and rushed at Naruto as he dodged Shisui's attacks.
Naruto threw four kunai at Itachi, using his newly learned technique to bounce a kunai into Itachi's blind spot.
Itachi ducked his head, letting the kunai sail by harmlessly and threw a flurry of blows at Naruto. Dodging around the impacts, Naruto thought, 'This kid's good too! As expected of someone who trains with Shisui!' He flipped backwards for space, throwing out more shuriken to discourage Itachi from approaching.
Shisui used this opportunity to throw wire-wrapped shuriken at Itachi. Itachi leapt to the left, eyes widening as Shisui pulled the wires, curving the shuriken trajectory towards Itachi. Smirking, Itachi ran through the hand seals for kawarimi at lightning-fast speed, swapping places with a wide-eyed Naruto.
"Oii! I'll get you for this, you know!" Naruto screamed as he wildly ducked the shuriken and wires by bending over backwards.
He flipped up and created two shadow clones, one ran off to fight Shisui, and the other ran towards Itachi.
Shisui baited his clone into a wire trap and swiftly dispelled it, only encountering a new clone that surprised him by kicking him towards a tree. Shisui rebounded off the tree and shunsin straight at the clone, throwing a brace of shuriken at the clone as he went. Shuriken and Shisui crashing into the clone simultaneously caused the clone to pop in a cloud of smoke, blocking Shisui's vision for a precious second.
Itachi meanwhile engaged his Naruto clone in a bout of taijutsu, assessing his skills with Sharingan rapidly spinning in his eyes. Blocking a high kick from Naruto, he swept his left foot out to catch naruto's pivoting foot, but Naruto leapt into the air to aim another kick at Itachi. This caused Itachi to block with his arm, taking the heavy impact with a grunt.
Naruto watched as Itachi dispatched his clone from where he was sitting on top of a tied-up Shisui. He hopped off the struggling Chunin and dashed towards Itachi. Itachi then performed a brutal takedown on Naruto, flipping over him, grabbing his shoulder, and throwing Naruto to the ground.
The results of the spar revealed a few exciting things. First of all, Shisui and Naruto were faster than Itachi, but Itachi had better taijutsu than them. Between Shisui and Naruto, Naruto was the faster one, but Shisui was much more adept at Shunshin. They were all equally matched in ninjutsu, but none of the fighters had revealed their full repertoires.
Itachi stared at Naruto in contemplation for a while after the spar. Opening and closing his mouth a few times, he finally managed to ask the question that had been on his mind.
"Naruto-san, I don't mean to be rude, but why haven't you become a Genin yet? You are obviously skilled enough to pass the exams, despite being only five years old."
Naruto tilted his head and considered the question. Why hadn't he decided to graduate just yet? He stood in silence for a worryingly long time before he answered Itachi,
"Itachi-san, perhaps it is because I have the luxury of not needing to graduate early. I want to enjoy my childhood despite having filled it with continuous training."
Itachi nodded. He understood this very well, and he had been forced to graduate early from the pressures of his father and the demands of the clan elders. If clan duties had not demanded it of him, he might not have chosen to graduate either.
"Well, it's late enough, I guess. That was a good spar. You really caught me off guard with that clone there, Sunshine!" Shisui said. "I'll walk you home, Naruto. Itachi, you go on ahead of me; I'll catch up."
"Of course, it was very nice sparing with you today Naruto-san, I hope we continue to have good relations in the future," said Itachi, dusting himself off.
"Yeah, for sure."
And so the three boys set off on their ways. Shisui spent the majority of his walk with Naruto in content silence. He would often ward off some of the more malicious glares that the villagers sent towards Naruto with his Sharingan enhanced stare.
"Thank you, Shisui, for being such a good friend," Naruto said earnestly. He was honestly thankful that Shisui had taken the time out of his day to search for him and effectively pull him out of his depression, and now he was worried for Naruto's wellbeing in the village.
"Awww, sunlight doesn't say that I'll get embarrassed," said Shisui rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
"I really mean it, you know? I'm really grateful to have met you. I just want you to know that." Naruto smiled sunnily at Shisui, who squinted his eyes at the brightness radiating off of Naruto.
Shisui pulled Naruto into a gentle hug, "Thanks, I guess. I'm glad that I know you as well, sunlight."
Naruto simply hugged Shisui back and nodded into his chest.
"Good night Shisui, see you tomorrow!"
"Yeah! Night, Sunlight!"
Naruto just palmed his face at the name and sighed as Shisui gave a cheeky smile and wave and then disappeared in his signature shunshin.
After four months
Naruto had decided to spend his day in the apartment today, and it had been six years since Kyuubi was defeated; therefore, the whole village was celebrating.
Naruto knew today was his birthday, but he didn't really expect gifts from anyone.
He had decided to stay home because of the festival; people weren't really violent to him, but Naruto could tell their hatred towards him would double on his birthday; therefore, he always stayed inside to avoid any problems.
As he was preparing to sleep again to pass the time, the door ringed; he felt no malice but wondered who could be there. Getting up, he walked over to the door, opening it. His eyes widened to see the mother of Itachi in the front door.
"Mikoto-sama! What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, just now noticing the bag she was holding.
A frown showed on her face because of how he called her. "Can I come inside?" She asked warmly and smiled at the young Blonde.
Naruto smiled back and left her to walk inside; he thanked the gods that he wasn't the kind to have a messed up house, everything was clean, and nothing was in the middle of the carpet, his bed was clean, and sheets were in place instead of being everywhere.
Mikoto saw the state of the apartment; at least his house was decent. Turning around, he saw Naruto still standing as if waiting for her to sit.
Sitting down, she patted the place near her for Naruto to sit.
The young Blonde couldn't help but wonder why she wanted the likes of him to sit anywhere near her.
Deciding not to object, he sat near, and the lady Mikoto opened the bag and pulled out a small box decorated with sprinkles and other beautiful things.
"Open it, Naruto-kun," she said softly; Naruto liked her tone and slowly opened the box to see a cake. On top of the cake were the words.
"Happy Birthday Naruto" with six candles near. The cake was made of chocolate and strawberries. Naruto felt tears in his eyes again, but this time there was no sadness.
"Do you like it?" Mikoto asked, hoping he liked it, she saw his eyes filling with tears, and for a moment, she thought he didn't want her gift, but then he lunged at her, hugging her.
"Thank You, Thank You, Thank You ..." Naruto said over and over again and just couldn't stop. He felt her hands caressing his hair.
She hugged him back and felt bad for him, and she still hated the old Hokage for not letting her adopt Naruto; he deserved a family like everyone else.
After pulling away, Naruto with tears around his face.
"Thank you for the gift Mikoto-san," Naruto said, still smiling brightly.
She giggled a whipped his tears with her hand. "You can call me Mikoto-chan whenever you want," she said, smiling warmly at him.
Naruto happily nodded his head.
Mikoto then pulled out a few shirts and a jacket from her bag, and Naruto noticed that each one of them looked his size.
"I hope you like them, I didn't know your favourite colour, so I chose many," she said.
Naruto smiled again, and he wondered if this is what it's like to have a mother? Did they give you gifts like this for your birthday?
"Thank You; they're very beautiful, Mikoto-chan", Naruto replied immediately. Mikoto smiled, happy that Naruto liked them.
Mikoto stayed with Naruto for an hour. Naruto learned that Itachi and Shisui were away on a mission, much to Naruto's surprise since this day was usually free and not a day for missions, decided to not think much about it.
"Naruto-kun. I know we didn't start the best way, but if you ever want, you can come and spend the night with my family," Mikoto suggested hoping that could work, and he wouldn't need to sleep alone in an empty apartment.
Naruto swallowed his tears and nodded his head, his face shining like a star from happiness.
"See you later, Naruto-kun," Mikoto said, giving a kiss to his forehead.
Naruto touched the place on his forehead and followed her outside. Mikoto walked away, giving him another hug; Naruto kept waving at her until she was out of his sight.
Night
Naruto had just finished cooking when he felt people gathering in large numbers around his home. Dismissing it as part of the new Kyuubi festival, he started to eat. Until someone started to bang violently on his door. Naruto jumped to his feet and ran to his window. His senses were going haywire, detecting a large group of people standing in front of his door. Whoever was pounding so hard on his door had absolutely no positive intent towards Naruto at all. In fact, it was all negative, so negative that Naruto was reminded of a stormy night with a young crying girl and a pillow.
He ran to the window and looked out, and then he quickly hopped out and ran off, shouts following him as he went.
"THERE HE IS! HE WENT OUT THE WINDOW!"
"CATCH HIM!"
"MAKE HIM PAY!"
"DEMON BRAT, GET BACK HERE!"
Naruto shot a quick glance behind him; what he saw made him pick up the pace and run faster.
A mob! A mob had shown up at his apartment to hunt the fox brat!
Naruto was honestly shocked at the amount of hate and people that had gathered. He had done his best to live unobtrusively in the village of Konoha, and people rarely saw him on the streets since he shopped under a henge. He never played with children as he was too busy training, and he never wandered the streets looking for food since he kept himself in good condition by budgeting. He didn't understand the sheer amount of hate that was pouring off of the mob pursuing him.
Naruto ducked and weaved around various stalls, barely taking in his surroundings' bright colours and cheer as he ran for his Life. He ran towards an alleyway hoping to throw the pursuers off his trail. It was not to be, unfortunately. There appeared to be some chunin in the drunken crowd who could accurately track him through the throngs of people that Naruto had run through.
Naruto giggled hysterically under his breath as he ran, tears building at the corners of his eyes. He thought of all the ways this encounter could possibly end; none of the endings were particularly good. He hoped to lose the crowd, but it was difficult when bystanders would point in his direction as he lost the mob.
Naruto turned his head towards the mob who were closing on him. His eyes turned to Sharingan, the symbols on his palms started shining.
"You're Done"
"We Will Kill You"
"We Didn't Even Need To Get Paid. We Should Have Done This Before."
Naruto's face around his eyes turned dark as he did hand sings that he himself didn't recognise.
Finishing it. "Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation" at that moment, Naruto breathed out the largest fire he had ever seen.
The fire was enough and engulfed the whole mob as they all started running away. Their screams filled the night as their corpses were the only thing left.
Naruto saw everything covered in a thin dark thing that covered the ground, and their bodies were as black as coal. Nothing to recognise them was left in their scorched bodies; everything in their bodies was burned, their skin, their eyes, and everything.
Snow started falling from the clouds; much to Naruto's surprise, he pulled out his hand and saw that it wasn't snowing... it was Ash.
Seeing what he had done, Naruto fell to his knees and left out the loudest scream...
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"
Later
Naruto popped up in front of the secretary, handling the desk in front of the Kage office. She started and gave him a nasty look.
"Please, miss, I need to see the Hokage right now." He implored.
The secretary sniffed and went back to her work. "The Hokage is busy with essential matters, and he doesn't have time for children."
But Naruto persisted; he was determined to talk to Sarutobi about the treatment he received at the hands of the villagers.
"Please miss it important, and he needs to know!"
"Look, he doesn't have time for children, so you can wait over there and see if you're lucky." She snappily replied.
Naruto huffed in impatience. He stubbornly sat himself down on one of the seats in the lobby. He would wait as long as he needed; this couldn't be let go anymore.
He didn't have to wait long since the day was ending, and the Sandaime soon left the office to go home.
Mildly startled by the blonde boy sitting in his lobby the Sandaime asked,
"Now, what's wrong young Naruto? You've never sought me out like this before?"
"Old man, a mob formed and chased me around Konoha."
"What?!"
The Sandaime's face instantly became grave. He opened the door to the office and waved Naruto in.
Naruto took a seat in front of the Sandaimes desk as the older man took his spot at the desk.
"Old man, this can't continue. The people hate me, and I don't know why."
The older man rubbed his temples tiredly. "I'm sorry, Naruto, they hate what they don't understand and fear."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. Was the older man going to tell him about his role as jinchuuriki finally?
"What do you mean by fear?"
The Sandaime shook his head, "I'm sorry, Naruto, I can't tell you just yet; there's too much you don't understand yet."
Naruto was filled with a crushing disappointment in the Sandaime.
"That's not very encouraging, you know! And can't you just explain what it is that I don't know? I can keep a secret!" He coolly responded.
"I'm sorry, but you're too young."
Naruto stood from his chair. Calmly walking up to Sandaime to stare him in the face. "I'm too young to know why the village hates me? I'm too young to know why they stare at me like that as I walk the streets? I'm too young to know why the prices are doubled when I try to buy anything? I'm too young to know why I don't have parents? I'm too young to know why mothers pull their children away as I walk by? I'm too young to understand why a mob formed with the intention of lynching me?"
The Sandaime stared at Naruto with wide eyes. He honestly did not know of the extent of the village's animosity towards the child.
"What about my parents? Did they not leave anything to me? You said they were Shinobi, that means they must have left something for me to inherit?" Naruto asked with a stern look that even Sandaime was surprised.
Hiruzen knew Minato and Kushina had left Naruto many things, but if he told him now, Naruto would understand who they were, and that would put him in danger from forces outside Konoha.
With a wounded heart, he was not even daring to look at his eyes. "I'm sorry, but you're too young," he said with a heavy heart.
That was the final nail in the coffin for Naruto. "I'm too young to know about my parents, and yet I'm old enough to be hated and be chased by mobs," Naruto said with a dry look. His eyes had instinctively turned red like blood. His whiskers slightly grew; this put the Hokage and ANBU on edge.
Naruto glared at the older man with fury. Without saying anything, Naruto Shunsin away.
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