Alone, together.
Chapter 1: The three levels of loneliness.
Naruto Uzumaki: The Jinchuuruki of the nine-tailed fox demon, Kurama. Despised by the very village that his birth protected. Orphaned by the selfless act of his parents to protect the village hidden in the leaves.
Sasuke Uchiha: The heir to the legendary users of the Sharingan. Respected by all because of his birthright. Orphaned by the genocide on his clan, by his brother Itachi, whom spared only the life of young Sasuke.
Kumori Naito: The mysterious youth with exponential strength. Always left alone due to his dark aura, and unknown past. Orphaned when he was found near dead as a baby, along with the bodies of his parents.
All three boys alone in their own ways. All orphans, kept apart by circumstance. All three, so different from each other. Nothing should have brought them together.
...
Naruto,
October 10th,
“NARUTO!!!”
The screaming was heard throughout Konoha as a blond haired eight year old was being chased across the rooftops of the business district. With a large grin on his face Naruto ran laughing at the shinobi behind him, whom he just pulled his latest prank on.
“Guess you guys just can’t catch me huh.” The young prankster shot at the Chunin following him. “See you later Chicken Heads.”
The shinobi behind him, whom were covered in feathers and chicken feed because they fell into one the blonde’s pranks, kept tripping over themselves still in shock that they walked right into his trap. Naruto looked back almost doubling over laughing at their predicament. As they regained composure they began to catch up with the young prankster. Naruto then pulled out a kunai he had taken from the academy and cut the trip wire he had previously set up before the ninja fell into his antics. The tiles beneath the Chunin launched the feather covered shinobi into the air with banners now attached to their backsides that streamed into the air. The words HAPPY BIRTHDAY were largely printed on the banners.
“Happy birthday to me Naruto.” silently said to himself as he watched the ninja fly through the air. “OK, I’ll come quietly.”
Behind him a silver haired anbu stood watching the blonde. “The Hokage wants to speak with you.”
“Lead the way. “ Naruto said with a smile on his face.
…
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood looking out his window, all day he had been getting letters of complaints about Naruto Uzumaki from the villagers, just as he did every year on this day. The day the Nine-Tailed Fox demon attacked the village hidden in the leaf and killed so many of its ninja and civilians. Staring out at his village, he was snapped out of his trance by a knocking at his office door.
“You may enter.”
The anbu entered the room followed by the subject of all the letters. Hiruzen looked at the young boy with sadness in his eyes, knowing the fate that befalls the young boy almost every day. No one should be that alone he thought.
“Naruto, why did you do this to the two shinobi earlier?” He asked with hint of disappointment on his face.
Naruto’s grin faded from his face. He hated to upset the Hokage. He was one of the only ones to give him any flicker of support.
“They were always giving me dirty looks and calling me a demon when they thought I couldn’t hear them. I just wanted to have some fun.”
“Naruto, I know that things have been hard for you, but you can’t keep doing things like this. “
“I’m sorry.”
“Anbu, please escort Naruto to his apartment.”
“Shouldn’t I take him to the academy sir?”
“No, I want him home today, I will send Iruka a message letting him know of Naruto’s absence.”
“As you wish, Lord Hokage.”
“And Naruto…” The blonde raised up his head to meet the kind eyes of the Hokage. “Happy birthday.” Naruto smiled as he left the office.
…
Later that night,
Naruto awoke to loud banging on his door. Fear started to run through his body as he realized that it was happening again, just like every year. On this night many of the villagers, mostly those whom lost loved ones in the Kyuubi attack, gather outside his apartment and let their anger out on him, over the years they had been growing more and more violent. Last year they almost caught him.
He bolted from his bed and quickly dressed before jumping out the window. Unfortunately the two shinobi he pranked earlier were waiting for him outside. They grabbed him and he tried to shake them away but one of them punched him really hard in the stomach causing Naruto to double over in pain gasping for breath.
“What wrong demon brat? Aren’t you going to call us Chicken Wuss’s again?”
“You’re going to pay for humiliating us brat.”
The two shinobi tied Naruto up and brought him before the angry mob. Naruto looked ahead in fear as the mob began approaching him, malice in their eyes. Tears began to escape from his eyes.
“Help me.” Naruto silently began to plead.
…
“Lord Hokage!” Several anbu burst into the Hokage’s office. “Sir it’s Naruto.”
“What’s happened?”
“Several shinobi and a mob of villagers have him tied u they are going to hurt him.”
“Go help him now; I will be right behind you.”
“Yes sir.” The Anbu took off in Naruto’s direction. Hiruzen quickly dressed in his robes and ran out after them.
…
Naruto remained tied up against a post barely conscious. One eye was swelled shut and he was covered in bruises, and blood. The villagers were laughing and continued there assault. They now began to throw rotten food at the child. He was crying begging them to stop but his cries fell on deaf ears. One of the two shinobi from before walked forward with a kunai in his hands.
“Now demon, you will finally pay for all those lives that you have taken from this village.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Shut up brat!” The Chunin thrust his hand with the kunai forward. But before the blade could harm Naruto one of the anbu jumped in the way of the attack and the kunai buried itself deep into his chest. A second later the silver haired anbu and a purple haired anbu appeared next to the Chunin and quickly disarmed and brought him to the ground with a ninja-to at his neck.
Naruto looked ahead at the anbu whom saved his life, and watched as he collapsed to the ground, the kunai still in his chest. He began to cry as he saw the blood start to pool around the fallen ninja.
The silver haired anbu knelt near the fallen anbu and took his hand. “Stay with me ninja. You will make it through this.” The anbu looked to his comrade. “Is…..Is he safe?” “Yes.” The fallen anbu’s head fell to the side and his body went limp. “We need a medic here now.” The silver anbu shouted looking from Naruto back to the dead anbu.
Naruto watched as the Hokage appeared, along with the ninja police, and dispersed the crowd and arrested many villagers, as well as shinobi. As the Hokage cut Naruto down the young boy passed out from his injuries. Hiruzen gave Naruto to the anbu with orders to get him to the hospital.
“Sir there seems to be a problem at the Uchiha Compound.” Another anbu reported.
…
Sasuke,
October 10th,
“Foolish little brother.” Sasuke stared ahead at the one whom murdered his family. Itachi stood looking at his little brother. The three tomoe in his eyes began to merge and form a wheel as he met Sasuke’s eyes placing him into his tsukoyomi. Sasuke’s screams could be heard across the village.
Sasuke awoke with from his nightmare crying. This had been a common occurrence since his family had been slaughtered all those months ago. His bed was drenched with sweat. He looked over at the clock next to him; it was six in the morning. He decided to get up, and train a little bit before class.
Dressed in his training gear Sasuke faced a straw dummy hanging from the ceiling and began to practice his taijutsu. He began to visualize his brother as the face of the dummy and his anger began to sky rocket. With each passing second his strikes became fiercer until he finally could not hold his rage back anymore. He jumped back and went through his seals.
“Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger; Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu.” As he used the jutsu, fire burst forth from his mouth burning the straw dummy until it was a pile of shouldering ashes. Having completed the jutsu memories of his father teaching him came flooding back into his mind causing the Uchiha heir to break down and cry. He didn’t care if he looked weak; his sadness had yet to lessen even after all this time.
When he finished he went inside to get ready for class. On his way he walked passed many people whom were staring at him with adoration, and admiration. He hated those looks. He knew it wasn’t him they saw; it was the last heir to the legendary Uchiha clan. Girls always flocked around him and fawned at his feet. Most of these were possible kunoichi, whom spent more time trying to look cute for him, than honing their skills as ninja which annoyed him even more.
It was the same with his teachers. Even when he purposely did something wrong they gave him full credit or told him how great he was. All he wanted was to feel normal like all the other kids. All school did now was heighten his feelings of aloneness.
“Heeey Sasuke.”
He heard her voice again. That pink haired fan girl. Sakura Haruno, the almost talentless but intelligent girl from his class. She was always following him around trying to get him to fall in love with her. She didn’t realize that he would much rather see her achieve something in her training than fawn over him like he was a god or something.
“Sasuke did you hear me, How are you doing today?”
“Why don’t you leave him alone Billboard Brow, It’s obvious that he doesn’t like you, or want to talk to you. I mean, why would he when he could talk to beautiful ole me.”
“Oh God, not her, she’s the worst one.” Sasuke thought as the blonde haired dame flung her arms around his neck hugging in to him. Those two used to be best friends and know they are always fighting over him like he was a piece of meat. Deep down he was jealous of those two. Even if they weren’t now, at least they had a best friend. Sasuke wished he could have a best friend. A real best friend, not one of these posers who just want to be close to the Uchiha heir. This day was not starting out too good for him.
“Alright class, sit down.” Their teacher Iruka was standing in front of the class.
The class began their lesson on Chakra theory, when Sasuke thought that class seemed quieter today than normal. He looked around the class and noticed everyone was present. There was Shikamaru Nara; the lazy bum in the back row, next to him was Choji Akimichi, the kid who was always eating even though he should have probably started to slow down, at least in Sasuke’s eyes. Hinata Hyuga, the perpetually shy girl who also comes from a revered clan, Kiba Inuzuka, the obnoxious ninja who always smells like a wet dog, and Shino Aburame, the creepy kid with a puzzling liking of bugs. There was that quiet kid in the front, what was his name……. Oh yea Kumori Naito, but He didn’t know much about him. And then besides the Fan girl twins, it looked like everyone else was there.
The Sasuke saw the empty seat in the back corner. He realized that he had forgotten someone, Naruto Uzumaki. He was not present for class. While it was not common for Naruto to be on time, he never missed a class. Sasuke thought it was weird but then dropped the issue because Naruto was an idiot anyways. The dead last of the class. Why should Sasuke care about him?
At the end of the day Sasuke he began him return to his home at the Uchiha compound. Again the reverence of the village was on his shoulders as they complimented the young boy. Not one person acknowledged him as Sasuke; it was always sir, or honorable heir to the Uchiha clan. It was all so annoying to him that he began to just tune out everything that was going on around him. He sat atop a roof for a while as he thought about all of the things he had been through.
He jumped to the ground and began to walk across the street not paying attention to the road as a horse drawn carriage crossed his path. Sasuke noticed it too late and one of the horses was spooked and freaked out raising its legs high into the air. As the hooves came down Sasuke was pushed out of the way by an unseen person. Lying on the ground Sasuke looked over to see Kumori Naito hunched over in pain as blood ran from his head where the horse had struck him.
What really infuriated Sasuke was that no one went over to help the injured kid, they were too busy making sure that he was alright, afraid that the Uchiha was hurt. His anger began to boil over.
“Somebody go help him!” He shouted pointing to the now passed out Kumori.
“Oh, would everyone see how noble he is. He is more concerned about that boy than his own safety.”
“So much like his mother.”
“Just what you would expect from an Uchiha.”
Sasuke stared in disbelief at these people, turned and ran to his compound. After a small dinner he looked back on the day and became quite tired. He went up to his room to sleep. It was only
The nightmares returned that night, this night seeming to be worse than ever. He awoke still seeing everything and ran through his hand signs.
“Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu.” As he shot his fire ball he realized he was no longer sleeping, or in his dream and that the walls of his room were no ablaze. The smoke began to choke him as he ran out of the room, but the fire quickly spread engulfing his entire house. He vision started to blur as he made it to the front door. The fire spread onto other houses just as quickly and Sasuke collapsed due to his lack of oxygen.
…
Kumori,
October 10th,
Kumori awoke alone in the village orphanage. Looking around the room he saw that all of the other children were still asleep. He had been here for eleven years, ever since he was found in the forest along with his dead parents. Nothing with them except for a note that said his name on it from his parents, asking the leaf village to take care of their son. He was the oldest at the orphanage, the rest too young to really care for the eldest of the group. He was attending the ninja academy to hopefully escape from the life of a lifelong orphan.
He was significantly strong for someone of his age and everyday he would practice in the forest with the one object that he still held on too from his parents. A large great sword with the word Naito engraved on the blade. This he assumed is where his last name was derived from. He slashed away at tree branches and practiced with his jutsu. He was pretty decent with his jutsu, but not as good as his classmate Sasuke Uchiha.
He had been alone his entire life, not really sticking out anywhere, though he thought it was probably just because he was an orphan. He watched the rest of the kids who had grown up around him, with their friends and enemies. He never had anything like that. He wasn’t acknowledged like the Uchiha Heir, or even hated by everyone like the Uzumaki child.
Kumori only wanted to be noticed. When he was younger, because of his strength, no one wanted to adopt him. He was ridiculed by his care givers because he ruined many things. They always told him no one would want to be around him if he destroyed everything. So he held back, and was outclassed by most of the other Genin-hopefuls. He tried pulling pranks on people but Naruto always got the backlash.
It became that no matter what he did he was invisible to everyone around him.
After Kumori finished with his morning training he placed his sword in his hiding place and headed off to the academy. He noticed that Sasuke had been walking about fifty feet ahead of him, almost forgetting that the young Uchiha lived close by him. He remembered that he had once tried to play with Sasuke but Fugaku Uchiha told his son that those of the Uchiha clan never subjected themselves to lower their class to associate with orphans. It was the first time Kumori realized how harsh his life would be.
As Sasuke was approached by villagers to be praised, Kumori heard shouting in the distance. Kumori chuckled to himself realizing that Naruto just pulled one of his usual pranks. Eventually Kumori noticed the academy getting closer. As he entered the room he saw everyone that was there. Naruto wasn’t one of them. Then someone knocked him over in a rush, he saw the blond haired Ino Yamanaka had knocked him down in a rush to get to Sasuke so that she could hold on to him. He quietly sat in his seat and spent the day taking notes from Iruka sensei’s discussions.
After the long day at the academy he quickly went back home so that he could get ready for another training session before bed. When he got there he was approached by the head of the orphanage, Ms. Miatsu.
“And where were you this morning?”
“I went out to train.”
“Without Permission?”
“No one was awake.”
“Now you listen here boy, you have been a thorn in my side for long enough. I have explicitly told numerous times that you are not to leave this home without direct permission from me, or the other caretakers, and you must be back when we say. One more time and you are out. I cannot wait until you are a ninja band I can send you out. Now do you understand me?”
“Yes, I need to go train more.”
“Go then, but you’d best be back by eight, you hear me boy.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Kumori left the orphanage, quickly. After all these years he had become used to the treatment he received from the caretakers. He remembered how it used to make him cry, but he had become so used to it now that it almost went in one ear and out the other. He had learned to put up the necessary walls to block the ridicule out.
As he was walking he looked up to see Sasuke sitting on top of a building. Sasuke wasn’t paying attention because he was deep in thought. Kumori watched as Sasuke jumped from the building to the ground below and right in the way of an incoming carriage. As a horse was about to strike Sasuke, Kumori quickly pushed him out of the way, taking the hit himself. Kumori was knocked to the ground and his head was bleeding badly, and he looked over to Sasuke whom was swarmed by concerned onlookers, none of which came to him. His last thoughts before he lost consciousness were “It’s never me.”
…
Later that night,
The Hokage entered the hospital lost in thought. So many horrible things happening tonight. Naruto’s apartment had been raided, and destroyed, and the Uchiha Compound burned to the ground. He approached the Welcome Desk to speak with the attendant.
“How are the boys?”
“Which ones Lord Hokage?”
“The two who were checked in today.”
“Oh there were three today sir.”
“Three? Can you please name them?”
“Uchiha Sasuke, Naito Kumori, and Uzumaki Naruto.”
“Kumori Naito? What are their conditions?”
“Kumori Naito, severe head trauma, it seems he pushed Sasuke out of the way of a spooked horse and took a blow to the head. Sasuke Uchiha, severe asphyxiation, smoke damage to his lungs, and minor burns. Uzumaki Naruto, Multiple fractured bones, slight internal bleeding, and major bruising all over his body, as well as minor cuts. He is healing at a quick rate though.”
“Has anyone come in to claim him?”
“No sir, none of them have had a single visitor, or anything. We called the orphanage for Kumori, but the head of the house claimed he no longer lived there.”
“All three are completely alone.”
“Yes sir.”
“When can they leave?”
“All three should are good and healing now, they should be able to leave by the end of the week.”
“Good, let me know then, I will personally bring these boys to their home.”
The Hokage left the hospital thinking about the three orphans. All so different, but sharing a common ground. He decided that he would obtain for them a three bedroom apartment they would all be moved in together. He knew the three boys were all terribly alone so he figured it would be best for them to be alone, together.
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Chapter notes: Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. The only thing I do own is this story, and any OC, weapon, or technique that I create.
Thank you for reading this story. My first attempt at a fan fic did not go as I planned so here is my second try. I got the idea for this story from my realization that Naruto and Sasuke are both technically orphans and how I feel orphans can relate to each other. This story will mostly be told through the perspective of the three main characters. I hope that you enjoy this story, and if you have any critiques, or anything at all to say, please review as it will help me as I write this story.
Chapter end notes: Thank you for reading my first chapter. I will try to keep updating when I have time to write with school and all. I hope that you have enjoyed my story so far. I will follow canon for the most part, except for some oc’s that will be introduced in later chapters. Not all of the chapters will be this dark. Please review as it helps to encourage me to keep writing, and lets me know what you, like or dislike about my story. All forms of critiques are welcomed, though I would ask that you do not flame, constructive criticisms work better. Thank you again.