Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Naruto of the Mirage ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The morning sun rose, and with it, Anko's eyelids. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she looked at the sleeping form of her son. His blonde hair was streaked with lines of Uchiha black, and the new genes had even given his normally unruly hair a bit of a lean, causing the hairs on the top of his head to lean towards his arms, although it was slight. The whisker marks which adorned his cheeks seemed to fade with the incorporation of his new genes, but that might be a good thing. The less people recognized him, the better it would be.

The sleeping boy was awoken around nine o'clock by the entrance of the Sandaime Hokage, as well as the remaining Uchiha survivor.

“Once Tsunade gets here, we will be able to remove the bandages.” The old man explained.

While the group was waiting, Naruto had tried to start up a conversation with Sasuke. He knew the boy from the academy, but that was as far as his knowledge went.

Though it wasn't known to Naruto, Sasuke was doing the same thing. He wanted to find out all he could about his new `brother'. What he knew from the academy was limited, and it failed to do the blonde justice. Sasuke knew that Naruto had a reputation as being the dumbest boy in the class, who like to play jokes and was very loud. But after talking with him, he realized that Naruto, for all his apparent short comings, was actually quit smart. Thinking over his short experience with the boy, he realized that most of the questions Naruto received, and subsequently failed, were much too hard for most gennin to answer. Actually, Sasuke didn't even know the answer to the questions the `dobe' received. Sasuke came to the conclusion that Naruto's lack of skill was due to his lack of a family. He hadn't had anyone to teach him any techniques, or how to control his chakra. He had grown up alone, without the benefits or joys that family brings. The black haired boy's next thought caught him off guard. If Naruto had never been trained, than how good would he be with supervision? While Naruto was the dead last at the academy, it wasn't by much. He might even be a worthy challenge for Sasuke, maybe even better than the Uchiha. The thought of this made the Uchiha smile.

The boy's conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Tsunade and her apprentice, Shizune, who would be departing the hidden village immediately following Naruto's dismissal from the hospital. She muttered something about a hang over, and proceeded to unwrap the bandages surrounding Naruto's head. After the last bit of gauze was removed, Naruto slowly opened his eyes. At first the unusual sensation of bright light hitting eyes stung for a while, but slowly they grew accustomed.

The crowd in the room was looking at the boy expectantly, waiting to hear his reaction. Sasuke immediately saw the Uchiha eyes and noted with happiness, that the boy looked almost like an Uchiha, with his darkly streaked hair, and deep black eyes. He was happy that even if the person staring back at him wasn't a true Uchiha, that he had at least found some one who was like him.

Naruto was just happy to have his sight back; he blinked a few times before taking note of the people in the room. He recognized the Hokage and Sasuke. But there were three new people in his room that he had never seen before…including his mother. Naruto looked over his shoulder at the purple haired jounin and stared into her brown eyes. Although he looked nothing like her, he knew instinctively that she was his mother.

“Kaa-san!” The boy cried and quickly enveloped Anko in a fierce hug.

“How do the eyes feel?” She asked, returning the hug.

“They feel fine.” The boy replied. “Can I see what they look like?”

Tsunade pointed her thumb over towards a small mirror over the sink in a corner. Naruto leaped out of bed and quickly made his way over to the sink to check out his new appearance.

The black eyes of Uchiha Shisui gazed back at the former blonde. The look seemed…almost…natural. The only sign that the eyes were transplanted were small scars around the corners of his eyes, where the originals had been removed. The left eye had a cross running downward towards the bridge of his nose, and the right eye, had two scars forming a cross at the far corner. All in all, Naruto liked his new look, the eyes weren't his usual happy blue, but he liked them none the less. His hair was now streaked and more limp than before made him look a bit more mysterious, seeing as it actually hid some of his face. However, the thing he was most happy about was the fact that those ugly whisker marks had faded. Where there were once three lines, only two remained, making him look less like the fox that was trapped inside him.

“This is so cool!” Naruto said, responding to his new look.

“I'm glad to hear that you like your new look, Naruto.” The Sandaime said. “I have a question for you, I want to know, how you would feel, having Sasuke as your brother.”

“You mean, since he's an orphan too, you want to him to live with kaa-san and me?” The seven year old asked.

The Sandaime chuckled to himself, seeing how intelligent Naruto could be.

“Yes, I would like for your mother and you to adopt Sasuke, so that all of you can have a family, even after such tragic events.”

“That would be so cool! What do you think kaa-san?” The loudmouth asked, heading back to be closer to his mother.

“I don't mind as long as you don't.” Anko responded, smiling at her sons, ruffling their hair.

“Now, I believe, there is the matter of getting used to your new eyes.” The Hokage said. “Naruto, you'll need help to use your eyes correctly and there isn't any real point in separating you two since it would be nice if you both activated the sharingan. I'll have some specialized training set up for the two of you starting next week. Until then, I suggest you get to know each other better.” The old man smiled and exited the door leaving the three person family alone for the first time since its conception.

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One week later, the two boys found themselves waiting to meet their new sensei. He was currently running a good hour and a half late, and both boys were beginning to wonder if he'd ever show up.

“Yo, sorry I'm late, you see there was this kitten, and it was caught in a tree…” A voice said, approaching the two young ninjas-in-training.

The two looked at the new comer with identical stares of both disbelief and anger. He was a tall man with grey hair, although he wasn't old, and it stuck up in many different angles, not unlike Naruto's old hair. He was wearing dark pants and a dark shirt under the standard issue jounin vest, as well as black fingerless gloves that had a metal plate on the back of the hand to block swords. The most peculiar aspect of the man was his Konoha head protector was pulled over his left eye, completely obscuring it, and he wore a mask that effectively covered his face and nose.

“You two are Sasuke and Naruto, I assume?” The silver haired man asked the bewildered boys.

They just nodded their heads looking at their sensei, he seemed…well they didn't know how he seemed, there was something about him, he seemed dangerous, even if he was an hour and a half late.

“Why don't we introduce ourselves, you can tell us your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, those kinds of things. I'll start off, my name is Hatake Kakashi, I don't feel like telling you my likes, or dislikes, my dreams for the future…I have a lot of hobbies.” He finished, giving absolutely no detail in his cryptic answer.

`Great, all we learned was his name.' The boys thought to themselves.

“Well, my name is Uchiha Sasuke, I like my family and training, I have a few things that I don't like, my hobbies…hm, I guess I don't really have any, as for my dreams…I want to start my own family…and I want to help my family accomplish their goals.” The raven haired boy said.

`Hm, he didn't mention Itachi; I guess that's a good thing.' Kakashi thought.

“My name is Mitarashi Naruto; I like my family and ramen. I dislike the three minute wait for the ramen to cook; my hobbies are training with my brother and mom and trying all the different types of ramen that I can find. My dream is to become the Hokage and help my family with their dreams.” He finished.

`Hm, ramen obsessed boy, but he's got a hard dream.' Kakashi thought. He stared at the boys before him, Sasuke in his usual blue t-shirt and shorts with the red and white Uchiha fan on the back, and Naruto, who had taken to wearing black shorts with a bunch of pockets on them, with a white shirt. The interesting thing about the shirt was the clan symbol on the back. It seemed to be a mixture of the orange swirl he had donned under the name of Uzumaki Naruto and the Uchiha fan. It was an orange and red swirl, divided just as the Uchiha fan was.

“Well, my job for the time being is to help you two learn to harness the power of the sharingan. Sasuke, since you haven't awoken yours yet, we'll be doing drills and exercises to help you and Naruto, since you have fully developed sharingan already, you just need to learn to use the correct amount of chakra to activate them. You'll be doing mostly chakra control exercises. Both of you will do drills with me until you get the hang of the sharingan.” Kakashi explained.

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After their first day of practice, Kakashi pulled Sasuke aside, since Naruto was being stubborn and still practicing his chakra control.

“Sasuke, I don't wish to bring up a potentially sore subject, but when I agreed to take on this assignment, I was given a psychological evaluation, and it said that, when you were admitted to the hospital, you were set on killing your brother, but today you didn't mention him. I hope you don't mind me asking, but what happened, was the report wrong?”

Sasuke glared at his instructor before sighing.

“No, when I moved in with Naruto and Anko, I was pretty set on killing … him.

Flashback

Sasuke was unpacking his belongings into his new room, which he shared with Naruto. Anko's apartment wasn't that big, and they were looking for a larger place to live, but for now it was her apartment or nothing. Naruto was moving his stuff into the room as well and Sasuke was shocked to find that everything of value that Naruto had could easily fit into a backpack.

“Naruto.” Sasuke said, breaking the silence of the room. “I understand that my brother attacked you, but Itachi is mine to kill. If you get in the way, than I may be forced to kill you. Don't get in my way.” The brooding boy warned.

Naruto looked at his new brother like he had some kind of marine animal stuck to his face.

“I don't care; you can kill him if you want.” He shrugged.

Now it was Sasuke's turn to be perplexed.

“How can you not want revenge for what he did to you?” He asked.

“Oh, it's not that I don't want revenge, but it comes second. I don't know about you, but revenge isn't going to control what I do, so you don't have to worry about me `getting in the way'.” Naruto explained.

“You obviously don't get it, I have to kill him. I am an Uchiha, and I must avenge my family. It's all my fault that they died, I couldn't do anything.” At this Sasuke began to break down a bit and tears came to his eyes.

“Sasuke, it's not your fault. You're in the academy, learning to be a ninja, and he's ANBU. There's nothing that you could have done. If you had been there to `help' them, you would have died too.” Naruto said.

Sasuke crossed the room in a second and pinned Naruto against the wall.

“You don't get it, do you?” He hissed “I'm an Uchiha, I MUST avenge my clan.”

“No, I do get it; you think that because you're from this clan, that you must avenge their deaths. You forget that your brother is also an Uchiha.”

This simply confused Sasuke even more.

“What the hell are you talking about?” He asked the boy, trying to calm himself down.

“Look, you know how to cross multiply numbers, right?” Naruto asked him. Sasuke merely nodded his head, not understanding where this was going.

“So you know that when you cross multiply like terms will cancel each other out. Think about it. You're an Uchiha in the academy; he's an Uchiha in ANBU. If you could cross multiply the two, than you're stuck with an academy student against an ANBU. You never would have stood a chance.” Naruto articulated.

This struck Sasuke deep. He hadn't thought of his life in such a scientific way before. It made so much sense.

“Look, Sasuke, I'm not telling you to abandon your goal, but you shouldn't worry about it until you can match him. I'm sure one day, you'll see him again, and be able to kill him, but that won't be until you're at least a chunnin, more than likely, not until you're a jounin. Don't worry about it for now and focus on other things.” Naruto simply left the room to find his mom and give Sasuke some room to thing.

End Flashback

Sasuke retold the story of Naruto's logic to Kakashi, who was very impressed by the `dead last's' ability to change Sasuke so easily.

“It's not a good thing to be an avenger. Avengers lead a life of pain and suffering. They live for one reason, and if they ever accomplish their goal, they are left with a feeling of emptiness and despair. They become so caught up in their own world that they become social outcasts and loners. It is not a life that I wish upon any one.” With that Kakashi dismissed the boys for the day.

The boys walked back to their apartment at a quick pace, hoping to make it back in time to shower before dinner. The looks that they received were surprising to Sasuke, especially the first time he noticed them. He was used to people recognizing him, because he was from the Uchiha clan, but the looks people gave Anko and Naruto…they made him shiver every once and a while. At first it was simply at Anko, she brushed it off, scowling at the people foolish enough to make a remark behind her back. He wasn't able to hear what they were talking about, except for the word snake.

After a while, the looks began to move towards Naruto. Even after the changes he went through, people recognized who he was. Sasuke was taken by surprise the sneers and glares he received. It surprised him just as much, when Naruto brushed them away by smiling at them.

Flashback

It was the day after Sasuke's minor blow up at Naruto, and the boys were sitting around their new apartment, waiting for Anko to return from shopping.

“Hey, Naruto, why didn't you go with your mom?” Sasuke asked. He himself hadn't gone because he was still digesting the conversation he had had yesterday.

“Well, I didn't want mom to have any more problems.” He said, rather cryptically.

“What do you mean? How could you cause problems for her?” The full blooded Uchiha asked his brother.

Naruto looked at his feet, swinging them in front of his body.

“You saw the way people look at me, right?” He asked. Keeping his eyes rooted on the floor.

“Yeah.”

“They look at me like that, because I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me.” He said, quietly. Suddenly, his voice took a much more serious tone.

“Look, I don't care if you hate me, but if you use that to hurt kaa-san, than I'll kill you.”

Sasuke was shocked. The reason that Naruto had grown up without any kind of care was that he had a demon sealed inside of him? That didn't make any sense. But that would explain the looks the younger boy received, as well as Anko. As the mother of the Kyuubi vessel, she was probably seen as an anathema. Not to mention the hisses he heard yesterday, first calling his adopted mother a snake, and then openly hating his adopted brother.

“Naruto…I don't hate you. It's just a lot to take in.” Sasuke stammered.

The rest of the day was spent in silence, waiting for Anko to return with dinner. She seemed to notice the look on her son's face, as well as the look of heavy contemplation that graced Sasuke's face. When she asked what was wrong, Naruto denied that anything was amiss, and Sasuke simply shook his head. That night, when the boys were lying in their room, sleep had decided to fail them.

“Hey, Naruto…” Sasuke started to speak but paused for a second. “I don't hate you, for the Kyuubi. I think your actually pretty brave, to put up with all the stuff you do.”

Naruto turned over to the boy and, although Sasuke couldn't see him, stared at the boy. Then Naruto returned to his previous position and tried to go back to sleep. Before he managed to find refuge though, he said:

“Thanks, Sasuke. You're the first person I've told besides the Hokage and kaa-san, so this means a lot to me.”

The boys remained silent for the remainder of the night, before finally falling asleep.

End Flashback

After that day, the three people living under the roof of Anko's apartment could actually feel like a family. Sasuke and Naruto acting as each other's brother and Anko as a mother to Naruto and a surrogate mother to Sasuke. That night Sasuke had made a decision, that he would protect his new family. He didn't know that Naruto had done the same thing.

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