Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ When you dream ❯ To hear without hearing ( Chapter 1 )

Authors note: My first Naruto Fan Fic! HAHA! grins

Naruto thought he was the only one like him, the only one with a fiercely kept secret. Shunned by those who knew, and even by those who did not. Naruto is surprised when he finds himself dreaming of someone like him. But it's just a dream… right? But when the dream begins to extend into the waking world, Naruto begins to wonder if the one in his dreams truly exists.

(There will be pairing but I'm not sure of them just yet, but I'll let you know the moment I figure it out! :-p)

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          &nb sp; A young blond haired boy sat up groggily and yawed wide before reaching over to his bedside table to pick up his clock and shut it off. Wiping the sleep from his eyes he clambered out of bed and tossed his night cap on the pillow. He clambered into the bathroom to shower before getting dressed in his usual attire of yellow pants and jacket along with a black pair of boots. Digging around in the few cupboards in his kitchen he found nothing to eat. Oh well… Kakashi said not to eat breakfast anyway. The young boy thought to himself before walking over to his dresser to pick up his Hitai-ate head band. He tied it over his forehead tightly before stepping out the door locking it behind him.

"Alright, here I come!" he yelled before running off. As he reached the bridge he called out to a young girl with long pink hair wearing a red dress and her head band more on top of her head.

"Good morning Sakura-Chan!" he said waving to her as he walked up.

"Good morning Naruto." He then looked over to a dark haired boy who stood resting his elbows on the railing of the bridge. The two looked at each other of a brief moment then looked away. To say that Naruto and Sasuke never got along was to win some kind of prize for the greatest understatement of the year.

"Good morning everyone, sorry I'm late the Hokage needed to see me to help decide which hat to wear today." Kakashi said in a mild voice with a hint of amusement as he walked up to his group waiting for him on the bridge.

"LIAR!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison. Sasuke didn't say anything; it didn't seem to matter to him that they had been waiting there for him to arrive for well over an hour now.

"Today we will start with the usual routine." Kakashi said pulling two bells from his belt and holding them up, while you couldn't see him smiling you could almost hear it in his voice. Naruto groaned while Sakura immediately went to Sasuke's side chatting to him about some kind of teamwork in hopes of getting him to say something more to her today than just the usual cold brush off.

          &nb sp; The training grounds were still soaked and muddy from the downpour the day before despite the mild warm weather and clear skies over head. Sakura gave a small whimper and cringed not wanting to look dirty in front of Sasuke.

          &nb sp; "Hah, no rain or mud's going to keep me from getting a bell today! Whoa!" Naruto had nearly slipped and fallen face first into a mud puddle and had to splay his arms out to keep from falling right after making his boast.

"You right there Dunce?" Sasuke asked looking at Naruto a small sneer in his voice. Kakashi gave a small sigh.

"When you are all ready…" he said cutting off any remark Naruto was about to fire back, he placed the timer down on the tree stump as usual. "Go." The moment he started the timer the three jumped away to conceal themselves before moving in trying to work as a group to get at least one bell.

          &nb sp;

The timer rang at lunchtime seeing the three exhausted, and mud splattered, in Naruto's case it was more mud soaked, and no bells to show for there efforts. Sakura was whining trying to get the mud out of her hair while both Naruto and Sasuke sat on the ground a safe distance between them neither of them really listening to Kakashi's latest lecture on teamwork, properly applying yourself, and so on. Rather than thinking about what ramen he was going to have when he got home, Naruto was trying to listen to a faint sound that seemed to be on the edge of his hearing. He strained his ears to try and hear it better, but the more he tried the fainter it seemed to get, almost as if it wasn't hearing it with his ears. Naruto snapped out of concentration when he felt someone watching him. Looking up he saw Kakashi crouching in front of him eyes level with his own.

"Ahhhh…." Naruto grinned up at his teacher.

"Were you listening to anything that I just said?" Kakashi asked, the question obviously rhetorical… he already knew the answer even if Naruto gave another.

"Um… yes! Yes I was sensei!" Sakura moaned at the obvious lie.

"You need to pay more attention Naruto; you never listen when someone's telling you something important." Sakura scolded at him.

"I listen when you tell me." Naruto said looking down to hide a small blush as he raised a hand to scratch the back of his head.

"I can't go around constantly explaining things for you Naruto." She continued to scold him completely missing the attempted complement.

"If you two are done," Kakashi said with a small sigh as he stood back up "We need to get on with today's tasks."

"Don't you mean chores?" Naruto said looking up at him pouting.

"Can't we at least have a moment to clean ourselves?" Sakura asked with such a pitiful look on her face and whining tone it nearly put Naruto's worst whining to shame. About to object Kakashi changed his mind and pulled his book `make out paradise' from his pouch.

"Alright, meet back here before I finish this chapter." He said as he seated himself down on the same stump that supported the timer.

"But that's not enough time to go home and clean up!" Sakura objected. Kakashi's response was to simply point at the lake.

"Uh…"

"Come on Sakura! It's better than nothing!" Naruto called back to her grinning already walking over to the lake. Naruto dove right in, hoping to get rid of some of the mud off of his clothes as well as his skin. Surfacing he grinned over Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura scolded at him and knelt at the edge, carefully washing the mud from her skin and dress. Sasuke was barely muddy at all, so he just stood there as if he had come for another unspoken reason. As he tread water Naruto looked out over to the other side of the lake. Someone was crying, he was sure of it. But he didn't hear it as such… it seemed he sensed it. Something crying out for help… in pain. Naruto began to swim to the other side of the lake; something inside of him almost seemed to be pulling him towards the sound.

"Naruto? Naruto! Where do you think your going, get back here!" Sakura cried out after him.

"Hang on a sec…" Naruto muttered to quiet for her to hear.

"Naruto! Don't make me come in after you, if you do your going to be in such trouble." In truth Sakura had no intentions of following Naruto into the lake but she hoped she could simply manage to convince Naruto to come back without her having to do that.

"Just a minute… I'll be right back." Naruto called out louder this time so Sakura could hear him swimming faster.

"You better be!" Sakura called out before sitting back her hands crossed over her chest in annoyance.

"I wonder what that dunce is up to now." Sasuke mused aloud.

"I don't think I care to know. But if you like we can go have lunch together while we wait for him to get back." Sakura said blushing slightly looking at him hopefully.

"No thanks, I'll decline." Sasuke said simply looking away causing Sakura to lie down on her back in exasperation. She looked up at the sky sadly wondering why Sasuke kept brushing her off. She scrunched her eyes tight trying to ignore Kakashi's question as to where Naruto had gone.

          &nb sp; Crawling out on the other side of the lake Naruto shook himself off with little effect, his clothes still retaining much of the water. Not caring too much Naruto began to wander into the forest trying to find the source of the crying. He doubled back on himself once or twice, not caring that Kakashi had probably more than finished a chapter by now, but he was hoping that his sensei would get lost in his book and give him more than a chapters worth of time. He was almost beginning to feel frustrated when a solid sound began to reach his ears. He broke into a run, certain where the sound was coming from, his feet nearly slipping out from under him completely the ground just as slick and muddy over here. He stopped and almost purposefully ran into a tree to stop from falling over into to mud when he heard the crying very close by. In front of him was a large tree lying on the ground, blackened marks at the end. Lightning, Naruto mused to himself as he hauled himself over the tree. As he landed on the other side he found what was making the noise. About five feet from him a young looking fox was pinned almost completely under the tree. Naruto's face saddened as he saw it trying to pull itself free with only its head and front legs to work with.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out!" Naruto called to it reassuringly as he brought his hands up quickly in front of him "Art of the Doppelganger!" At least twenty solid copies of him appeared on either side of the fallen tree. They all simultaneously placed their hands underneath the tree and began to heave. As they all heaved Naruto realized he had not summoned enough copies as the fox still could not seem to free itself despite all their efforts.
          &n bsp; "Naruto? Naruto, come on Naruto I know you don't like doing the D rank tasks but someone…"
         & nbsp;  "KAKASHI!!" Naruto called out cutting him short. Hoping the teacher would come quickly, his clones were starting to disappear, and the last thing he wanted to do was to drop the full weight of the log back down on the fox.

"What? What's the matter Naru…" Out of the corner of his eye Naruto saw Kakashi slide himself next to the fox. Using his shoulder and back as leverage Kakashi heaved up and quickly picked up the fox in both arms. Naruto let go of the tree and the rest of the doppelgangers disappeared the moment Kakashi and the fox were out from under the tree.
            ; "Now let's see here…" Kakashi said running a hand over the foxes back.

"Is she ok?" Naruto asked, not sure why he thought the fox was a girl.

          &nb sp; "Well, nothing seems to be broken." The fox looked about itself, golden eyes shining with curiosity. It had a brown coat, or was that mud? And it had a very big bushy tail. Looking up into Kakashi's eye the fox regarded him for a moment before proceeding to lick the only part of his face visible in thanks.

"Hey cut that out." Kakashi said chuckling. Naruto was glad the fox was alright; he smiled and reached over to pet it. The moment his hand touched her head the fox turned to look at him for a moment causing Naruto to draw his hand away not wanting to scare the fox, but she merely began to wash his face in the same form of appreciation.

"Alright now, its time to head back." Kakashi said as he placed the fox down. She immediately began to yip and jump up with her front feet leaving her hind legs on the ground almost as if she were attempting to stand.
          &nbs p; "Do you want to come with us?" Naruto asked happily looking at the fox. She yipped again and proceeded to prance about him as if to say `yes' but Kakashi shook his head.
            ; "That's a wild animal Naruto, not some stray pup you can just take home."
          &nbs p; "Awww" Naruto and the fox both whined at the same time. Kakashi looked at the fox surprised but then shook his head, normal foxes don't understand common speech.

"Come on Naruto." Kakashi led Naruto away as the fox simply sat there watching them go whining slightly.

          &nb sp; Throughout the rest of the day Naruto could not get the fox off of his mind. He had told his companions what had happened when they had gotten back. Sakura gave him a small complement which caused Naruto to blush; Sasuke asked how he had managed to hear the fox in the first place from so far away. To this he just shrugged and gave no verbal reply but glanced at Kakashi who hadn't really said anything about the fox. After the team had split up for the day after Kakashi had left to submit his report for the day Naruto walked slowly home eyes to the ground lost in his own thoughts. Sakura watched him go wondering if he was ok. Usually Naruto tried to get them all to train together or at least the two of them, but this time the bright energetic young ninja had barely muttered a goodbye with a half-hearted wave as he walked off. Feeling slightly worried Sakura said goodbye to Sasuke before hurrying to catch up with Naruto.

"Hey Naruto, are you ok?" Sakura asked as she walked in stride next to him.

"Hm? Oh yeah I'm fine." He said looking at her giving her a small smile.

"Are you sure?" she'd never seen him so lost in thought before, she was certain he'd run into a pole or house or something if he didn't pay more attention to where he was going. "You're probably just hungry right? Let's go grab some ramen or something." She had no idea what had compelled her to offer to go anywhere with Naruto, but she had to try something to bring him out of it. Naruto smiled up at her.
            "Thanks but no thanks, I'll just grab something at home." Ok, Sakura thought to herself, something had to be wrong with him. She had just offered to go get ramen with him and he'd said no despite the fact that he'd asked her many times before to go with him. She stopped in her tracks taken completely by surprise not sure what to do next.
            ; "I'll see you tomorrow Sakura." Naruto called to her turning to wave at her before turning back around again. Naruto walked into his apartment and looked around giving a small sigh. Everything was a huge mess, and there didn't seem to be anything more to eat than there had been that morning. He looked anyway, throughout all the cupboards and the fridge until he finally found some leftover fried chicken that he had overlooked behind the milk. Grinning he grabbed a plate and put the chicken on in. There was about a quarter chicken worth left. As he sat down about to eat he thought for a moment looking out the window. That fox had looked awful skinny… I wonder if she's hungry. Putting the chicken in a container, Naruto headed out to where the fallen tree was wondering if the fox was still there. Night was starting to fall as Naruto sat himself down on the fallen tree. He left the container on the ground with half of the chicken inside with the other half in his hands. As he finished his portion of food he sat looking at the container wondering if the fox was going to come back or not. Resting his head on his palm he closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again he saw the fox edging towards the container sniffing hungrily. It looked up at Naruto who was sitting watching her with a small smile on his face. He gave a small nod and the fox quickly moved forward to polish off the chicken in a matter of seconds. Naruto slid down quietly and walked up to her carefully not wanting to startle her, he extended one hand out slowly towards her to let her catch his scent. Looking up she sniffed his fingers for a moment then nuzzled her head against his palm. Smiling Naruto proceeded to pet her and try to get some of the twigs and mud cakes he found in her fur till the moon was high. He promised to stop by the next night as the fox proceeded to was his face affectionately. Naruto felt exhausted when he reached home and didn't even bother to do more than kick off his boots and taking off his head band before he tossed himself onto his bed, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

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Ahhhh! Yay! :-D. My first Naruto chapter! Please let me know if you liked it or have suggestions or stuff… R&R's are the things that make fan fic's go! Mine anyway :-p and as always no flames for I shall use them to make marshmallows.