Naruto x Fate
Naruto x Fate
BΛD DΛY?
"Yo old man! Did you get the news already? They're naming it the Naruto Bridge. Can't you believe it!?"
Glancing up from his desk, Hiruzen offers the boy a kind but pained smile, ever so used to his frequent visits and brash greetings. Despite being discharged from the hospital way too early, the blonde is teeming with energy. A hospital gown is thrown haphazardly over his shoulder, revealing fresh bruises and. . . a large red blemish right where his heart would be.
It was a rather ghastly sight. That scar on his chest never seemed to heal properly despite Konoha's best efforts. Seeing it again, up so close, opens up memories of that particular night.
Unbeknownst to the village, Naruto Uzumaki should've died the day of the Kyuubi attack.
Pierced straight through by the nine-tails' claws, yet by some miracle, the child stands before him, raving on about saving princesses and slaying evil overlords. To have cheated death, no matter how powerful the beast may be, was just-
"Old man! Hey, are you even listening to me! Your eyes got all glassy. Are you fantasizing about your porn stash again!?"
A rush of annoyance brings him back to reality. "You insolent brat!" He hits the kid with a rather fat stack of unmarked paperwork, eliciting a loud cry of pain. "Look how busy I am! Why are you here in my office when you should be at home, resting!" As usual, his words seem to have no effect. The blonde pouts before letting out a long whine. "I can't stay inside for the next two days!" He shouts. "Sakura and Sasuke are going to train without me!"
Hiruzen sighs, massaging his forehead. "Is your eyesight even recovered yet?" At his question, the young preteen immediately rubs his eyes before blinking a total of fifteen times. "I'm fine! A while ago, I was sorta going blind, but-but not right now though!"
The boy sheepishly grins at his pointed look.
"Cat," he calls out. "Bring Naruto home, will you?" At his command, a tall masked figure emerges from the shadows, nodding silently. The Anbu guard picks the kid up from behind, scooping him up from under his armpits as to which Naruto flails in discomfort. "Let go of me!" he shouts in annoyance. "I made my way here just fine! Ow-ow, okay I did bump into a few things, but I'm not helpless!" The boy struggles to free himself to no avail. He considers biting the shinobi just for the hell of it, but before he can even blink, his form is swallowed by a frenzy of leaves. Soon enough, familiar notes of instant ramen and week-old trash surround his senses, and despite his vision becoming blurrier by the second, he could still make out dirty green walls and a small orange alarm clock.
He's landed in his bedroom, which he was sure of, and the masked guard is now nowhere to be seen, leaving Naruto to stew in his boredom all alone again. Almost tripping over a pair of pants, he flings himself onto bed, gazing listlessly at his flickering ceiling lamp; all he can see now is a yellow smudge.
It's been just over a day since returning from Wave, and his eyes are still damaged. Never had it taken him this long to recover. He thinks of himself as someone who's always on the move. It takes a lot to hamper his vigor, but this "chakra depletion," or whatever it was that the nurses explained to him, it sure is kicking his ass right now. Therefore, he can't help but think of the worst scenario. He wouldn't become permanently blind, would he? God, he hopes not. How will he ever admire Sakura-chan's beautiful eyes again?!
Naruto shakes his head furiously. He has to snap out of it. There's no use in thinking negatively. The doctor said to rest for two more days. He's still recovering, isn't he? Now, what did that man say to do? Oh right, to count the number of shapes he can see.
His ceiling is bare save for a number of black cracks- probably formed by water leaks or poor maintenance.
He starts counting the lines out loud. "One, two, three. . . six. . . ten. . . fifteen?. . . nineteen? Twenty!?"
Damn, his apartment was real shit-
A chunk of drywall suddenly falls to the floor; he initially thinks of it as nothing but an unfortunate but all too common occurrence for him . . . that is until his entire fucking ceiling starts to collapse.
It all happens in less than a minute. He remembers screaming at the top of his lungs, bolting out the door and into the main hallway. Like a madman, he repeatedly shouts "My home! It's crumbling!" For certain, his hysterical yelling was disturbing his peevish neighbors. And somehow, he doesn't notice his recovered eyesight until an old hag hits him with her broom. His landlady, Mrs. Hina, decides to come up all close and personal, screaming at him for being a disturbance and an awful tenant. He can see her face clearly now: soulless black eyes, pruny wrinkles, and an everlasting scowl.
"Hey!" Naruto shouts with joy. "My vision! It's. . . it's. . ."
He sees them again, those black lines, like the ones on his ceiling. They're everywhere, marring every single surface imaginable. His body trembles in what could only be revulsion or fear, or maybe both. What? Just what was he looking at?
Naruto then makes the mistake of gazing at his landowner again, wholly unprepared for the slabs of flesh and bone cascading onto his shoes. It all happens too fast for him to even react. Mrs. Hina. . . she's been reduced to a slimy mass of human pulp: as if butchered into a hundred pieces by the sharpest knife known to man.
It-It takes him a while to regain his bearings, and he feels like absolute shit, like his mind has been run through the grinder just about a hundred times. Just where the hell was he running to? His feet patter rapidly, skidding harshly on clay tiles. Colorful rooftops blur past in an assortment of abstract smears. He thinks screaming loudly would help relieve some of his fear, but his throat is dry and clamped. Naruto runs and runs, in hopes of escaping whatever curse or genjutsu had befallen him.
His heart beats so loud he thinks anyone within a mile radius can hear him: how unfortunate and ironic that he finds himself in a bustling marketplace. Finally choosing a small alleyway to hide in, he crash lands onto a metal trash can, loses his balance, and topples to the ground rather painfully. The boy gingerly picks himself up, examining his surroundings with an air of caution and dread.
They're still there! Those goddamn lines!
Naruto cries out in anger, shutting his eyes to rid of the awful sight. He expects to be encased by comforting darkness, but it's no use. The lines glow an unearthly blue; he can still see them through the thin flaps of his eyelids. A choked sob escapes his lips, and unbeknownst to the distressed blonde, it garners the attention of one particular brunette kunoichi.
"Naruto-kun?"
The soft voice startles the boy quite a bit. He's gotten so lost in his own mind that he completely missed this girl approaching him.
"Um. . . Sakura-chan?"
A beat of silence reigned before the newcomer scoffed. "No, it's me, Tenten." Naruto could hear her step closer to him, less than a feet from his sprawled position. "I'm a year above you," she explained.
"Just what are you doing here? Half-naked?" Her tone was full of worry.
Apparently, Naruto forgot to change when got back. It probably looks like he only has his boxers on. Coupled with his little freak out earlier, Tenten probably thinks he's lost it. At last, a simple "uh" was his clumsy reply. "Needed to sweat the pain away?" Naruto can't see the other girl, but he can tell she wasn't convinced.
"You look fine to me-"
"I'm blind. I-Ive gone blind."
He could hear her stumble over her words, not expecting such an answer. "Oh-Naruto, I'm sorry, I didn't know."He gives out a defeated sigh, not caring for an apology at this point. She couldn't do anything to help his eye problem. "Y-yeah, some after-effect of coming back from Wave."
"Okay, okay, alright. . . Where do u want me to take you? The hospital?"
Naruto shakes his head fervently. No, going back to the hospital didn't feel right. The old man, maybe he could help, but he's busy, right? He's always kicking him out whenever he visits. Or Kakashi sensei? No. . .
Iruka sensei?
A painful churning in his stomach. Why was he so hesitant, all of a sudden? To ask for help? He's had no problem before, asking for extra training or a better faucet. Should he go home? Back to whatever was left of crumbled walls and . . . He starts hyperventilating, realizing that this might be his life now, forever plagued by a curse.
"Hey, hey! Calm down. It's going to be okay!" The sudden shock of her cold hands made his eyes open. He sees the world for how it truly is: fragile, meaningless, decaying, ephemeral. Naruto closes them hurriedly, and Tenten flinches next to him. "Naruto-what, what's with your eyes? They're all blue and glowing."
What the hell was she talking about?! His eyes? Glowing? "I'm fine! I'm really fine! Just peachy, really!"
The girl really should die.
"What?!"
"Huh, I didn't say anything."
Naruto tightens his grip over his face while struggling to his feet. "I need" he gulps, leaning against the wall for support. "I-I need to leave-I need to get away. . . from you and this place." He tries to speed away as fast as he can, away from the marketplace and into quieter streets, but just then, he feels a hand on his shoulder, trying to stop him.
What happens next is all but a blur to him. He feels his fingernail slash through one of those god-awful lines. There was that loud and annoying screaming. Was it him or someone else making all that noise? Naruto couldn't tell because he feels something rush over him like a tidal wave. A strange numbness starts to corrupt him to his core.
He stays that way for a while, in a state of perpetual insensibility. He feels listless, slowly dancing within never-ending inky waters, toying with the thin blue threads of fate.
Until he wakes and finds himself in his very own version of Hell.