Kichirou Fukushima
The man named Kichirou Fukushima stands in front of the third hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. He’s finally come up with a good plan for how he is to get his revenge against the nine tailed demon. The damn fox took his parents and his older brother so he won’t let this thing get off easy.
“Lord Hokage,” Kichirou starts.
“Kichirou, what do you need from me?” Hiruzen questions.
Kichirou feigns a concerned voice as he speaks. “I was thinking, the jinchuriki is quite young to be left by himself. Maybe someone could look after him. I know he has you but as hokage you’re awfully busy so it would be easier if you didn’t have to look out for him.”
“Are you offering?”
“Actually yes. I think I would be perfect for taking care of Naruto.”
“You make a convincing argument. Alright I’ll give you my approval. I’ll call Naruto to the Hokage office.”
—
Naruto didn’t know what to expect when he was called to the Hokage office. He suspected it was something about the recent mischief he’s gotten himself into. He grins to himself, if the people are going to pretend he’s invisible he’ll make them see him even if it’s only because of the trouble he causes.
When he enters the office, he’s taken aback to see that there is a ninja there already. When the ninja’s eyes lay upon him they have that same look of anger and hatred as the rest of the village. Suddenly Naruto is uncomfortable.
“Naruto, this nice young man is Kichirou Fukushima. He’ll be looking after you from now on,” Old man Hokage informs him.
Naruto’s eyes widened. This can’t be true! Has the hokage gotten so old that he’s too blind to see the eyes of hatred that are looking at him. That man can’t be trusted to look after him.
“What?! No! I don’t need to be looked after by him!” Naruto shouts angrily.
The third hokage is surprised by his outburst. “You are only six years old. You need someone to look after you better than I can. Don’t be ungrateful, he’s being kind to you.”
“I’ve looked after myself younger than this!” Naruto argues.
“Naruto, this man will look after you. End of story.”
The third hokage really is blind. That man, Kichirou Fukushima, gives him a grin. Naruto feels fear creep into his heart at the sight of it. Why can’t the old man listen to him? The blond refuses to go out without a fight so he starts yelling and eventually Kichirou merely drags him away from the office.
Naruto is brought back to Kichirou’s house. The blond attempts to slip away but Kichirou is a skilled ninja and Naruto has only just started going to the ninja academy so he’s not capable of escape.
Kichirou forces Naruto into a room that is basically a jail cell. Naruto wonders if he has a room like this because he’s a ninja or he’s just that much of a weirdo.
“I would kill you, but that would be letting you off too easily. So instead I’ll make your life a living hell.”
“Why?! What have I done to you?!”
“You killed my family!”
“No I didn’t”
“The nine tails inside you did so you will be punished.”
“Let me go!”
“Yell as much as you want. No one can hear you here. No one will come for you. Although I doubt that even if they could hear that they would come save a demon like you.”
Naruto has a faint understanding of what this man is saying. He’s overheard people talking about jinchurikis when around him before. Does that mean he is one? He has a demon sealed in him?
“I don’t need anyone to save me! I’m strong! I’ll escape by myself!”
“Ha! How pathetic. Such a small child thinking he’s strong enough to escape me.”
Naruto attempts to slip out of the room only to get a strong hand pushing him that causes him to fall to the ground. Kichirou gets the chains attached to the wall and puts them on Naruto.
“You’re demon chakra can’t help you in those chains. They were hard to get but they’ll restrain you. Now to get to the fun part,” Kichirou comments.
“...The fun part?”
“Yes.”
The ninja takes out a knife and Naruto feels dread overcome him. He talked big earlier but now that he’s in chains and this man has a knife that looks ready to be used against he isn’t feeling all that confident in himself.
Kichirou doesn’t hesitate to take sharp slashes at Naruto’s skin. His thin clothing did nothing to protect against the sharp knife. The ninja avoids Naruto’s face and neck, the jinchuriki suspects it’s because he wants to keep this a secret.
All the black haired man does is laugh as he cuts into Naruto’s skin while the child cries out in pain. Naruto doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know how he’s supposed to escape this situation or this place.
Sometimes, Kichirou will stop for a moment to give Naruto hope that he’s done only to laugh at Naruto’s gullibility and continue to cut into the blond’s skin.
What feels like days later, Kichirou finally stops. Naruto’s still on edge as the ninja hasn’t left the room yet.
“You’re not allowed to sleep. If you do, you'll be punished worse than this,” Kichirou tells Naruto.
Naruto’s too afraid to refuse the man so he nods. It’s late and he wants to sleep and forget this whole experience. Kichirou leaves and Naruto thinks for a moment that he can sleep without the ninja noticing before he sees a camera in his room.
Everytime he shifts himself to get into a more comfortable position he’s struck with pain. And the later it gets the more exhausted he feels. He fights himself to not let himself fall asleep. At some point he can’t help himself from drifting off.
A second later, Naruto hears a loud bang right by his ear. As his eyes flash open at the sound of it he sees Kichirou. He looked to the side of him where the sound came from and it was a small and weak bomb. It was the kind that did light damage but was really loud to draw attention. It’s used by the leaf village to distract enemies when you need to get away.
Naruto only got a blink of sleep before he was woken up and the thought makes him bitter. He bites his tongue though, he doesn’t want to encourage Kichirou to find some way to hurt him worse.
“No sleeping,” Kichirou reminds him and leaves him alone again.
Naruto’s relieved when morning comes as it means he can go to ninja academy. He half expected Kichirou to not let him go but the ninja seemed to have decided it would be too suspicious to keep Naruto there all the time.
However, the man did force Naruto to wear clothes that covered his injuries and also firmly told the blond not to mention a thing or else he would kill Iruka. Naruto was taken aback to learn that Kichirou knew he was close with Iruka but he agrees as he doesn’t want his teacher to be harmed.
At class Naruto couldn’t help but fall asleep. Iruka must’ve noticed his eyebags because he allows it. Once class ends, Iruka wakes Naruto up. The blond looks around and realizes everyone has already left.
“Are you feeling okay, Naruto?” Iruka queries.
Naruto wants to tell Iruka but he knows that would put Iruka in danger so all he says in reply is. “Yes.”
“Okay, I hear you’re being looked after by that ninja, what’s his name, Kichirou I think.”
“Yeah, it was a bit hard to sleep in a new place.”
“Oh okay, hopefully you’ll be able to sleep better when you’re more settled into your new home.”
Naruto is not able to sleep better for the rest of the month. It is not until Iruka brought up his concern with Kichirou himself that he actually let Naruto sleep. He’s allowed very few hours of sleep but it’s better than what it was before.
Kichirou makes his torture more intense as the days go by. After several months, it’s Naruto’s birthday.
Kichirou enters Naruto’s cell. “It’s your seventh birthday. I think you shouldn’t have to go to the academy on such a special day.”
Naruto wishes he hadn’t woken up that morning. Taking Naruto by surprise, Kichirou undoes his chains. Although, the ninja keeps an unmovable hold on the blond’s wrist. The grip is painful as it is on recent wounds.
Kichirou takes Naruto to a lake. Naruto’s more scared than curious at this point. The ninja walks him to the deeper side of the lake.
“The hokage told me you haven’t learned how to swim. It’s time you learned,” Kichirou says before pushing Naruto into the water.
Naruto struggles against the water, moving his hands and legs frantically. He tries to open his mouth to get air but is too deep into the water to be able to breath. Moving around so much is incredibly painful but Naruto doesn’t want to drown.
“Stop being so dramatic,” Kichirou demands.
Naruto uses his arms against the water and somehow manages to get to shore and take a breath of fresh air. He sighs a breath of relief. It was too soon though as Kichirou walked over to him.
“I don’t think you have learned yet,” Kichirou voices and uses his strength to shove Naruto back into the deep water.
Naruto has even less strength this time and doesn’t know if he’ll survive this time. He can’t die yet. He has to become hokage and make the village accept him! With this thought in mind he makes it to the shore.
Thankfully, Kichirou doesn’t force him to do it again. Unfortunately, he had something else in mind for Naruto.
Naruto is brought back to Kichirou’s home and forced back into the chains. Kichirou doesn’t leave him alone much to his disappointment and fear. The brown eyed ninja looks at him with excitement which was never a good sign.
Kichirou lays out a bunch of the same type of knife. Naruto doesn’t understand why he would need so many only for slashing his skin. The ninja seems to have a new idea today though.
The man rams a knife into Naruto’s shoulder and the blond screams in pain. Kichirou continues doing with the rest of the knives. He chose different spots to stab Naruto, avoiding the vital spots as he doesn’t want Naruto dead. That would be letting him off too easily.
When Kichirou has run out of knives, Naruto is covered with knives sticking out of him. The sight is horrifying to Naruto. The ninja now begins to pull out the knives, getting more cries of pain from him.
For once Kichirou actually wraps and treats Naruto’s wounds. There were too many, the blood loss would likely kill Naruto if he hadn’t. Although, when helping Naruto he’s rough and pushes against the wounds on purpose to cause him pain.
Kichirou only helped Naruto because if he hadn’t he couldn’t torture the blond more. Naruto can’t walk the next day so he has to stay home from the academy. Kichirou leaves him be since he’s been satisfied with his new creative way of torture.
The day Naruto goes back to the academy, Iruka expresses his worry and tells him he wants to check with how his homelife is. Naruto feels dread at Iruka’s words. He should’ve known Iruka would see through his lies and instead see his eyebags and the winces of pain when he walks or bumps into someone.
“Iruka-sensei, Kichirou is great so you don’t need to worry about me,” Naruto insists.
“I just want to make sure everything’s okay.”
This isn’t going to go well. Iruka does check in with Kichirou and Naruto. Kichirou acts as if everythings normal and they even have a nice dinner together that only causes discomfort for Naruto. After faking being normal for a while for Iruka, Naruto’s teacher is satisfied and leaves.
Kichirou gives Naruto a pissed expression, clearly upset for making his teacher suspicious. The ninja aggressively drags Naruto back to the cell and puts the chains back on. He takes out knives and begins to slash.
That’s when the cell door opens. Iruka is standing there. He looks absolutely horrified by the sight in front of him.
“Huh? You again?” Kichirou groans. “I thought you left.”
“I knew that you wouldn’t act badly if I was there so I checked after you thought I left,” Iruka explains.
“I don’t care.”
Iruka rushes into the cell to stand in front of Naruto in a protective position. The two ninja begin to fight. Kichirou happens to have more weapons on him and manages to get many hits against Naruto’s teacher.
“Sensei, stop! Please stop! I’m fine! I promise I’m fine!”
“You’re covered in wounds. That can’t be true.”
Iruka doesn’t win the fight. Naruto burns with anger and horror as he looks at Iruka’s lifeless body. He forgets his fear of Kichirou for a moment and starts to yell at the man.
“Damn you! You sick man! You call me a demon?!”
Kichirou isn’t pleased with Naruto’s shouting. The ninja leaves the room and Naruto isn’t sure if he should be relieved or scared. He ends up feeling scared as the ninja comes back only a few moments later with a rag.
Naruto’s confused. Why does Kichirou have a rag of all things? The brown eyed man uses the rag to roughly cover Naruto’s nose and mouth tightly. This prevents Naruto from getting any fresh air. He fights against his chains to get away but to no avail.
Right before losing consciousness Naruto hears Kichirou say. “That’ll teach you to be quiet.”
The next day, the academy doesn’t feel the same. There’s a new teacher already. It seems Kichirou informed the hokage that Iruka passed away from an illness. Naruto can’t believe the old man actually believed Kichirou. Iruka didn’t show any signs of being sick although the hokage hadn’t seen Iruka in a few days so how would he know?
That doesn’t stop Naruto from being angry at the old man. This new teacher is nothing like Iruka. She has the same look of hatred that the rest of the village share. Naruto slumps in a chair. He can’t quit academy now, it’s his only escape from that godforsaken place.
Everyday things get worse. Maybe they’ll never get better. No. Naruto can’t let himself think that way. He has to make this village see him.
The next day is the day when the entire Uchiha clan is murdered by Itachi except for Sasuke. Naruto feels bad for the boy. He knows what it’s like to not have a family, Sasuke must be awfully lonely.
Naruto decides to do something for the boy. When all the students are spending time outside learning in the academy, Naruto slips away. He goes to buy some onigiri with the very little money he’s gotten from old man hokage that he somehow managed to keep secret from Kichirou.
Naruto’s overheard Ino and Sakura talking about how it’s one of Sasuke’s favorite foods. It won’t bring the boy’s family back but maybe it’ll make him feel a little better. The blond sneaks into Sasuke’s house to leave the onigiri on a table. It would be too embarrassing to give it to Sasuke face to face.
Sasuke doesn’t look happier the next day but what can Naruto expect, his whole clan just died. Pulling him out of his thoughts, he’s given a note by some of his classmates. The note says Get out of out school demon
He doesn’t know these classmates well but their words still hurt. He crumbles the note up and throws it at them.
“Naruto! Don’t throw things in class!” The teacher scolds.
“They were being mean!” Naruto defends his action.
The teacher picks up the note and reads it but her only response was. “Naruto, your classmates are trying to become ninjas, don’t patronize them.”
He’s trying to become a ninja too! Naruto scowls. He knows nothing he will say will make the situation better so he keeps his mouth shut. The last thing he wants is for her to talk with Kichirou.
“What did the note say?” Sasuke questions.
“Nothing important, focus on your studies, Sasuke.” The teacher said to him in a soft voice.
It irks Naruto how everyone favors Sasuke. His classmates, his teachers, and the villagers all think he’s some amazing boy. Naruto doesn’t understand. He tries his best to get along with the people around him and does what he can to make them laugh but nothing seems to work.
However, Naruto may be jealous but he also feels a connection to the boy since they both are alone. The blond sees others around Sasuke but they never see him for who he truly is and how he feels. Naruto can see it in the boy’s black eyes that he feels just as alone as him.
“If it is not important, why can’t I know?” Sasuke asks.
The teacher doesn’t know how to respond.
Naruto speaks up. “It’s none of your business.”
Sasuke scowls but he leaves it at that. The teacher gives Naruto a dirty look.
“Don’t speak to Sasuke like that!”
Ino and Sakura and a few other classmates also get mad at him for being so harsh with Sasuke. Naruto didn’t want Sasuke to know what was on that note so he doesn’t show any of them a hint of remorse.
The teacher ends up telling Kichirou that Naruto was causing lots of trouble that day at the academy. Kichirou is extra harsh with his punishment that day. Naruto’s getting really tired of this. He can’t live like this any longer!
He needs help. The next day, instead of going to the academy, Naruto goes to the hokage office. He barges into the door and begins frantically explaining everything to the old man. He even goes as far as to show the man his scars and wounds. Hiruzen has a confused expression on his face that eventually turns to anger.
Naruto thought that anger was towards Kichirou. He was wrong.
“Naruto, you can’t be telling such terrible lies! You two may be fighting or something right now but you saying such things could ruin his life. And after all he’s done for you, this is how you repay him by saying horrible things about him. And to go as far to make fake injuries on your body.”
The old man doesn’t believe him. The hope for escape he had only a few moments before is now crushed to pieces. No one’s going to believe him over Kichirou. This was pointless. Why did he even bother? Naruto’s not skilled enough in jutsus to fake something like this but the old man hokage doesn’t pay attention to him so he wouldn’t know that.
The hokage calls Kichirou to his office much to Naruto’s horror. Naruto can tell from the man’s face that he’s pissed. Why did Naruto think he would be able to get help?
Back at the Kichirou house, Naruto is dragged by the hair forcefully then thrown against the cold stone hard wall. The chains are put back on again. The man doesn’t hesitate to bring out his knives to cut deep wounds into his skin.
Kichirou cuts open old wounds and Naruto squirms in pain but with chains has no way of getting away from the man. This process of being cut into lasts for hours before Kichirou finally puts his knives away. Naruto knows not to let his guard down around this man so he stays tense.
“You know, I realized recently, Iruka is gone. I have no reason to let you sleep now.” Kichirou informs him.
No. No, please no. When he gets to sleep, it’s as if he finally gets to escape this hell he calls his life. Naruto feels hopeless.
“You already know what’ll happen if you even drift off for a second,” Kichirou says before leaving the cell.
Naruto trembles. Why him? Why couldn’t he be one of those normal children from the academy? His life would be so much easier. He looks down at the wounds on his skin. There are scars here and there. He knows the amount of them will only increase as the days go by.
He doesn’t let himself drift off that night. The next night he can’t help but let himself rest with his eyes. He’s woken up by one of Kichirou’s noise bombs. The third night he begins having hallucinations. He sees Iruka. He sees Kichirou even when he’s not there. He sees some of his classmates. He sees Sasuke. The fourth night Kichirou lets Naruto sleep for a couple of hours merely so the blond won’t go insane.
After that the cycle continues. At the academy, Naruto often falls asleep. His teacher there isn’t nearly as scary as Kichirou. She gets angry at Naruto for never paying attention.
“Naruto. Why are you even here if you’re going to sleep through all my classes?”
“I’m going to become hokage,” Naruto replies.
Practically everyone in the class bursts out laughing including the teacher. Sasuke was the only one who didn’t laugh. Naruto figures that was only because the boy refused to show any emotion but he still appreciated it anyway.
“You’ll all see. One day I’ll be stronger than all of you,” Naruto announces.
That did nothing to stop the laughter. He’ll have to prove it to them. And even if they all belittle him at least he doesn’t bully people like them.
Naruto doesn’t enjoy going to the academy but it’s definitely better than staying with Kichirou. And he does really want to become a ninja someday so he just has to deal with the mean things his classmates do or say. Also, lunch at the academy is the only time he gets decent food.
Kichirou will often starve him but when he doesn’t he’ll give Naruto the most disgusting looking and smelling food he can find. Multiple times he’s forced Naruto to eat bugs. He’s honestly relieved when he’s starved instead of force fed that.
Without the academy lunch he would’ve already starved to death. Today, his horrible classmates that gave him that note steal his lunch.
“Hey! Give that back!” Naruto shouts.
“Naruto, no yelling in the classroom,” The teacher scolds.
Sasuke steps between Naruto and his classmates. “Give it back.” He demands.
Sasuke is the most skilled out of the whole classroom when it comes to fighting so they give Naruto back his lunch.
“Thank you, Sasuke,” Naruto tells the boy sincerely.
Sasuke doesn’t respond and goes back to where he sits to eat. Sakura and Ino are fangirling over how cool Sasuke was and how nice of him it was to stand up for Naruto.
Naruto is a bit embarrassed that he didn’t manage to handle the situation himself since he’s supposed to become a strong ninja but he also feels a lot of gratitude towards Sasuke for getting him his lunch back.
His day gets worse because once he’s brought back to Kichirou’s house he’s forced into a genjutsu by Kichirou. The illusion is of Iruka dying over and over again. Naruto screams and yells every time it happens in attempts to warn the man or convince him to leave but it never works. He sobs at the sight and it feels like this vision will never leave his mind.
When the genjutsu wears off, Naruto feels as if a knife has been stabbed through his heart when Kichirou hasn’t even brought out his knives this time. He’s then forced into a different genjutsu.
This time, there are several different people dying and being tortured. Naruto doesn’t recognize them but there’s so much blood and there is so much pain. All he wants to do is help them but he can’t move his body. They scream for him to help them but in a genjutsu there is nothing he can do.
He tries to remind himself this isn’t real but it doesn’t feel fake to him. It’s absolutely horrifying. When this illusion ends he’s frozen with horror and tears are rapidly streaming down his face. Kichirou grins at this, pleased with how badly Naruto was affected by what he saw.
Kichirou didn’t physically hurt Naruto but it still brought Naruto pain. The black haired man leaves him be. Even if he was allowed to, Naruto doesn’t think he could fall asleep after that. Everytime he closes his eyes, he sees those images of Iruka and those people.
All he can hear is those screams. Naruto can’t stop his tears. He doesn’t know when this hell will end if it ever will. Why did the hokage have to allow Kichirou to look after him? If he hadn’t none of this would be happening to Naruto.
All these scars he’s gotten will never go away. He has to wear gloves now everyday to the academy to hide the scars on his hands. This can’t end because he can’t escape and no one will help him.
The next day Kichirou convinced the hokage that Naruto stole a precious heirloom ring of the hokage’s. Naruto never did such a thing, in fact he saw Kichirou holding that same heirloom earlier that day. Kichirou informs Naruto that he framed him and lets him out into the village.
Naruto doesn’t know what to do. Kichirou must’ve told him to cause him more fear. Several ninjas come out of nowhere and Naruto sprints away. He’s sure they’re like Kichirou so he has to get away so he isn’t hurt by them.
The villagers spectate the situation and a few of them even throw things at Naruto to get him to stop running away. Naruto only grits his teeth and runs faster. He can’t run forever though. Eventually, one of the ninja attacks him from above and captures him.
“I’m innocent! I didn’t do it!” Naruto defends himself.
“Why would someone innocent look so scared then?” The ninja who captured him asks rhetorically.
The ninja finds the heirloom ring in Naruto’s pocket. Naruto groans internally. Kichirou must’ve slipped it into his pocket without him noticing.
“Thought you’d make some good money from this did you?” The ninja questions, again not expecting an answer.
The ninja’s drag him along roughly to the hokage tower. When they make it there Naruto doesn’t bother to say he’s innocent as he won’t be believed. Instead he says,
“I’m sorry, Lord Hokage. I wasn’t thinking. I won’t do something like this again,” Naruto says. That’s if Kichirou doesn’t frame him for something like this again.
“This is your worst offense yet, Naruto,” The third hokage tells Naruto.
“I know, it was a mistake.”
Another ninja interrupts their conversation. “Should we lock him up now, Lord Hokage?”
The hokage shakes his head.
“But he can’t go unpunished for something like this!”
“He won’t go unpunished, but he’s only a child, I doubt he thought this through. I have a punishment in mind that will hopefully teach him a lesson.”
That punishment turned out to be putting Naruto in a completely white room for a whole day with nothing to eat or drink. If he needed to go to the bathroom he only had a completely white bucket in one part of the room.
This isn’t the worst kind of punishment Naruto has been forced to endure so he sits there silently and calmly. One ninja guarding him pretends to sneak Naruto food before eating what he brought right in front of his face. The other ninja converse outside of the room Naruto is.
“I can’t believe the hokage keeps a thing like that around.”
“He’s a powerful tool for if war breaks out.”
“I guess but I don’t want a demon like that around me.”
“I get that. But it’s what the hokage wants so what can we do?”
“Nothing I suppose. Maybe we’ll get lucky and once that boy becomes a full fledged ninja gets himself killed quickly on a mission.”
“That would be a blessing to us all.”
“Definitely.”
“It’s a shame it can’t happen sooner though.”
“Think optimistically. Maybe that boy will get into so much trouble one day that he’s kicked out of the village.”
Naruto stops listening to them. He’ll make them all accept them one day. They’ll think he’s amazing instead of wishing for his death. He can’t give up yet. He’ll make them see he’s human. Not a thing. Not a demon. Just human. Maybe then they’ll understand.
It gets boring staring at a white wall for so long but it’s better than being in chains. Naruto decides to take advantage of this time and lets himself get a full night’s rest for the first time in what feels like forever.
When he goes to the academy the next day everyone at school had heard the news of him getting in trouble with the hokage. It made him uncomfortable to have so many eyes on him. His classmates were curious.
One of his bullies cornered him while they were supposed to be playing.
“You’re a criminal now aren’t you, Naruto?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie, everyone always knew you were nothing but scum.”
“I am not scum.”
“Yes you are. You’d be doing everyone a favor if you just disappeared.”
Naruto is reminded of the words those ninja had said only the day before. Is that what everyone thinks? That it would be better if he didn’t exist?
“I will not disappear!”
The bully punched him. “I’m going to be a ninja one day. I’ll take you down and save this village from you. I’ll protect them against a demon.”
Naruto feels pathetic as tears begin to well up. He can’t let himself cry now.
“I am not a demon. I am Naruto Uzumaki.” Naruto responds.
“Naruto Uzumaki is a demon.” The bully says before walking away.
No. No, he’s a human being.