Hand Signs [A Deaf Naruto Fanfiction]

Chapter One: Normal

Naruto was known throughout his village for a couple things. Besides the hatred and disgust that seemed to follow him everywhere, Naruto was known for his pranks and his volume. Naruto was loud. In fact, except for his rare moments of public loneliness, he was almost never quiet at all. Even in his academy classes he seemed perpetually unable to keep still and quiet long enough to hear any of the lessons they taught.

It wasn't entirely his fault though. It was just that everyone else was so quiet. Besides, how was he supposed to hear himself if he was as quiet as the rest of them? How was he supposed to hear them if they never spoke louder? It wasn't as if they helped him either, whenever he asked someone to repeat themselves they just got angry and yelled at him. Everyone yelled at him. Adults yelled at him, telling him to stay away from their shops or their kids or just to stay away from everyone. Kids yelled at him too, they called him a loser or deadlast or dumb and a monster or demon just like their parents did, parroting the words he heard regularly from adults at the same volume. Naruto didn't understand though. If he was always too loud why did no one yell at them for being too loud? He was eleven and kids who were older than him were louder sometimes and they only shook their heads fondly saying something like "Kids…" in a nostalgic tone. It wasn't fair

He was always torn with things like that. He wanted so badly to be acknowledged, to be seen as more than a monster (and he still didn't understand why they called him that to begin with so much as come to just accept that that's how they saw him), to be seen for who he was and not whatever they thought he was. On the other hand he often wondered if it would stop if he just faded. Stopped pranking, stopped being loud, just stopped. He supposed the only thing stopping him was the fact that he knew that even if he did stop they wouldn't, it would only make things worse for him. They'd probably think he was plotting something or something equally stupid. Because Naruto loved Konoha no matter how much it seemed to hate him. Because despite that he still had the Sandaime and Iruka-sensei, the newest instructor at the Academy. He, at least, didn't let any hatred he might feel for Naruto get in the way of his job like his other teachers-even if he did get mad when Naruto asked him to repeat himself or speak up. Naruto didn't understand why everyone was so angry about it and every time someone yelled at him for simply asking them to repeat something he felt just a bit lonelier than he did before. Especially when it was Iruka-sensei, since the man had been one of the first to touch him, hold him, so gently without meaning harm or needing to be bribed or coerced like the ones who'd looked after him when he'd been at the orphanage-not that he'd been there for long.

Being constantly in the villagers' sights, their thoughts, because of his awesome pranks also meant things being thrown at him when he passed by, not to mention the abuse his poor apartment dealt with on a weekly basis were common occurrences. So when he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and then blackness, well, if he hadn't been knocked out by the attack he wouldn't have been surprised. What did surprise him, however, was waking up in a sewer.

The lights were dim and everything was monochrome in ugly yellow-green-browns with cloudy, ankle deep water and a constant dripping sound. There were multiple tunnels to walk through and he noticed almost immediately that something was different here. Because the dripping sounds weren't loud but he heard them clearly and every step he took in the shallow water didn't sound dull and fuzzy but instead sounded clear and crisp and it was amazing.

As he made his way down the sewer, he still wasn't sure where he was or why he was there but finding a way out seemed more important, he followed the low rumble coming from the left and large pipes and annoying drips that seemed to be everywhere. The rumbling led him to a room with a large gate that blended in with everything else in the sewer. It was tall, not as tall as the Hokage Mountain but tall and in the middle where the lock would be was a paper with the lone kanji seal written neatly in perfect calligraphy. Naruto could hear movement, water splashing and something rustling, behind the gate and could feel that he wasn't alone. He could feel the power of whatever was hiding in the shadows of the gate and the darkness and hatred that poured off of whatever it was.

Large red, slitted eyes and a sharp grin full of teeth became visible in the darkness and the power he felt seemed to grow as the thing behind the gate stared down at him. Any fear he felt was overpowered by his endless curiosity (and the fact that the thing looking at him was behind a locked gate was helpful too).

Naruto looked up into the large cat-like eyes and grinned brightly.

"Hi! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Do you happen to know where I am?" He realized just how loud he spoke as his voice echoed around the room.

The thing rumbled again and orange fur and large tails became visible and only then did Naruto understand what he was seeing. This was the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the beast the Yondaime had defeated the night he was born. He stepped back a bit and the large fox seemed to smirk.

"You dare wake the great Kyuubi no Kitsune?! Why are you here, insolent mortal?" The fox's deep voice growled out and Naruto winced, unused to such volume.

"U-um… It was a-an accident? I just kind of woke up here and do-don't know how to get out. Why are you here? Where… is here?" Naruto stumbled over his words as he rushed to answer the large fox.

"I'm here because your Yondaime," He spat the title in a way Naruto had only ever heard directed at him. "Sealed me here, inside you. We are inside your mind, dumb brat."

The blond turned pale as the realization set in. The Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine Tailed Fox that attacked Konoha eleven years earlier was sealed inside him. Why was he never told? Did everyone else know? Was that why everyone hated him, why he was alone? He didn't say anything for a while and something that wasn't quite pity or sympathy filled the deep red eyes of the fox as he stared down at the blond's quivering form.

When he finally gathered his thoughts Naruto began speaking again.

"Why? Why me? Why did you attack? Why is everything here weird?" His voice was full of emotion, full of anger and sadness and desperation.

The Kyuubi was almost tempted to tell him about the blond fool that sealed him or the damn Uchiha and his damn eyes but instead he chose to focus on the last question.

"What do you mean weird, brat?" It wasn't concerned, not quite, but it was curious and lacked the bite the fox's other statements had barely contained. It was almost comforting.

"Normally everything sounds quiet but in here everything is loud. I guess compared to how it was before this is…" Naruto thought for a moment, face scrunching up. "Clearer? I dunno how to explain it. Normally I have to ask people to repeat things a lot, ya know? And if I can't see someone I can't always hear 'em. But now it's like I can hear everything, ya know?"

The Kyuubi did not, in fact, know. His hearing was excellent and he'd never experienced anything like the boy was describing, but he had witnessed something similar with Mito, his first Jinchuuriki. But that hadn't happened until she'd gotten old, before he'd been sealed into the next Uzumaki with her damn chains. This was a child and, as far as he knew, shouldn't be experiencing such a thing. He knew it wasn't from an injury, he would've sensed it and began healing it immediately-it wouldn't do for his Jinchuuriki to die, after all. Perhaps it was something in the boy's father's blood. He'd never heard of a pure Uzumaki getting sick let alone losing their hearing before they were older than the current Hokage, Mito herself had been nearing her hundredth year before she died. They were known for their longevity, after all.

"Whenever I ask 'em to speak up they get mad at me, though. They're always mad at me. They yell at me to be quiet but that's hy-po-clinical because they're loud too! Besides, how am I supposed to hear myself if I'm quiet? They already call me dumb because I have trouble sayin' stuff properly sometimes…" The Kyuubi didn't bother to correct the blond's sad attempt at saying hypocritical.

"So, you can't hear well…" It was said mostly to himself but the blond either didn't know or didn't care.

"I just said that! Is that not normal? Until I got here and everything started sounding different I just thought it was normal, ya know? Since everyone's always yelling and all. The only one who doesn't yell is Jiji but I thought that's because he's old. If I don't watch him carefully I miss a lot of what he says."

"Deaf, then, or at least hard of hearing." He could already see the question on the boy's face and sighed in exasperation. "Deaf means your hearing is impaired or that you can't hear and hard of hearing means you can't hear well."

"Does that mean I can't be a ninja?!" Naruto panicked. If he couldn't be a ninja, how could he ever get the village to acknowledge him?

"Not exactly, Brat. There are ways to work around it. When you got here, you could feel that I was here, right?" He wasn't sure why he was helping the brat but the kid had a magnetism that reminded him of the Sage and he couldn't help it. "You're a natural chakra sensor, eventually with my power you might even be able to sense some emotions. You can use that instead of hearing and there are ways to communicate that don't rely on talking if that also becomes a problem."

The kid, he swore, had stars in his crystal blue eyes.

"Really!?" His tears and panic had subsided and he actually seemed excited. Apparently the idea of being a ninja was enough to distract the kid from the fact that the beast who'd terrorized his village, and the reason said village hated him, was sealed within him.

The fox nodded.

"That's amazing! Can you teach me how to sense like that?" That… was not what the Bijuu expected.

The fox sneered, but it didn't seem as sincere as he wanted it to be. "Not now, brat." It wasn't a no."You need to wake up. Don't tell anyone we talked."

"Wait, what's your name?" The beast's head snapped down to him, red eyes wide with shock.

"What?"

"You have a name don't you? I've never met anybody without a name. If you don't wanna tell me that's 'kay, lots of people don't like telling me their names." The kid wasn't even trying to make him feel bad, he was simply stating a fact but it forced something primal, something he hadn't felt since before he and his siblings were separated, to the forefront of his mind.

"It's Kurama, Kit." and where did that come from? Years sealed inside a child must be making him soft.

The blond brat grinned up at him with the purest, real happiness and Kurama almost smiled back. Almost.

"So, how do I get back-" He was cut off by his eyes opening to find he was back in his messy apartment. Apparently that was how.

It was early in the morning now, last he remembered it was late at night and he'd come back from one of his tri-weekly visits to Ichiraku Ramen about an hour before he was hit in the head. A quick look around the room told him he'd been watering his plants before bed, his tiny green watering can on the floor surrounded by dampness, and the thing that'd hit him in the head had been a rock. Of course.

His hearing was fuzzy compared to how it had been in the sewer, his mind, and he briefly wondered if it were a dream before deciding that it wasn't. How could a dream tell him things he didn't know? Regardless, the difference in his hearing was clear in a way he'd never noticed before having something to compare to. Muffled, like someone stuffed his ears with cotton and dunked his head under water. He couldn't hear his own breaths like he could in his mind, or really anything else except for the annoying banging from the construction happening on the building next door to his apartment-and he only knew that was the source because he could see it from his window, otherwise it just kinda sounded like it was everywhere and it drove him crazy.

After the encounter, Naruto continued on and followed Kurama's… warning? Advice? Order? Whatever it was, he did as he was told and didn't tell anyone about his encounter with the Kyuubi, Kurama, or his apparent deafness (because how was he supposed to explain how he knew?). He went on pretending the fact that no one ever told him, didn't bother him, continued pretending he wasn't aware at all.

It wasn't hard. He continued smiling brightly like always and didn't let up an ounce on his pranking, just like he always did to hide just how lonely he always was, only he wasn't alone anymore. He had Kurama, even if he didn't quite know how to visit him-how he'd even ended up in his mind when he'd gotten knocked out since it'd happened multiple times before and never talked to a giant fox inside his head was still a mystery to him.

He paid closer attention in his classes but still had trouble hearing what was being said, especially when Iruka-sensei would turn his back to the class or students seated in front of him or behind him would ask questions or answer them. He found himself paying more attention to people's mouths than the actual sounds coming out of them and writing things down when he did catch them-especially when Iruka-sensei would write things on the chalkboard. If anyone noticed the change they didn't say anything and it didn't help that much. He still missed a lot of the lessons and Iruka-sensei still yelled at him for not paying attention when he was called on. It wasn't enough to pull himself up from the bottom of the class.

Iruka could admit that he hadn't always done his best by Naruto. When he'd first been assigned the demon brat's class he'd protested quite vehemently but the Hokage had insisted and in a lot of ways he was glad. Because, as it turned out,Naruto was anything but a demon. He was friendly, kind and so, so lonely. He would've never believed the kid was even capable of feeling anything negative if he hadn't seen him sitting on the wooden swing outside of the Academy, eyes downcast and full of so many emotions Iruka understood all too well while watching the other children being picked up by their parents. Sadness and loneliness, jealousy, anger, desperation were all feelings Iruka was intimately familiar with, particularly after the deaths of his parents in the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack.

When the scarred Chunin looked at Naruto, more than anything, he saw himself. He was much like the blond when he was young. He pulled pranks and played off his failures as jokes and didn't really pay attention in class. All for attention, because otherwise he was ignored. While Naruto definitely wasn't completely ignored, it was abundantly clear to anyone who bothered to look to see that all he wanted was acknowledgement. After the incident regarding Naruto trying to loot bodies and nearly getting blown up the pair had grown closer. Iruka took Naruto out for ramen a couple times a week and listened to the boy vent as much as he allowed himself to- which was another thing entirely. No matter how alone he felt he was very reluctant to let anyone in, especially when it came to burdening other people with his problems. Iruka supposed having to deal with problems alone for so long would do that to a person and didn't take offence

Iruka did notice a slight change in the boy over the last week, though. It was something he'd spent every night that week thinking about in the dark of his apartment. The fact that Naruto seemed lighter and heavier all at once, less lonely and more lonely at the same time like some kind of paradox. He wondered what could've happened to cause it.

The same day it had started he'd also noticed a small amount of blood in the back of Naruto's bright blond hair, which was concerning but since he'd shown no signs of pain nor was any injury present he assumed it was just paint from a prank he'd missed while showering. Afterall, for all that the villagers didn't like him, Iruka had never seen anyone get violent with him and whenever they had spars in class they were always cleared by a medic.

The biggest change, though, was in Naruto's in-class behavior. He stared. A lot. Not into Iruka's eyes or anyone else's but lower on their face, which was odd. Odder still, was the fact that despite how Naruto seemed to be paying attention he still couldn't answer questions or asked him to repeat things. He took notes on some things but not others, wrote down almost everything he'd put on the board but there would be gaps in things he lectured. At first he'd chalked it up to Naruto's short attention span but it now seemed to be something else.

Getting his attention was difficult, in order to get any kind of reaction he had to raise his voice and whenever he was behind him it was like Iruka stopped existing in the blond's world. It was little more than a hypothesis, a theory, but it was something that should be explored since the likelihood that Naruto even knew what was wrong was slim. He knew the two other teachers he'd had weren't what anyone would call fair to him, so gaps in his knowledge were bound to exist and the likelihood any of his students had been taught about this, even by their parents, was minimal at best.

So during class on Monday Iruka decided to try a different approach. He asked a question facing the blackboard, wiping something he'd written earlier off, and called on Naruto to answer. The blond was looking at him, but didn't seem to register that he'd said anything at all. A boy sitting next to him elbowed Naruto harshly in the ribs (Iruka would have to have a talk with him about that) and the blond's whisker marked cheeks pinkened in embarrassment.

"Uh… what?" He seemed almost scared to ask, likely worried Iruka would blow up on him for not listening.

Instead he simply repeated the question, not letting anger or annoyance color his tone.

"Can you name a type of taijutsu?" He changed the wording slightly, shortening it, and spoke louder.

Naruto's face scrunched in thought but it wasn't long before he tentatively answered the question.

"Kenjutsu?" It wasn't one most of the class would've said, most of them likely would've said Shurikenjutsu since it was a topic they worked on frequently both physically and on paper.

Everyone seemed shocked, because not only was the blond right, but he'd named one they didn't touch upon more than a couple times. The Academy didn't even really teach it beyond a brief explanation of what it was and during the unit on Kiri when they discussed the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop and Naruto was turning a deep red, ready to be made fun of or scolded for a wrong answer.

Iruka smiled warmly at the blond. "Correct."

He didn't think the blond could ever grin brighter than when he'd smiled at Iruka in that moment. He wondered briefly how often Naruto actually smiled for real and how he could keep him smiling because the smile he'd received simply by telling the blond that he was right was a million times better than any grin he'd ever seen Naruto wear. It was a start, Iruka knew. The simple test wasn't concrete proof but it was a clue that he was at least heading in the right direction.

The rest of class continued that way, and as did classes after that. Instead of getting angry with Naruto for not paying attention he simply repeated the question and waited for Naruto's answer. Sometimes it was clear that the blond didn't quite get it, the frequency was something that made Iruka write more about what he was talking about on the board since he knew he'd talked about it before, but more often than not the whisker marked boy did know the answer and it was astonishing.

Also astonishing was the fact that as time went on, Naruto got better at spars. He didn't let his opponent get behind him and if they did manage to escape his line of sight he got better at blocking the attacks. He didn't always win, but he was improving immensely and Iruka had never felt more proud.

Nearly 6 weeks into the change of pace in the classroom something else had changed. Iruka had just ended class for the day and stopped Naruto before he made it out the door with a gentle hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"We're still on for ramen tonight, right? I'll meet you in front of Hokage tower at 6 like usual, yeah?" He spoke clearly, over-enunciating the words to make it easier for Naruto to follow-he'd figured out weeks ago that Naruto's odd staring had been him reading lips and since then made sure to speak as clearly as possible around the blond.

Naruto, like he always did, nodded eagerly. The day Naruto says no to ramen, Iruka knew, heads would be rolling because the only time the boy's appetite had ever been anything but enormous was when he'd had a particularly rough day (because of the villagers or because of his classmates).

He was planning on using the opportunity to finally confront the blond on his recent epiphany and offer him extra tutoring for anything he missed in class because no matter how much the changes both of them had made had undoubtedly helped Naruto improve his grades were still the lowest and with the graduation exam fast approaching in only five months (including a break that would last about two weeks and days off for regular faculty meetings), he wanted to do everything he could to help the blond who'd become something like a younger brother to him. Even if a part of him wanted to keep Naruto away from everything and everyone that could ever cause him harm.

When Iruka turned to pack up his desk he startled to find someone still in the room. All the other students had left but Shikamaru, another student whose grades were more towards the bottom of the class-though more from laziness than from anything else-was standing in front of his desk looking at him patiently.

He kept his voice from wavering as he calmed his heart-honestly, was he really so deep in thought that an academy student could get the drop on him?

"What can I do for you, Shikamaru?" The brunette, no matter what his grades implied, was far from an idiot (in fact Iruka suspected that his intellect was closer to his father's than anyone else), so he knew he wasn't asking for help on class material.

"It's about Naruto," The pineapple headed boy said it in the same lazy drawl he said everything else but something about it was different and it had Iruka narrowing his eyes slightly.

"What about him?" The words were said with the same tone he always used when talking to kids but there was an edge to it this time. A warning most wouldn't be able to pick up on.

Shikamaru was by no means a bad kid, for all the times he skipped class he was one of the few people that didn't openly pick on Naruto-the others being the blond's other skipping-buddies Kiba and Chouji, but even Kiba teased the blond a little harshly from time to time-but Iruka couldn't help but be protective. He'd come to truly care about Naruto and if he found out anyone hurt him or wanted to, he wouldn't be known as the gentle school teacher anymore. He may be only a Chunin but he was a damn good one, besides, he could use the practice. It had, after all, been a while since he trained properly.

The Nara put his hands up in surrender. "It's nothing bad, I'm just kinda worried and it's troublesome keeping it to myself. I figured since you're the closest to him I should go to you."

Iruka nodded at the logic, Shikamaru was nothing if not observant, and packed away some papers to grade later.

"So what is it?"

"I think Naruto might be deaf," Iruka swore in the moment the Shikamaru had inherited, not only his father's looks and mind (and laziness), but also his mother's bluntness because Nara Yoshino was one of the most terrifying women he'd ever met and she'd never, in all the time he'd known her, sugarcoated anything.

"I see…" He didn't want to give too much away, even if the eleven year old likely knew what he was thinking before he did. "What makes you think that?" He wanted to know if the Nara saw what he saw, and maybe he'd seen something more.

"Well, Naruto looks like he pays attention a lot but sometimes when people say things he doesn't get it. Whenever you speak while writing on the board his eyebrows twitch and he kinda gets this sad, frustrated look on his face but then he writes down pretty much everything you write on the board," Shikamaru seemed to be on a roll and there was no stopping him, apparently he had been holding all this in for a while. "When people talk to him he looks at their mouths and not their eyes and when someone comes up behind him he jumps-even if that person is loud enough that the rest of the room knows they're coming."

Iruka was impressed. Because even though he also saw those things, it had taken him a while to figure out where the clues were pointing. Shikamaru wasn't done though.

"About six weeks ago, when you started just repeating questions instead of scolding him he actually knew the answers and a lot of what he doesn't know is stuff that you taught before he started writing everything down and paying more attention. Before that he kinda just looked resigned, like he'd given up on being able to do anything about it, especially after kids would laugh at him when he'd need something repeated and he got called out for not paying attention."

It was true. While Iruka had scolded Naruto a lot for his supposed not paying attention, other kids seemed to follow suit and mock Naruto for what he had once assumed to just be the blond's short attention span. While Naruto certainly did have a short attention span he only ever really seemed bored whenever the subject switched to history on Konoha's founding and things of that nature.

Iruka's cheeks pinked slightly in embarrassment because while he stopped yelling at the blond when he asked for something to be repeated, his classmates didn't-though Naruto had definitely stopped caring as much about the opinions of his classmates. Iruka liked to think it was because he cared more about his opinion more than his peers' and that the boy liked Iruka for more than just the free ramen he provided but he didn't tend to be that lucky. The boy didn't trust easily and Iruka doubted that ramen was enough for the blond to forget about the hatred he'd once looked at him with.

"So you noticed it too… Did you tell anyone else about this?" Iruka was well aware of how cruel children could be and if any of them found out before Naruto could properly protect himself, the Chunin worried about what could happen if he was caught off guard.

Shikamaru shook his head. "No. I've seen how the villagers treat him. I just thought you should know because you're the only one who really seems close to him. He's an orphan and he has no friends so I thought if you knew, especially since you're a teacher, you'd be able to help him better. I can tell he's not stupid like everyone else thinks, it'd be troublesome if something like this prevented him from reaching his true potential."

Iruka smiled warmly at the thinly veiled concern. As objective about the situation as he clearly wanted to sound, it was more than obvious to Iruka that Shikamaru did care about Naruto to some degree.

"I was planning on talking to him about it tonight. I've done all I can in the classroom but nothing really seems like it's enough, especially since he doesn't have anyone to help him outside of the classroom," Iruka sighed, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Naive as he is, he really doesn't trust as easily as it seems and I think friends outside of me would be good for him. He doesn't really get social cues, and his hearing doesn't seem to be the only factor. Did you know he's lived in an apartment on his own since he was four?"

Clearly the boy did not. "I know we don't really skip together anymore but I wouldn't mind spending more time with him, troublesome as he is. He and Chouji get along too, and Chouji is always looking for someone to introduce new food to."

Iruka might've heard a mumbled Naruto could definitely use a few more pounds too, skinny as he is, but if he did he didn't comment on it. (He agreed).

"I'll leave it to you, Shikamaru." He smiled warmly at the clan heir as he walked to the classroom door, waiting for his student to walk out before locking it behind him.

As he made his way out of the academy, Iruka glanced at a clock. 3:45. Good. He had time to drop off his school papers and talk to the Hokage. He knew Naruto had an odd relationship with the man, referring to him with the disrespectful sobriquet Jiji-not that he seemed to mind-and he knew that despite the lack of free time that came with the title Sandaime-sama did care about Naruto.

He spent the walk to his apartment thinking about just what to say to the Hokage, what he could request that could help Naruto without tipping off the other kids before the blond was ready for them to know.

He decided, as he put his bag by the desk in his room, on simply telling the Hokage that he suspected Naruto had a disability and that he was planning on talking about it with him that night.

Maybe after he talked to Naruto he could get the Hokage to let him teach Shinobi Sign Language in class, if not, he had no issues teaching Naruto out of school. They'd end up learning it eventually anyway, at least partially.

He nodded to himself and made his way to the Hokage Tower.

Iruka would make sure Naruto got the help he needed.

And if Shikamaru spent the night thinking of ways he could inconspicuously weasel his way into Naruto's life, that was his business.