BLEAK

AUTHOR: iBroken

ANIME: Naruto

RATING: T

PAIRING: Mild SasuNaru, KakaIru, HinaNaru

GENRE: Romance/Hurt/Comfort

SUMMARY: After waking up from a year long coma, Naruto is sent to live with his uncle, because his father is abroad. However, there are frightening deaths happening, and a strange boy who seems to be ignored by everyone, Naruto's world is plunged into darkness. [SasuNaru, various others]

LONGER SUMMARY: Fifteen year old Naruto wakes up, barely recovering, from a tragic accident he can't remember. Left to live with his uncle in Konoha, Naruto is sent to a public school, where he first meets the mysterious Sasuke—a boy ignored by his classmates. As Naruto tries to speak to his classmates, and tries to learn why no one speaks to Sasuke, deaths begin to occur. What does Naruto not know? What is being hidden from him? But most importantly.. what is the story behind Academy Class 3?

AN: This is based off of an anime. "Another." I've changed it a little to suit Naruto situations, but besides that, it's not mine. Naruto isn't mine either.

CH. 1: Whispering Winter

After everything that had happened, Naruto could still only continue to hold onto the suitcase he had been given, deposited to the front of a small house, located on a street in Konoha. He had never expected to be in a foreign town without his father. Minato had told him he would never be alone-and yet his urgent business in America had managed to pull Minato away, leaving Naruto to be transferred.

The house was old. The way the roof was tiled with old mahogany tiles, and the shape of the house looked typically old Japanese—Naruto knew all too well how older homes were made less sturdy, and weakened even more over time. The home was located in Konoha, an old village with an even older geography around it. While Naruto knew Konoha was a nice town, he didn't like some feelings he received from it. He felt like Konoha was a little too, old fashioned for someone like him to be living in. With a rap of his hand on the front door (and a forced smile, because he knew his uncle would probably appreciate the smile, too), he stood patiently, waiting for the door to swing open. He didn't know what to expected. Something about an uncle, he had never met, left Naruto feeling strange.

The door did swing open, to reveal a tall man, with his hair tied up high, and tanned skin, along with a strange scar on the front of his nose, stretched over his cheek bones. The man was much taller than Naruto. He had kindly brown eyes, and he was dressed in green, like much of Konoha seemed to be. The air was condensed, and Naruto felt a little heady. What was it with Konoha that gave him such strange headaches? "Naruto, aren't you?" the man asked. He nodded his head, meekly, not wanting to say too much yet. "I knew it! Only Namikaze-kun's son would have such blonde hair!" The excitement in his voice was so plastic, Naruto was sure he could pick it aside with a fork. He didn't like how the look he was receiving was so empty. The family had a long line of broken ends. Naruto had been told his uncle, Iruka, was from his mother's side of the family—specifically he was the husband of his mother's sister, who died two years ago. There had been a rift between the two sides of the family. Kushina had passed away fifteen years ago, when Naruto had been born, and since then, Minato had not kept contact with his wife's side of the family.

To be here, before his mother's relative, felt a little odd.

"Well, come inside. I set up a futon in the guest room for you. We'll be having dinner soon, too," Iruka said, stepping aside, and shifting his arm out to the inside of the house, in a welcoming gesture. But to Naruto, it felt like he was stepping away from his chance at being free. At being away from the horror of something he didn't quite want to face.

"How do you like Konoha, Naruto?"

"Fine. How's New York?"

"Amazing! Say hi to Iruka for me. Did you know he's your godfather?"

"A Godfather I've never met?"

"Whaddya mean? You met him two years ago!"

"Two years ag—"

Static, cut off the remainder of his phone call with his father. He assumed that in a tiny village like this, even phone lines weren't secure.

A day passed. Two, three, four. Naruto finally felt well enough to attend school.

After phoning Minato and saying he was going to his first day of school here—although he was beginning late into the school year—Naruto slung his orange bag over his shoulder, and stepped out of the house, beginning his walk to school. He'd managed to slip on the white shirt, dark green vest, and gray pants of the school uniform, and let his hair stay uncombed, as usual. Because sometimes, he didn't have the energy to even comb his hair. Nothing could disperse the amount of mental anguish that came along with going to a new school.

He remembered, how he was anxious on the first day of school back when he was in elementary school, in Tokyo. He didn't like the feeling of his stomach building up with anxiety. He remembered how he ate ramen to drown that feeling—the feeling of people ignoring him and treating him like he was a total stranger. For Naruto, this was a moment when he didn't fit into his surroundings. He was the odd one out, and even more than that, his odd hair colour and eye colour separated him even more, even if his name was more normalistic. Uzumaki Naruto had retained his mothers name, in light of her death, because Minato had insisted that the Namikaze family keep an heir. Since Kushina was their only surviving daughter, and she too passed away, Naruto was given the Namikaze name, with the Uzumaki name hyphenated on all of his records. He liked his name, but it often confused people who compared his appearance to his name.

Minato was a tall, lanky, blonde haired man, with blue eyes. He was American-born, but his parents immigrated to Japan in light of opening a business here. Minato stayed, had children with Kushina, who died not long after his birth. Minato had raised Naruto, while running their family business, all on his own—but his business trip to the United States meant he had no choice but to go live with someone else for the remainder of his school year. Going back to Tokyo would have been nicer.

The moment he saw the school approaching, he noticed the eerie structuring. There was clearly a newer building, erect dead centre from the gates leading inside. Another building—abandoned it seemed—was not too far off from where the newer looking building was. He could tell that there was some reason or another for the entire building to be closed off. With a curious tilt of his head to the left, he rubbed the tip of his nose with his free hand. No students either. He found it even more unusual that no one really bothered to speak to him, either. The students, who were outside, tend to follow their daily activities—some with smiles, some with frowns. All of them seemed satisfied with their daily doings.

The front receptionist—a young woman with black hair, short, with a dull blue top, and a black skirt, smiled at him, through thin, wiry framed glasses. "I'm Namikaze Naruto," he spoke up, with a cheerful grin spreading over his features. It was the fake smile he gave when he knew people were expecting it. He knew, certainly, the poor receptionist was. She probably didn't care that he missed his father, and had to live with some total stranger here. "Well, it looks like you're in," she began, and then paused. "Academy Class Three." She shifted her hand onto the piece of paper ontop of the desk—a map—and towards the large three positioned in the center. There were only five classes. The third one was in the center of the building, on the third floor. It was a strange way to layer out an entire building, because there were no other classes on that specific floor, besides the third one. Naruto couldn't help but feel like this entire situation was weighing down on him too much.

With a nod of his head, he turned and began walking up towards the second floor, where only the third class, along with a few others, were kept. His footsteps were short, quick—and he made sure he was walking to the right place, when he noticed, something odd. Something very unusual.

There was a boy sitting near the windowsill.

He was dressed in the school uniform, of course, but the way he stared out at the school, from where he was, and his posture, indicated that he wasn't very interested in the world around him. He seemed almost oblivious to everything around him. Naruto almost didn't want to ask him what was going on, but curiousity was never Naruto's strong point. Neither was self-restraint. He walked over, and shifted his hand out, to the boy, who still didn't look at him. "Hey, what're you doing? Shouldn't you be in class?" he asked, carefully. He didn't know who this was, after all. And the way the boy ignored him, made him a little annoyed. "Hey, teme, are you listening to me? I'm trying to be friendly here!" he shouted, feeling something boil inside of him—anger, maybe. The anger continued, but the boy didn't even look at him. He only continued his unusual looking down at the school, with the same apathetic frown. This boy was certainly an odd one, with almost no way to describe just how strange his actions were.

After a few moments of being ignored, Naruto sighed (animatedly at that), and turned himself away to walk into the classroom. He didn't knock politely on the door-that boy had annoyed him into his natural behaviour of being mildly irked, careless, and even borderline ignorant to others. The door opened, bringing several sets of eyes to him. Eyes that felt like he was out of place.

He stayed still, and took in a deep breath. "You must be, Naruto-kun," the teacher, a man with short black hair, a cigarette in one hand, and slightly tanned skin, spoke out to them. It was clear this guy was also very intelligent—there was, something about him, that gave it away. "I'm Sarutobi Asuma, your sensei, welcome to Class 3," the sensei continued. With a careful smile, he stood still, watching as others stared at him, equally as quiet. He didn't like this part of the school day. When they summarized you to see if you're worth talking to or not. He was often ignored because of his appearance, or his personality—something about him was a little annoying for people.

"We seem to be lacking a seat, Naruto-kun," Asuma-sensei said, with a smile. He shifted his hand out to point outside. "Kiba-kun, would you mind going to help him get a chair?" A boy, wearing an odd hoodie, with short-cut school pants, stepped up, and grinned at Naruto. It was the beginning of what the rest of Naruto's day would be like. He hoped he could make at least one friend—maybe this, Kiba kid.

He followed Kiba outside, and noticed, the window-staring boy was gone, leaving an eerie ache in his chest. Why wasn't that boy in class, too?

- TO BE CONTINUED.