Naruto's P.O.V

-SMACK-

Pain and then numbness, the short burst of feeling dimming brought relief to me, the stinging sensation had once upon a time hurt, a lot. This was usually followed with my eyes starting to tear up as my body submitted to the torment it was subjected to, the area attacked would burn, it would be hot for a while as the numbnesses, back then, wouldn't set in for at least another minute. Once upon a time, I had questioned as to why this would happen to me, but now-now I'm trying to survive. Peering through my scrunched up eyelids I vaguely saw a hand move the opposite way from my body slowly, before it came forward at an alarming speed, I closed my eyes-the only indication I gave to show my self-preservation as my legs and hands lay beside my battered body, motionless.

-SMACK-

Norm P.O.V

A sickening crunch could be heard as a big, sweaty hand slammed onto the chest of a young blonde boy. For a moment there was no sound, no pain, the world slowed down, he could hear the blood running through his ears and his erratic breathing as he struggled to breathe. He could hear his heart drumming, pounding within his chest and then the pain crashed down, racketing throughout the whole of the child's tiny frame as the pain exploded at where the fracture was, a scream tore through the air as people dispersed quickly in order to escape from the clutches of any idiotic ninja. Honestly, some ninja thought that the demon was actually human, tch, as if something so vile and evil could ever understand human emotions. That thing definitely didn't take into account human lives when it had attacked, so why should they care about that thing's wretched feelings?

Two minutes after the crowd had left, two elite ninjas known as ANBU made an appearance as they took into account the damage that was evident on the blonde haired boy. The blond had blue and purple bruises across his tanned skin, his right arm was twisted in an uncomfortable position, no doubt broken, his breathing seemed laboured and was faint too, he had most likely broken or fractured some ribs. Only taking a couple of seconds to analyse the damage caused, they swiftly took the boy to the hospital.

[LineBreak]

In another part of Konoha, Iruka Umino walked down the familiar path to his house mulling over recent events at the academy. The pompous Uchiha clan and their stuck up pride had been interfering with many of the academies events, Iruka swore even their children had sticks up their-

Shinobi senses prickling as a scream tore through his thoughts, he broke out into a run with his hands flailing behind him as he ran in a fixed position ingrained in his muscle memory from the age of 5. Quickly analysing the scream in his mind in a matter of seconds, he headed in the direction the sound must have come from, the scream must have been a child 's, he thought, it's to high pitched to be a woman's or man's voice. His deduction worrying him, he ran faster to the scene of the crime only to weave through nearly 20 people as they ran countercurrent to him, causing him to lose a few milliseconds. Iruka bit the inside of his cheek as he was starting to become agitated with how terrible his day was going and how these people didn't seem to care that a ninja was trying to get through their faction.

Finally getting through the crowd, he allowed his eyes to roam around the remains of the villages latest activities. Blocking out the horror he felt at looking at the site, Iruka started to look around to find the victim of the gruesome attack. There was blood soaking through the ground, giving it a darker colouring, the metallic smell of blood lurked over the area covered in blood. In the corner of his eye, he saw something flicker, head snapping in the direction of the flicker, Iruka started sprinting again. There were only a handful of ninja that could sprint that quietly and he knew that both Gai and Kakashi were out on missions that lasted a week, whoever this victim was, he must've been important if the Hokage was sending ANBU to oversee them.

Finally reaching what Iruka recognised as the hospital, he slowed down and calmly entered and greeted the receptionist before heading in the direction he was given to follow the ANBU. Somewhere in the back of his mind Iruka had recognised the person the scream belonged to, it was why he had immediately followed the ANBU even after realising that they had handled the situation. He hoped he was wrong, he really did but the nagging in his mind wasn't stopping and was starting to pester him, slowly creeping into the front of his mind as his heart started beating just a tad bit faster in proportion to the nagging sensation creeping its way into the front of his mind.

What made the nagging more annoying and frustrating was that his mind kept replaying the last words his guess had told him before this accident.

"WHY? Why does everyone look at me with this eyes? WHY? Even my own Sensei! why?"

Gulping audibly at the memory as his mouth went dry, Iruka squashed his guilty conscience that raged at him down. Once he made sure this wasn't his prankster of a student, he would find him and apologise. Iruka knew he was in the wrong and it took him until last night to figure out that he had misplaced his distrust and anger for losing his parents. Footsteps slowing down, Iruka calmed his beating heart and let out a breath of air before opening the hospital door.

—

Naruto POV

Naruto felt as though he was drowning, his body felt like lead and he couldn't open his eyes. None of his limbs were responding to him and honestly? He didn't care, what was the point? He would wake up only to find the same eyes wanting him dead, no one would care or bother anyway. It would be the same every day, surviving and wishful thinking for a different reality, the old man wouldn't miss him too much anyway, for god's sake he had a village to look after all. Compared to that Naruto wasn't much. No, he didn't want to wake up to the hateful glares and the suffocating feeling of not being able to breathe as he lived another day and another. At least this way he wasn't going to die because someone else gave up on him, not that they gave him a chance in the first place.

He was tired, so tired of it all. Honestly what actually was the point? There was no one home to welcome him, no one to ask how his day was, he couldn't read or write so running away wasn't an option, what was the point of running away and hiding if you couldn't read maps or signs so even you had no clue where you were going? Plus his taijutsu sucked and both his genjutsu and ninjutsu were non-existent, he would only die if he went back anyway. Why let the demon inside him grow stronger and consume his thoughts, it was everywhere he went. Watching him, waiting for him to slip up so it could mock him. He'd once heard an older girl describe anxiety, she'd described it as feeling like drowning, but not the kind he was feeling right now. A type of drowning where he was fighting to stay alive as the feelings of self-destruction overtook him, choking him and slowly killing him. Naruto wondered if that was the presence he kept feeling?

It was suddenly becoming easier to open his eyes, easier to move his lead like arms and easier to breathe. Eyelids fluttering open before quickly recoiling and shutting to try and get used to the light peeking through his surroundings. Finally able to open his eyes Naruto sat upright, abruptly he held his hands up as he felt wet substance on them. Looking under him he realised he was sitting in…water? Unable to understand, Naruto quickly stood up and looked around him, surrounding him was quite a dreary place, it was dark with dark, green was it, pipes along the sides. Curios Naruto cautiously walked towards the pipes and hesitantly placed a finger against the smooth metal. The metal wasn't cold, however, quite warm, it seemed to be the opposite of what the place felt like to him. Unexpectedly the warmth latched onto Naruto at a very high speed, in under 5 seconds Naruto felt Pain unlike any he had felt before shoot up his bones and muscles. He screamed.

—

Iruka opened the door sideways and slid into the room before gently closing it behind him. H glanced up to see a sleeping form under large white sheets, sun-kissed blonde hair peeked from under the sheets as they seemed to engulf the figure. Once again Iruka felt the nagging sensation try to throttle him before he pushed it down and made his way towards the lone bed in the room. He peered down to the figure lying on the bed and felt his breath caught in his throat. There lying in front of him was his academy classes number one troublemaker; Naruto Uzumaki. Putting his years as an ex-ANBU captain and chūnin to use he cut off the nagging sensation that threatened to choke him. As an ex-ANBU captain, Iruka had seen his fair share of the grim reality the world was but even Iruka could not hold back the choking sensation which was slowly pulsing through his body.

Question after question swam through Iruka's mind as he found his answer to who the victim was, the biggest question, however, was why he, an ex-ANBU captain had decided to ignore Naruto. Iruka wasn't an idiot he could tell the difference between Naruto and the Kyūbi no Yoko, yet the question was still lingering in his mind, why had he ignored Naruto? Was it to repress memories of that day? To forget the pain he felt? Or was he subconsciously directing his hate and pain onto Naruto? Truthfully Iruka himself hadn't actually noticed that he was actively ignoring Naruto until last night when the blonde had questioned him about it. Over the years Iruka had learnt to repress certain memories in his mind, as an ANBU you worked closely with the Yamanaka clan to make sure you were still sane. All ANBU were taught to store unwanted memories in their minds in a place where it would be repressed and forgotten about. You had to personally relive these memories and store them away yourself, another reason why ANBU was really suicidal, you basically put yourself in a mini Tsukuyomi by torturing yourself with the unwanted memories. There had only been one memory Iruka had not re-lived and mentally pushed into the cupboard containing his unwanted memories and that was the night of the Kyūbi attack.

Coming to a decision, Iruka sat on one of the chairs inside the room and relaxed, delving into his mind he made his way to the cupboard under the stairs, situated in the far corner of the room. Mentally preparing himself he opened the cupboard and entered the dark place. Instantly the place began to illuminate and Iruka made his way to the furthest end of the cupboard, the furthest away from the door. Finally finding the box he had been after, Iruka picked it up and sat down on the wooden blemished floor. 'OCTOBER 10TH - KYŪBI ATTACK' was seen clearly labelled over the box, calmly breathing out a long breath, Iruka opened the box and allowed the dark tendril shaped shadows to latch onto his body and drag him into the box.

[30 Minutes Later]

Groaning, Iruka got up ungracefully from the hard wooden floor he had been thrust onto. There, he had relived that stupid memory. Iruka was feeling grouchy and very sensitive. His years of experience didn't matter when he felt the same helplessness he felt at the age of 10 coursing through him, Iruka was reminded why he had never opened that particular memory. Dusting himself off, he grabbed the box and re-sealed it before making his way out and closing the cupboard. He made his way to his mental couch and sat down and contemplated what he had seen and tried to answer his previous question. Minutes ticked by and Iruka was no closer to figuring out the seemingly simple question, frustrated Iruka decided to leave his mental haven for now and relaxed once again before, what felt like being, sucked out of his mind and opened his eyes in the real world.

Flickering his eyes over the clock he understood that he had been gone for 2 hours now, the curtains were closed, someone must have entered the room than thought Iruka. Eyes now finding their way to Naruto he took in the sleeping form of his student and made his way to him. Iruka didn't know what provoked him to do it, but he gently ran his fingers through Naruto's mop of a hair. He regretted it.

—

Naruto woke up screaming as the warmth burned every fibre of his being, limbs thrashing about, Naruto failed to notice the team of medical ninja making their way through the door to check on what was happening to him. Dr Uchiha Izumi quickly ordered the nurses to hold Naruto's flailing limbs down while she tried to calm him down and figured out as to what was happening to him. Quickly running a diagnosis, she started to inject medical chakra slowly into Naruto's chakra coils in order to ease the strain put on his coils. Finally, Naruto seemed to stop thrashing about and calmed down before falling unconscious once more. Wiping the sweat off her brows, Dr Izumi turned around to see Iruka who had been pushed back in the midst of the chaos to get to the patient.

A little dazed, Iruka waited patiently for the medics to do their job, he was worried, he had never seen the goofball sad, let alone scream bloody Mary. After waiting nearly an hour, the doctor turned around and made her way over.

"Hello, my name is Dr Izumi, Sir, I'm afraid I'll need to know who you are, you are not registered as a relative of Mr Uzumaki's" She stated,

"My name is Iruka, Izumi-San, I am Naruto's class teacher", he replied curtly. Nodding she began to explain what had happened to Naruto during the past hour,

"Mr Uzumaki must have awoken in his conscience and triggered something in his mind to access chakra. His chakra was trying to save him due to the injuries he had previously suffered and latched onto him using the trigger. the majority of chakra had been cut off from him due to him being unconscious. The overload of the huge amount of chakra surging into his system caused his muscles and chakra coils great strain. Medical chakra can only heal and aid chakra coils as it is a very complex system, normally, with Mr Uzumaki's fast healing this should have taken roughly 20 minutes, however, due to his unique condition medical chakra had to be integrated into his coils at a much slower rate."
Iruka nodded, " His previous injuries-"
"- are confidential and will only be told to any party not related to him with his consent" cutting him off with ease. Once again Iruka bopped his head in an understanding motion, albeit reluctantly.

Izumi made her way to the door after ending the conversation with Iruka and briefly nodded before exiting through the slide doors, leaving Iruka to his silent pondering.

—

Slowly opening his eyes after learning his lesson from last time, Naruto was greeted back to the world by the plain white ceiling of an all too familiar hospital. Fluttering his eyes open, he slowly sat up, wincing at the pain he felt in his sides. His arm was also killing him, it seemed to be in a sling, wrapped up in white bandages. They smelt new, 'so it was changed quite recently' he silently thought. He had been in here last month too, with a broken rib and feet, how his toes healed alright he didn't know, he didn't really care to find out as to how it happened either, he was too grateful to ponder on such silly questions. You shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth after all.

Now sitting upright, the first thing he noticed was the familiar smell around the room that he just couldn't seem to identify. Sniffing the air he started to wrack his brain as to where he had smelt the familiar smell of paper and wood. Looking around he noticed that the door was left open, either the old man had come again or the medics to check up on him. He closed his eyes once more and inhaled and exhaled, alright, he was alright. He was going to be okay, he was going to keep surviving, he had to keep surviving and he was okay. Eyelids opening with determination Naruto started to move his hands, the same way the medics had him to each time he visited the hospital. Right arm slowly going up and then horizontal followed by it moving to the side and to the floor. And repeat the process to his left arm.

—

That was how Iruka had seen Naruto after going to the toilet, his student seemed to be doing some sort of exercises, a pang of frustration went through Iruka as the blonde had seemed too used to having to through the motions he was currently doing.
Apparently, Iruka had been releasing his frustration a little too much because at that moment Naruto stopped his exercises, his head had whipped so fast that a small crack could be heard. Blue accusatory eyes narrowed as they landed on Iruka's person before blinking in surprise.

'Iruka-Sensei?

—

And that's a wrap, you guys. My, it's been three years since I left this fic at 7 chapters and I've finally come back. Believe it or not this chapter took those 2 years, that's how busy I was - yeah tell me about it. Slow updates as I edit and improve the chapters. Started this story at 14, now I'm 17, maybe I'll finish it before 80.

Review, like and favourite my lovelies, your reviews are what kept me motivated to return and continue this story for 3 years.