Lost in the Whirlwind (Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 2

Naruto was a troublemaker as soon as he could crawl.

By the tenth month, he was everywhere in the orphanage.

In the morning, the caretakers wouldn't be able to find him in our crib. Past the bedtime, they would find him in the kitchen, or sometimes in their rooms. One time, they almost had a heart attack when they saw him carelessly holding a kitchen knife in his weak, pudgy hand.

Naruto would giggle every time they scolded him.

He was amused. The caretakers weren't.

They would bring him to a small, punishment room and locked him there. The punishment wasn't long, maybe half an hour or so. Still, were toddlers supposed to be handled this way? As far as I was concerned, I had only seen a couple of defiant preteens, or just slightly younger, going in and out of that room, but never a toddler. Until Naruto came, that was.

It wasn't only him that received this unfair treatment, but all the October babies. The caretakers were unnerved by the possibility of a jinchuriki, thus all October babies fall under their suspicions, myself included. Naruto had it worst of us all, with his whiskers birthmark heightening the insecurity of the caretakers.

Though subtle, the biased treatment was there. Us October babies would receive slightly less food, perhaps a third of a bowl less of porridge. They weren't feeding us well, I realized, how were we able to survive with insufficient nutrients?

I didn't know what to say. Were we able to blame them for losing their loved ones? As human beings, they needed a way to vent their anger, they needed someone to blame.

Who better than us? I couldn't help but help but think bitterly.

Naruto was, bless his pure soul, oblivious. He would sniffle and cry when scolded, like all babies do, but he would be a ball of sunshine by the next sunrise.

I briefly wondered if he would stay this way forever.

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"Stop." I growled at Naruto as he tried, for the umpteenth time, to pull the ragged doll out of my hands.

The tug of war ensued, thought it must've looked pathetic, with two babies with weak grips and barely coherent words trying to fight.

He used his other hand to grab hold of my short hair, and pulled. Hard.

"Ow!" I cried out.

Glaring at him, I let go of the doll. I would not engage in such a childish behavior.

I started crawling away from him, only to have him hot on my heels. Did I mention that he was a very fast crawler?

For the past months as soon as we could crawl, Naruto would always follow me like a little duckling. While I needed time to come to terms with this whole reincarnation-in-a-fictional-universe thing, the little devil would never leave me alone.

It started off being really adorable. He was always trying the things I did, going everywhere I went.

Then, it was annoying. I tried crawling away from him, but come on, how fast could I crawl compared to him? He would steal my food, pull my hair, and even push me off the crib. The worst of all, he enjoyed it.

Who knew that the hero of the Leaf in sixteen years' time was such a brat?

Now I do.

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We were two years old when the Hokage paid us a visit.

Naruto and I were playing together like usual when the caretakers ushered all of us to the living room.

There stood the Third Hokage, with two ANBU behind, talking to the head of the orphanage. The hokage, probably the greatest shinobi of all times, was standing right before me, casually talking as if it was any other normal day.

The man who had probably killed hundreds, the man who used violence to bring peace.  The man who would soon die by the hands of his own student.

Yet, standing in front of the strongest living shinobi, all I could feel was a strange calmness that slowed down my rapidly beating heart.

He turned to us, Naruto to be more specific, and gave a warm smile. It was probably the first smile filled with love that I had seen in years, and it made my heart fluttered even though the smile was not aimed at me.

He politely excused himself from the orphanage head and started walking towards us, but before he could reach the two of us, children swarmed around him like fireflies attracted to the light. They started asking various questions, eyes wide with admiration.

"How is it like to be the Hokage?"

"You've finally visited us, Hokage-sama!"

"I want to be just like you when I grow up!"

Naruto and I were frozen on our spot, though Naruto's reason was mainly because he didn't know who the old guy was yet. His eyes were filled with jealousy as he watched the Hokage accept love from the people.

Hiruzen hesitated to stare at us, before looking down to the children and answering the questions, his gentle mien maintained without fail.

I lowered my eyes. What did I expect? Did I really expect him to ignore the other children and walk towards us? Did I really expect him to give us special treatment?

I grabbed Naruto's hand.

"Let's go back to our room. We're not needed here."

As I stomped back to our room and Naruto in tow, I could see him glancing back towards the Hokage, his eyes now curious.

"Who is that?" He asked, the childish accent still obvious in the speech.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen, our Hokage."

"What's a hu-wa-e?" He asked, scrunching up his nose in thought.

"Head of the village. He has the most p-power around here, and takes care of the villagers." I replied, stuttering a little as I tried to recall the Japanese word.

His eyes shone with admiration and respect.

"So is he like a hero?"

"Kind of."

"Oooh."

I settled on my bed. By the age of two, we were giving a room to share with 6 other people. Naruto ended up, somehow, being my roommate.

I turned to the spot he was supposedly in just now.

"So, Narut-"

Only that he wasn't there.

I gave out a long sigh, before tiptoeing out of my bed. I peeked out the gap of the door, and saw Naruto enthusiastically talking to the Hokage. The Hokage didn't seem to mind, smiling along and laughing at what his future protégé said. He clearly saw the discomfort in the caretakers' stances, but paid them no mind.

As Naruto continued to eagerly talk, the Hokage spared a glance towards my way. I quickly ducked behind the doors.

It's going to be a long day.

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Chapter 2!!! Finally!!

Soo... yup... hope you guys like it!

Vote or review on your way out!

Thanks for reading.

KonohaLover