Brothers of the Storm

Prologue Part Two: A Memory Shared Between Distant Lovers!

“NARUTO!” Iruka cried, chasing after the spunky blonde boy. Naruto was waving a paint can around and laughing hysterically as he ran as fast as he could from his teacher.

“You’ll never catch me!” he cackled, skidding around a corner and taking refuge in a dark crevice of an alleyway. He heard Iruka’s bitter mumbling pass him before snickering devilishly and escaping out of the alley. 

He was near the school, he realized, slipping into the back and looking up at the large structure. The swing he usually sat on during lunchtime swayed lazily in the breeze, bringing back lonely memories for Naruto.

“Apologize like you mean it!” He heard a boy’s voice ring from the trees.

“Huh?” Naruto blinked and went in the direction of the voice, where others were cheering as well. There were three boys surrounding a dark-haired girl with large lavender eyes and rosy cheeks. Tears were spilling down her face as she was rendered to her knees and kicked by the boys as they demanded an apology from her.

Naruto didn’t know what she could have possibly done to them, but he fumed at their abuse. They were probably just bullies looking for a good time, and this poor girl happened to be their next victim. He wouldn’t have any of it.

He walked up to them, glaring at the boys. None of them noticed him until he spoke. 

“Cut it out!”

“Huh?” They all turned to him with questioning stares. “What do you want?”

“Hey it’s that kid!” one of them chuckled. “The one always getting into trouble! Heh heh, the one everyone hates.”

“Oh yeah,” another boy said. “That kid!”

They all laughed, which infuriated Naruto. “I’m not that kid! My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I’m gonna be Hokage one day!”

The stopped laughing for a moment to raise their eyebrows at him, before bursting into laughter again. “Yeah right! What a bunch of baloney!”

The middle child stepped up to the blonde. “How can a stupid kid like you become Hokage?” He punched him twice, bringing him to the ground. The purple-eyed girl cringed and looked away. Naruto looked at her for a split second before standing up. Poor girl’s probably scared, he thought. I know! I’ll show my super cool moves and beat the heck outta them! 

Naruto smiled wickedly at the boys, weaving a hand sign. “What sign is he weaving?” they all wondered aloud.

“Clone-”

They all gasped.

“Jutsu!” A puff of smoke next to Naruto produced a pale, wobbly creature who took one step forward and fell flat on its face, disappearing quickly. The boys continued to stare wide-eyed at him, before bursting into laughter once more.

Naruto took advantage of that and attacked the middle guy, giving a battle cry as he began punching him. “Ha! I distracted you!”

“Hey!” The other boys peeled Naruto off of their friend and began beating him to a bloody pulp. 

A man cried out, causing the boys to look up and step away from him. Naruto couldn’t move, and looked up at the sky as the man came running into the woods. “Lady Hinata!” the man gasped. “Are you all right?” He looked down and noticed Naruto laying there. “This boy…” he murmured. He took the girl’s hand. “Let’s go, Lady Hinata.”

“B-but this boy came to my rescue,” she said, looking back at him. Her voice sounded fragile and sheepish.

“You must not get involved with him,” the man said. “Let’s go.”

He dragged her away, but Hinata tried to resist. “B-b-but…!”

Naruto stared lazily into the leaf-blotted sky, letting the man’s words seep into him like poison. “Even after saving someone,” he whispered. “I’m still alone.”

“These people who hate you have strong influence over everyone, even that girl who tried to be grateful toward you,” a husky voice said in his head.

Naruto was confused as to whom voice belonged, but it usually kept him company during the times he really began to loathe the villagers. “Even though she was quiet,” he said. “She tried to stick up for me.

“She was still taken away from you,” the voice growled. “You have no one but yourself.”

“No one but myself,” a fourteen year-old Naruto said quietly, after recalling this memory. He was in his Akatsuki garb, sitting cross-legged on a stone formation next to Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki.

“What did you say, Naruto?” said Itachi, looking at the blonde boy with his cold, dark eyes.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Naruto mumbled, folding his arms. “I was just remembering something.”

Hinata, he thought to himself. You never acted cold toward me the way the other kids did. But even you sided with the village when I left.

Elsewhere, Hinata, having the same flashback, stared dreamily into the spring water. She heard Kakashi and Sasuke talking with each other in hushed voices on the other side of the wall between their baths, but she knew it was about Naruto.

“Naruto,” she said quietly. “I should’ve told you how I felt before you left. But still I was a coward, even when you needed me most.”