You're My Special (SI-OC/Naruto) 4: Childhood Friendship

4: Childhood Friendship.

His mouth was dry and his body trembled slightly.

He looked at the blood on his hands: bright scarlet, with a strong smell of iron. Sweat dripped from his forehead, sliding down his cheek until it entered his eye. The sudden sting pulled him out of his daze.

"What's wrong? Hadn't you seen someone die before?" The voice made his head lift, his eyes meeting the gaze of the one responsible for all of this, pale skin with long scars and gray hair with a faint bluish tint.

The mocking expression on his face made something break inside him.

"It's a shame, but she was quite annoying, her ritual technique was far too inconvenient for me"

His breathing steadied, numbness filling his body, he looked at the blood again and then clenched his fists, cursed energy beginning to circulate through his body with force.

"Oh? I thought you'd be depressed for longer, she was your friend or something, right? After all she said your name before she died" more mockery, in a shameless tone.

His lack of words seemed to irritate him, the smile on his unpleasant face turning into a frown.

"Thank you" then came the surprise.

"Eh?"

"I had been hesitating, but now I understand," he said in an apathetic voice.

As the binding vow he had long hesitated to make was beginning to take effect within his being, he could feel it: how the blood in his veins grew cold and thickened.

The negative emotions that flooded the surroundings began to become unnaturally clear to his senses.

"In this world I cannot allow myself to feel anything". With those words, something seemed to leave his soul. It was as if his heart suddenly stopped beating; it was still there physically, but any warmth he might once have felt faded into nothingness, flooding him with a supernatural calm.

"¡At least not until I become the strongest of all!", he proclaimed, lifting his gaze abruptly.

The wind around him stirred, crackling and lashing out like a forming hurricane. For hundreds of meters in every direction, negative emotions were sucked in and dragged by an irresistible force into the depths of his soul.

"hahaha! What is this? Something has changed... What did you do, itadori?!" his enemy asked in astonishment as he felt the changes in the environment and how the cursed energy of the human before him was increasing by leaps and bounds.

Itadori Yuji took a deep breath and took his stance, his guard up ready to continue the battle.

"I signed your death sentence" he replied coldly and before his enemy could react his body launched forward at full speed.

.

.

.

Back to the present.

"That should be enough," Sukuna said, watching the small pile of branches the blonde girl had managed to gather while he fished in the river. Hearing him, Naruko turned toward him and, instantly, her clear blue eyes shone like stars when she noticed the four enormous fish he held in his hands.

"Incredible!" she exclaimed. It was the first time she had ever seen fish that fat!

Sukuna searched through the pile of branches and took out the longest and thinnest ones he could find, skewering onto them the fish that he had already previously cleaned in the river.

After placing them around the campfire at the proper distance, he pointed toward the stacked wood and, with a simple thought, chakra gathered at the tip of his finger until, with a flash, a small flame bloomed on it.

"H-how did you do that?!" the blonde girl exclaimed again, moving closer to his side with extreme curiosity, almost bumping into him.

"I used chakra," Sukuna replied as he pushed her aside. At the same time, the flame burning on his finger shot forward rapidly, striking the wood and causing it to begin to burn.

"Catra?" Her poor pronunciation of the word made him turn toward her, an eyebrow raised.

The blonde girl wore an adorable expression of intense concentration mixed with deep confusion, as if she were trying with all her might to understand that unfamiliar word, but failing completely. Sukuna could almost swear he was about to see smoke coming out of her head.

"Chakra. It’s the power ninjas use," he explained, snapping her out of her thoughts and making her eyes widen in surprise.

With a jump, the girl sprang to her feet and pointed at him with a trembling hand.

"You're a ninja?!"

"No."

Her astonishment was cut off abruptly by his reply, making her stumble backward as if an arrow had struck her.

...!

"I'm just training to become one," he specified after a few seconds, pulling her out of her state of shock. As the girl stood back up, Sukuna picked up two nearby stones, of suitable size and shape, and placed them beside the campfire as improvised seats.

Letting himself drop onto one of them, he patted the other in a clear signal that took the girl a moment to understand, but when she did, she hurried over to his side and sat as well; her eyes, filled with fascination, watching him as if she wanted to ask him a thousand questions at the same time.

"Trai-ning? What is that?" she finally asked, almost stumbling over the word.

This time Sukuna could not stop his frown from deepening; this girl could not be that stupid, right?... Looking at her more carefully, only now did he realize how small she seemed, and that was when something in his mind finally clicked and he remembered the date they were in.

Right now it was still early January; just a few days ago it had still been December, and the whole affair with Kumo had taken place. If his quick calculations were correct, that meant Naruko was barely a little over three years old.

That she could not pronounce certain words correctly, or that she did not even know what they meant in the first place, should not be strange. Sometimes, Sukuna forgot that children were still just that: children. Even if, in this world, some behaved abnormally, showing greater maturity than they should, they could still be childish in many ways.

"Training means preparing to do or be something, you at least know what that is, right?"

That question seemed to irritate her a little; her blonde hair visibly bristled, like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.

"Of course I know! I’m not stupid!" she growled, baring her teeth, with two small fangs peeking out on either side.

She looked ready to fight him at any moment, but Sukuna didn’t bother paying her any attention and simply turned toward the campfire, his green eyes focused on the dancing flames, reflecting their orange light.

That was what he meant by acting abnormally for her age: three years old, and although she seemed not to recognize some words or concepts, she could still speak and express herself far more clearly than she should. Or maybe it was his own lack of knowledge about infants that made him think that way.

No, it had to be something else. Though, in truth, he didn’t care enough to try to study it in depth or anything like that; he wasn’t a pediatrician and had no intention of becoming one, so figuring out such things was none of his concern.

"I didn’t say you were stupid, I just asked if you knew," he replied calmly after a few seconds, noticing that her burning gaze was still fixed on him.

That seemed to be enough to appease her, as her blue eyes stopped throwing daggers at him and turned back toward the flames, her curiosity rekindling as if her earlier irritation had never existed.

"H-how... how do you train to be a ninja?" she asked with slight shyness after a brief silence. Her hands tightened and loosened their grip on the corners of her shirt, betraying her nervousness.

It wasn’t common for other children to talk to her for long, much less for them not to seem bothered by having her around. Sukuna didn’t pay her excessive attention, but unlike almost everyone else in the village, he didn’t ignore her either, and even if he seemed indifferent, she could tell when people simply didn’t want anything to do with her, to the point of not even acknowledging her existence; something that, this time, wasn’t happening.

She had noticed it from the very first moment their gazes met. To him, she existed.

It was incredible, and she feared ruining it if she talked too much, but at the same time she truly wanted to know more about this magical 'chakra' and about ninjas. So she swallowed her doubts and asked the question, hoping that the pink-haired boy at her side wouldn’t be bothered or decide to start hating her like everyone else.

While those thoughts, far too complicated for a girl her age, ran through her head, Sukuna pondered his answer.

'That’s a good question,' he thought.

He himself didn’t know exactly how people trained in this world beyond the chakra control exercises he remembered seeing in the series. Even so, he did know how to train to become strong; something that, in retrospect, should amount to the same thing.

...

"Do you want to be a ninja?" Instead of answering her question, he asked one of his own, making her frown.

"They say it’s cool, and all the other kids play at being ninjas."

‘I see,’ he thought. Nothing about being Hokage or anything like that yet. It seemed she hadn’t learned about the ninja hierarchy and just thought it was something cool, like a game.

At the silence and his lack of response, she squirmed nervously while Sukuna kept a watchful eye on the fish over the fire.

Soon, her attention shifted as an incredibly appetizing smell filled her nostrils, her mouth starting to water, and with stars in her eyes, she gazed at the fish, almost ready to eat.

Sukuna noticed her reaction, somewhat puzzled, since they were just simple fish—no seasoning, no salt—and although the smell wasn’t unpleasant, it was nothing extraordinary either.

"You're from the orphanage, aren’t you?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer. The girl’s attention returned to him, and she nodded affirmatively, though without taking her eyes off the fish.

"Have you ever eaten fish before?" His next question made her frown, and her blue eyes turned to him. He could feel some negative emotions stirring within her.

"No... the other kids at the orphanage never leave me anything," she said softly, with a hint of helplessness. Noticing her bad mood, Sukuna took one of the fish that was already cooked and handed it to her.

"Here, it's hot, so don't eat it too quickly, or you'll burn yourself." She blinked, and her eyes lit up again with excitement.

"Great!" Clearly, she didn’t hear what he said because she tried to take a big bite the very next moment.

Sukuna was quicker, easily stopping her hand before she could do so.

"I told you it's hot," he reminded her. In response, he almost thought he heard a growl—she seemed quite defensive about her food, as her hair nearly bristled. But when he released her hand, she calmed down.

"You need to blow on it a bit, like this," Sukuna said, demonstrating with his own fish. She mimicked his movements, and when the time was right, he nodded. She then eagerly took her first bite.

And then another, and another, and in a matter of seconds, even the bones were chewed up.

It seemed the small fangs he had noticed in her mouth weren’t just for show.

Thankfully, she didn’t eat the stick.

Naruko licked her lips with delight—she had never tasted anything so delicious! Of course, for a three-year-old orphan who was constantly discriminated against in various ways, a fish without salt or any other seasoning would seem like the most delicious meal in the world.

"Here." Before she realized it, another fish was in front of her. She looked at Sukuna, puzzled.

"I got them for you, brat. I'm not hungry," he said. He had already eaten before leaving the house.

Naruko looked at the fish in front of her, then at the other two still near the fire, and for some reason, she felt her eyes welling up with tears for no apparent reason.

"I-I..." Sukuna frowned.

"Eat and don't cry, or you'll really ruin my day." Without giving her time to respond, he shoved the fish into her mouth. He didn’t want to hear any crying.

The girl chewed her food while looking at him with clear gratitude. As with all her other emotions, it was always easy to see what she felt through her eyes.

Sukuna took a long leaf, shook off any possible dust, and placed the two remaining fish on it, using it as a makeshift plate, which he then set in front of Naruko.

He glanced up at the sky, noticing that it was starting to get dark. It seemed he wouldn't be able to use this day to practice as he had intended. Oh well, he wasn’t in a hurry.

As he was lost in thought, he felt something—a shift in the atmosphere. His spiritual perception activated automatically, and he forced himself to stay calm.

Something was watching him.

Discreetly, his eyes scanned the area, searching for the source, but the longer he looked without finding anything, the more he realized something else.

'This isn't an ordinary gaze,' he thought. It felt as if it were coming from nowhere, from a source he couldn’t reach.

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to recall something, and then images began to fill his mind.

'The Third Hokage.' It had to be him. Of course, it could also be a member of the Hyuga clan, but why would they be watching this area?

Naruko? That was a valid reason for both possibilities. Whether it was a Hyuga clan member or the Third Hokage, keeping an eye on the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki was crucial for the village and its security.

As he considered this, he sensed three strong presences approaching—three ninjas who knew how to hide themselves quite well.

He had been wondering where the blonde girl's guards were. It seemed they had finally decided to make their “presence” known.

Of course, Sukuna didn’t simply assume they were her guards. They could just as easily be ninjas from another village looking to kidnap the jinchuriki.

But he knew that wasn’t the case. He could feel the negative emotions coming from them, and none were directed at Naruko. Although one of them really seemed to be one step away from suicide.

It had been a while since he had sensed such intense negative emotions coming from a single person.

He didn’t act nervously or give any indication that of knowing that they were now being watched. He was just a three-year-old boy hanging out with another three-year-old kid.

There shouldn’t be anything suspicious about this.

He waited a bit longer, watching the blonde girl eat before standing up and dusting off his ass.

"It's getting late, I have to go or I'll get in trouble," he said, adding a touch of childishness to his voice. Naruko looked at him with furrowed brows, but being just a child, she couldn't quite pinpoint why he was suddenly speaking differently.

"Already? It's still early," she said with reluctance, clearly wanting to spend more time with him, see more of those amazing ninja skills.

Sukuna scratched his head, pretending to be a bit reluctant as well.

"We can meet another day. I’ll catch more fish for you then." That seemed to cheer her up, as she stood up and nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes! And we can play ninja, and..." She didn’t stop talking until she ran out of breath.

"Of course," he finally said after seeing her calm down. He then began walking back toward the park, waving his hand without looking back at her.

"See you later!" Seeing him leave, she lost some of her enthusiasm and sat back down.

"See you later..." she said softly, watching his retreating figure until he disappeared from view.

.

.

.

Sukuna emerged from the forest and walked through the park on his way home, behaving just like any other child his age. He bought some sweets along the way and played with a few cats for a moment before hurrying back home.

All the while, that gaze remained on him, like an invisible observer.

"I'm home!" he shouted cheerfully as he took off his shoes. His parents inside raised an eyebrow at hearing him so happy.

"Oh, Sukuna-chan seems to be in a good mood," his mother remarked to his father, who nodded, equally surprised since their son usually didn't express his feelings much.

Soon, Sukuna found them both in the living room and greeted them with a smile.

"It looks like you had a lot of fun, dear. Did you like the new park?" his mother asked. Sukuna nodded enthusiastically in response.

"Yes, it was great. I met a new friend, although is a bit strange." That caught his father's attention, and he turned to look at him curiously.

"A new friend, you say? It seems our son is finally coming out of his shell." Of course, Sukuna had never made friends before; he usually detested dealing with kids.

Upon hearing his father's words he pretended to pout, making his parents laugh a little.

"Come on, tell us a bit about this new friend."

So Sukuna recounted a version of his encounter with Naruko that was similar but at the same time very different. Naturally, he omitted many details and exaggerated others in a childish way.

It was exhausting and humiliating, but he soon felt that watchful gaze disappear.

Even so, he didn’t relax and decided to postpone his plans to rob the local library for the day.

.

.

.

Hokage’s Office.

Hiruzen exhaled the smoke from his pipe with a contemplative look.

"I want the ANBU responsible for monitoring Naruko Uzumaki in my office now."

At his command, some of the hidden presences in the darkness quickly departed.

'What a disaster,' Hiruzen couldn’t help but think with a frown. This shouldn't have happened. Leaving Naruko, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and, above all, the daughter of the Fourth Hokage, without any supervision for so long was against the very surveillance protocols he himself had established.

Especially now, when tensions with Kumo were still high.

How did this happen? He needed to find out, though he already had some suspicions in mind.

Even if he was the Hokage, Hiruzen knew there were people in the shadows pulling some strings. In earlier times, this would have been impossible, but Hiruzen was no longer the man he once was, and neither were his power and influence.

The tensions continued to grow, not just outside the village but also within, like a glass of water filled to the brim, about to overflow, and he didn’t know if he could prevent it from happening.

Or perhaps it was already happening. It was good that he always took a moment during the day to check on Naruko’s situation, Yet, it made him quite angry that there was no one nearby to ensure her well-being.

Of course, the villagers wouldn’t do anything truly harmful; they were too cowardly, and the risk that the Kyubi inside the girl could be unleashed if they hurt her was well-known by all. This was mainly spread by some of the shinobi who had witnessed other Jinchuriki in action during the war and understood that if they pushed things too far, it would end very badly for everyone.

And that was yet another reason why no one wanted to get close to the girl, treating her as if she were a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at the slightest touch.

Of course, Hiruzen and many others knew that was just nonsense; the Fourth Hokage's seal was far superior to any other seal, and Naruko wouldn’t unleash the Kyubi as easily as the villagers believed.

Even so, he let that narrative continue without clarifying it, because even if it was bad for the girl's social life, it also served as another form of protection. Of course, it wasn’t something that would last forever. Eventually, the villagers would realize that breaking the seal wasn't so easy, and their treatment of her would change accordingly. Still, Hiruzen hoped that all the accumulated hatred and resentment would have eased by the time that happened, or that Naruko would have already learned to defend herself at the ninja academy.

What happened today showed that he had been right in choosing that path. Naruko was fine and unharmed, yet it was still too risky. While the villagers wouldn’t do anything stupid, the same couldn’t be said for foreign shinobi.

The recent kidnapping attempt of the Hyuga clan princess made this clear.

Another complicated matter. Feeling the headache about to arrive, he decided to think of something else and looked at the crystal ball that now only showed his own reflection.

“Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno, it’s been a while since I last heard of them.” Of course, as Hokage, he recognized two of his former shinobi as soon as he saw them, and knowing they had a child was no surprise since they had always been quite close.

At least amidst all the bad, something good had happened. He didn’t know if this little friendship Naruko had formed would last, as he wasn’t exactly sure of his former shinobi’s thoughts or how they had influenced their child.

The boy hadn’t been too detailed in describing Naruko to them, which was expected from a boy his age who seemed much more excited to talk about how he had managed to catch a fish with his bare hands.

So, the couple simply thought that their son had met another child his age, nothing more, which seemed to make them quite happy. But that could change if they realized who their son's new friend really was.

“For now, let’s wait and see,” he wouldn’t interfere. Whatever had to happen would happen. Right now, he had more stressful matters to deal with, like the recent rising complaints from the population regarding the Uchiha clan.

“I’m too old for this,” he sighed, taking another puff from his pipe, letting the smoke fill his lungs.

.

.

.

Note:

A somewhat relaxed chapter with a glimpse into the past. Poor Hiruzen, forcibly pulled out of retirement. Oh well, at least he has Icha Icha to keep him company on his lonely nights.

The hardest part to write was Naruko's. I apologize if it’s not very good. As an adult, it’s difficult to think about how a child would act/think, so I need to practice more. Fortunately, it will get easier as she gets older, and the magic of chakra starts affecting her brain, just as it did with Itachi, though without overdoing it...

I'm working on Supersoldier and Still Defiant. I hope to bring updates soon.

Next chapter: Unparalleled Rival! (I already have almost the entire next chapter written; I just need to edit and translate it.)