Naruto awakened to the tug of straps being released from his waist. He opened his eyes and stared at Takezo, who was now leaning over him to release his arms. The man was avoiding his eyes, focusing on the fading white strap buckles.
Why was Takezo doing the morning rounds when it was another guard who usually made those rounds? Was this part of the changes that the lab coat was talking about?
With the last buckle removed, Naruto sat up and continued to watch Takezo’s jerky movements. Then he stood and stared at Naruto before giving him a shaky smile. He reached out and ran his thick fingers through Naruto’s golden hair, marveling at the feel and texture. At a glance, one would think the hair was tangled and coarse – yet his fingers glided through the silky locks. He looked into the pale blue eyes.
“Things are going to be different now…” he murmured, feeling anger lick his insides at the thought of being separated from his favorite ward. His hand, which had been caressing Naruto’s head now had his hair gripped within angry fingers. He pulled Naruto’s head back and glared at his expressionless face.
“The Hokage will be coming in today. You tell her anything,” he gave Naruto's head a little jerk for emphasis, “anything at all about me, and I’ll get you. I’ll get you bad. Do you hear me? Do you?” he gave Naruto a little shake
Naruto continued to stare at him blankly, however his mind was racing.
Whoever this Godaime was, she sparked fear into everyone. Even Takezo, who was very confident about his own existence, seemed worried and frightened.
“Hey Takezo! Hurry up!” a voice shouted in the hallway, causing Takezo to release his hold on Naruto and rush out the room. To Naruto’s complete surprise, Takezo forgot to close the fading white door, leaving an impossible amount of opportunities for the blonde.
Naruto stood up and stretched his body, allowing all the kinks and cramped muscles to stretch. Lying on your back all night until someone unstraps you was very uncomfortable. The body likes to move around.
He turned then, pulled the sheets off his bed, and as he closed the door, stuck the corner of the sheet in between. He would be able to open the door later. However, right now, he needed a shower.
Years ago, the lab coats must have realized group bathing was most unwise, resulting in that most of the rooms had a toilet and a shower stall concealed by fading white curtains.
Naruto eyed the articles of white clothing that Takezo had left behind and then pulled the curtains aside. There was only one mirror above the toilet; very few rooms had a mirror-but Naruto’s level of insanity was deemed semi-stable enough that he was allowed one. Behind the mirror lay toothpaste, toothbrush, a brush for his hair, bodywash, and hair shampoo. With his favorite scent too…
Naruto giggled to himself and felt vaguely inquisitive today.
I must be in one of my moods, he thought with a hissing laugh before turning on the shower.
After an hour of washing and oral cleansing, Naruto dried himself off with a fading white towel and began to comb out his hair. For the most part, his hair only hung past his ears. However, in the back was a long straight ponytail that hung to his butt. Every once in a while he got the urge to cut the horselike tail off- but the demon had murmured how important it would be in the future. He often found himself listening to the creature more and more.
Groomed to his liking and dressed in the normal white pants and shirt, he opened the door and gazed down the fading white halls.
Deserted. Naruto stared for a moment before he sat down against the doorframe and waited.
Five minutes later, two guards came along, carrying a patient who was laughing hysterically and needed support. The guards looked hassled and annoyed as they passed by Naruto, who watched them go.
A moment later, the lab coat that had talked to him yesterday came rushing down the hall, and froze when he saw Naruto sitting in his doorway. For a moment they stared at one another, a complete look of surprise on the mans’ face.
“Why is your door open?” he asked while walking over to Naruto.
Naruto shrugged and continued to stare up at him.
The man frowned then shook his head.
“Come. Let me take you to the rec. room.” He waited for Naruto to get to his feet then walked briskly down the hall toward the rec. room. He glanced back every few moments to see if Naruto was following him. Naruto’s pace was sedated and careless, while the lab coat was in a hurry. He made it to the room long before Naruto did, who was coasting the hall slowly, but watching the lab coat intensely.
Really, the rec. room was simply a holding place for patients to stand or sit, sometimes paint. Some sat alone, or in a group. Others stood in what was a pale attempt at a cliché.
Naruto’s eyes fell on a man with short black hair and lines along his nervous face. The man was sitting in a corner surrounded by books, cross-legged, though one leg was twitching up and down in a repetitious gesture of anxiety. One hand was holding a dull brown book while the other was being nibbled at. Naruto wandered over to the man and sat down next to him, leaning close to see what was on the pages. The man didn’t look at him but he removed his thumbnail from his mouth.
“This book is about advanced chakra control,” he murmured and put his nail back into his mouth. Before Naruto could ask what chakra was, a burst of excitement ran through him so strong that he groaned and tilted his head back, allowing the waves of pure excitement to rush through his body. He ran a hand down the side of his face, allowing his fingernails to draw blood down his cheeks.
The demon was excited by those words. Such pleasure…
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The man had looked up at him when he had heard the small groan and was now watching the youth run his nails down his own face.
These patients drove him crazy. Initially he had been sent here due to the loss of his family when they had been the victims of a missing nin attack. The doctors had said that his grief for his family had begun to turn into madness and they institutionalized him here. Craving to know more about shinobi, he had begged the psychologists here for some books one them. To his surprise, they gave him the books that the Ninja Academy taught to all the young to be-ninja. Learning as much as he could would help him on the road to revenge.
When the exotic teenager, whom he had seen on many occasions, came to sit next to him, he had felt a wave of nervousness. Never had he had thoughts of other men, not even when there wasn’t a wisp of a woman in the whole institution. Yet, he was aware that this teenager had the same affect on a large amount of patients and non-patients.
And now he was making masochism look erotic. The man knew he wasn’t the only one watching the youth, for the room seemed a little bit quieter.
After making four long scratches down his face on both sides the youth turned to him and surprised him once again by saying, “Let us read one.”
The man looked away, then dug into the pile of books for the one he was seeking. The basics of chakra control. He handed the book to the youth.
“You might want to start here,” he murmured, feeling his face heat up when the tips of the youth’s fingers brushed against him as he took the book. “If you don’t start there, nothing in the rest of these books make any sense.” He then turned back to what he was reading and tried to ignore the presence of the blonde.
A minute later he could no longer ignore the fresh shower fragrance the youth was giving off and he glanced at him, only to stare. The boy was flipping through the pages, eyes flicking up and down the pages for about two seconds before turning them. A droplet of blood fell on his hand and the boy absently licked it as he flipped the page again. At first glance, the man had thought the youth was being childish and was looking at the pictures- but by the leer on his face and the intelligence that flashed through his eyes, the man wondered if he was sitting next to a savant.
Five minutes later, the youth put down the book, having flipped through all the pages, and leaned back against the wall, head raised toward the ceiling, eyes closed. There was a sated smile on his gentle pink lips and the man could not help but stare. Despite the nasty scratch marks on his face…
The man grimaced and shook his head, trying to pull his brain away from such thoughts, when he noticed one of the doctors standing in the doorway. The man was staring nervously at Naruto, taking in his scratched cheeks and almost vacant expression. He walked over and knelt down by the youth.
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It was as if some lost knowledge was opening inside of him. The demon was trying to throw large amounts of information at him, thoughts of chakra-thoughts of his own chakra-which he was now aware of.
“Naruto.”
A familiar voice. He opened his eyes and stared at the familiar lab coat from earlier that day and yesterday.
“Naruto you must come with me. The Godaime will be here to see you.”
Naruto slowly got to his feet and allowed the lab coat to lead him out of the rec. room and down a series of halls. In the meantime, the lab coat was throwing nervous glances at him. The lab coat knew the kind of mood Naruto was in and it couldn’t be at the worst time.
The room they put him in consisted of a fading white table, two chairs, and a large two way mirror. Then they left.
Naruto sat down in the chair and allowed himself to grin. He had uncovered something today. Shinobi. People with power. He had heard of them, though he was inside this prison. Heard of soldiers fighting when he was twelve. Something about the Sandaime being killed by one of his students. The world was mostly cut off, when one was put here.
But he could feel the chakra running through his veins! Why hadn’t he known this before? Why wasn’t he aware of all this potential? It was chakra that healed all his bites, which he now noticed was gone. He examined his slim fingers, thought he could see the chakra running through them. With this thought, Naruto put three fingers in his mouth and took a strong, yet dainty…bite.
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Tsunade had been startled when she was going through all the papers Sarutobi had left behind, and had found a document on The Fourth’s Legacy.
Mental institution?
It was only a matter of time until she had an appointment to show up and check on the boy’s condition. She couldn’t believe that they enrolled a five-year-old child into an institution for adults. What kind of childhood had that boy lived? What kind of life was the young man living?
Now, walking down the fading white halls, she could not help but grimace. The patients were probably having trouble with color. Everything was so white; something like red or blue would probably be punishment on the eyes.
The psychotherapists seemed jumpy and nervous, giving each other looks and trying to take their time. However, it was inevitable, and they arrived at a door. Tsunade glanced at her protégé, Shizune, who seemed nervous, glancing at every door and at some of the orderlies.
They entered the room.
Inside was three men, staring through a long rectangular window. They all were unaware that she had arrived, which gave her time to examine their expressions. Two were sitting down at a desk with identical expressions of fascination and hunger, while the third, who was standing next to them and wearing glasses, was looking slightly sick and frightened.
Both Tsunade and Shizune looked at the window and what sat beyond.
What they saw made them both swallow hard and fight not to look away.
There was a young, almost ethereal man sitting at a table and biting his own flesh. Tsunade and Shizune watched in horror as the youth inserted already bloody fingers in his mouth and bit down on them. Though they couldn’t tell when exactly he bit down, they could tell when they saw blood ooze down his hands and out of his mouth. They could tell he had been at it for some time due to the amount of blood that was on his arms, face, shirt, and table. The blonde took his fingers out of his bloody mouth and seemed even more fascinated by them than the doctors did. The bites were deep and probably needed serious operation to make them work again, or so Shizune surmised as she glanced at Tsunade, who’s face was green and looking like she was going to faint. Shizune was reminded that Tsunade had a fear of blood.
As if the horror wasn’t made to stop, the blonde moved on to his hands, in which he began to bite deeply into the flesh then examine it with a look of great pleasure.
This was the Fourth’s Legacy? She could not find the tell-tell whisker marks on his cheeks due to all the blood, yet the youth looked much like Yondaime…except more exotic and ethereal. Even with the blood.
“Shouldn’t you stop him!” Shizune asked incredulously as the youth ventured dangerously close to his wrists.
“He’s been doing this for years…” replied one of the doctors who were sitting down. He didn’t take his eyes from the scene. But the one next to him murmured, “Though I’ve never seen him this…masochistic before.”
Then he looked over at the two horrified women.
“As you can see, the boy is clearly unstable. He is often struck by fits such as these, suffers from MPD disorders, and at times, is very violent with our other patients. We think this might be the cause of…”
He let the rest of the sentence linger into silence, and Tsunade broke her sickened gaze at the youth to stare at the knowing look the doctor was giving her. She also vaguely noticed that the doctor standing next to them was glaring at the back of the sitting doctor’s head.
Tsunade turned back to the youth and saw that he had stopped biting himself and was now licking up all the blood on his hands and arms. There was no pain on his face, just a sated pleasure, as if he had just had the best sex ever.
“I’m going in there,” she said suddenly, and Shizune balked at the idea of Tsunade walking in on all that blood.
“A-are you sure!” she asked incredulously, and Tsunade couldn’t help but feel embarrassed by her weakness. The doctors were also staring at her with fear, but for a different reason.
“A-Are you sure Hokage-sama! The boy is dangerous! He might…” But the words died when Tsunade turned to look at them.
“I’am the Hokage of Konohagakura. I think I can handle one civilian.”
With that, she went to the door that connected to the room and waited for the doctors to allow her entrance.
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Naruto continued to lick the blood off his beautiful wounds, smiling to himself as he felt the familiar itch of healing flesh. It had been a while since he had gone all out on himself. He deserved the pleasure.
A door that he had not noticed opened and a beautiful blonde woman with honey brown eyes, followed by another woman entered. Immediately he could smell the stench of fear radiating off their bodies and couldn’t help but leer. He watched as the blonde woman’s eyes fell on his arms and wherever his blood had fallen and saw her face turn a shade of grayish green. But she sat down before him and rested shaking hands of the fading white table.
“Good afternoon Uzumaki Naruto.”
Naruto, who had gone back to licking his fingers, glanced up at her.
“Is it?” he asked. Was it afternoon already? Why just moments ago it was morning.
“Yes it is Naruto. Do you-’’
“Are you a woman?”
This startled everyone. Why was he asking that? Wasn’t it obvious! Tsunade wasn’t sure if she should feel more worried or insulted.
“Yes. Yes I am.” She tried to ignore the blood caked around his mouth and suddenly noticed angry scratch marks on both sides of his face. Suddenly he smiled at her, and even with the blood, he looked beautiful.
“You are very beautiful.” He glanced at Shizune, who blushed. “I haven’t seen a woman in…” Then his face and eyes went expressionless, and he stared past her.
“Naruto?” she asked, but there was no response. Tsunade got to her feet and walked around the table. Her breath came shaky as she reached out and took a hold of the still bloody hands, leaning forward to get a good look at the bite wounds.
Her blood ran cold.
His fingers were perfectly fine. She turned his hands over. Not a bite wound in sight. She looked at his bloody face.
The scratches were gone. Suddenly his pale blank blue eyes turned to her, and she watched in a sick fascination as the pupils began to expand, almost to the point that they consumed the blue of his eyes.
Something deep and ancient was staring out at her. Measuring her up so that she felt like her life hung in the balance of what this ancient darkness thought. Every moment till now was pointless. Every thought, every care…everything was being tossed away for this very moment.
Kyuubi…
Then the creature looked away, and Tsunade felt her breath escape her throat in an audible sigh of relief. She had passed some kind of test that could have killed her.
She knew this. She also knew…that she could not leave him here.
Still holding his bloody hands, she looked into the bloody face, which at one moment looked so happy, and at the next, was as blank as a fresh sheet of paper.
TBC
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Chapter notes: I'm glad that everyone likes this, and please note that I have no psychological education here, so if things sound wrong, I apologise deeply.