Chapter 40 Side story (2):Revelation and realisation

Note:Its bit larger than usual, comprising around 1.5-2 chapters

Walking on the street of Konoha, Naruto was looking for a library Sasuke recommended him to go to.

'Good thing I can do transformation jutsu.'

He disguises himself as Kakashi, who rarely interacts with others in the village, where Kakashi gave him the green light to use it, unless he does something unreasonable.

Walking with the crowd, he had mixed feelings when he noticed familiar faces in the street.

He vividly knew how many of them were targeting him at one point because he was doing good at mission.

'How it was my fault your client doesn't like you?' Naruto groaned, feeling grateful for Sasuke for hiding him in the Uchiha compound until it calmed down.

'I guess this is the place.' he thought, seeing it matched with Sasuke's description.

Opening the door, he was greeted by the shop owner.

Naruto tried to stay cool and greeted like Kakashi always does to others..

'Phew, it's tough.'

Looking at the book aisles, he searches for the book titled 'The child who has lost since he was born.'

He searches the book while suppressing his urge to do the clone seal.

It was troublesome to say the least, where he had to pay attention to each book name individually.

After an hour he came across the book having the titled name he was looking for, though he hesitated to pick it up.

'It is supposed to be here?'

He can still smell the glue used on the book, yet it is placed on the aisle where books older than 10 years were kept.

Shopkeeper suggested those book are those that wasn't so sold over 10 years and kept in case someone have interest in them.

Naruto contemplated whether it was the real thing, as its age doesn't match but he couldn't find any book having the same title.

"It's 10 Ryō," said the shopkeeper.

Paying 10 Ryō, he went outside with the book while the bookkeeper gazed at him.

'I guess he was disappointed there was no book other than Icha Icha that interested him, so he took a notebook out of courtesy.'

***

He went to the field where he usually trains with his teammate, which is usually vacant 24/7 for some reason.

Due to the request of Asuma and Kurenai, temporary teams were formed to carry out missions to strengthen their bond.

Kakashi leads Sasuke with Hinata and Shino.

Asuma leads Naruto with Shikamaru and Choji.

Kurenai leads Sakura with Kiba and Ino.

For now, only the Asuma temporary team completed the mission and returned back to the village.

So Naruto was alone at the training field.

'Alright, let's read the book.'

His eyes squinted at first before going back to normal.

'Font is quite different, but hey, I can read it so it doesn't matter much.'

At the opening chapter, it introduce a married couple who was living their mundane life who one day, had one of their greatest joy in their life when they found out she was pregnant

'Your standard lovey-dovey thing....of course I am not jealous, definitely not!' Naruto puffed up his chest before continuing the book.

It was your usual slice of life book, showing the interaction of the cute couple of their daily lives.

Naruto read in full interest, curious to know what they would do the next day.

'Though how I am reading so much content on a few pages?'

Naruto wasn't a regular reader like Sasuke so he doesn't have much ground to question, despite how illogical he felt.

As time went on, he learned the depressing backstory of the couple.

The husband, who was yellow haired, came from a clan, long disappeared in obscurity, having nothing in his name.

While the wife, who was red haired, came from a family that was slaughtered alongside others in her village, who came to the fire village as a refuge after escaping, though she was discriminated against, targeted and was soon to be branded as a village biological weapon by the higher ups.

'Those scummy people!'

Despite their hardship they experience, they overcome it together since the day they fell in love and made friends on the way.

It warmed Naruto's heart, encouraging him to read further and further.

He got excited to hear the wife's closest friend gave birth to a child, where both giggling, imagining how their child will play with each other.

He couldn't wait for the birth of their child, until his heart ached.

'Last Chapter:The child who has lost since he was born.'

Naruto unconsciously closes the book and keeps aside.

'Yeah ... .I don't have to read that part haha…..' he nervously laughed to himself.

He didn't feel like he needed to spoil his mood, so he began training all on his own.

However, he couldn't concentrate at all.

His mind kept hypothesizing the outcome, losing control from sanity.

Bombarded with thoughts that overwhelm Naruto, he went to Ramen Ichiraku to clear his mind.

***

"One Miso Chashu Pork Ramen with extra pork." Naruto ordered, hoping it would do the trick.

"Are you fine Naruto? You seem down today."

Teuchi was worried whether something would happen today when his teammate was outside the village.

"It's nothing, I am just reluctant to finish the last chapter of the book."

"Oh, what's it about?" Ayame asked, wondering what kind of book that trouble him.

Naruto sighs and tells them a brief summary of the contents of the book.

"So you're saying, after reading the sweet

part of the book, you are reluctant to finish it, knowing it is going to be bitter right?"

"Yes…"

Ayame sighed, understanding his dilemma.

Not everyone is a fan of tragedy novels and there are people who skip the tragedy parts.

Everyone who reads books wants to escape temporarily to a fantasy world, imagining things they realistically can't have here.

"Well, I can say whether you should read it or not but, can you sleep if you don't see the ending?"

Naruto's face went pale.

'I'm going to eat my mind to be honest if I don't finish.'

"Naruto, if you choose not to read it, it's fine, there is no need to force yourselves if you find it too much."

Naruto felt relieved, at the same conflict.

Even if she said what he wanted to hear, he still couldn't make peace with his mind.

**

'Ah shoot it, I can't stand it anymore….'

After eating a bowl of ramen he came back to the training ground to train.

Just like other times, he failed.

His mind was still fixated on the last chapter.

Finally after the sun sets, he builds up the courage to finish it.

And just like he imagined, it was heartbreaking.

One day when the wife finally gave birth to their child, a masked man came and killed her bodyguards and midwives.

Taking her child as hostage, it distracted the husband to save his child, before the husband realized his wife was taken away from him after the masked man let the child go.

Chaining up the wife, who was weakened after birth, he extracted a being called Kurama from her that allowed her to be a weapon of destruction of the village and control the being in hopes of destroying the fire village.

Eventually the husband came to fend off against the masked man, eventually cutting him off from controlling Kurama, prompting the masked man to flee.

Seeing Kurama was going out of control and his wife somehow managed to live, yet too fragile to have Kurama back, he decided to seal the being inside their newborn child, placing his hope.

The next scene causes Naruto to puke to a nearby river.

He was horrified by the extensive detail, where in order to stop the husband from sealing him, Kurama attacked the newborn.

In order to protect the child, both rushed to cover him, skewer both of them with Kurama's nail.

Naruto felt terrible for the couple, who impart their last words to their child, before departing from this world.

It was an emotional moment, showing how a happy life is turned upside down by an u expected event.

With his teary eyes, Naruto was about to close the book, just after seeing the pages that were left.

'I think it talked about the author and his inspiration.'

Turning the page, his heart sank.

'Aftermath: The boy who lost everything.'

Naruto's mind went blank.

The seemingly lovey dovey book was supposed to end with a bitter end.

Looking at the true last chapter name, he knew the following was going to be terrible.

He already went through pain and misery to read it, he wasn't sure he could do it again.

But with a sullen heart, he turned the page to read it.

His vein was bulging prominently as he kept reading.

The aftermath shows a couple, where the wife was a friend of the wife shown in the story earlier.

After the loss of people who died due to Kurama, higher ups have pointed to the couple and her clan, blaming them to be responsible.

Even though they were the ones who restricted a good amount of shinobi to participate from defending the village including the couple claiming it for the greater good even though they were shameless enough to send children to war.

Afterwards the couple's clan was orchestrated from the village, hated for supposedly killing the previous couple where the husband was the newly elected leader of the village.

The higher ups acted high and mighty, being beacon of good, yet being opposite of it.

Despite requests from previous couples who wished their child lived a good life, they didn't care.

They send him to an orphanage and when they found people were criticising them, they revealed Kurama was inside the child, leaving the child to be scapegoat of their hate.

'He is a 3 year old child you bastards!!'

It resonated with Naruto, remembering the age where he hated it.

The age where everyone wanted him dead.

The day he was no longer seen as human.

Though Naruto felt awkward in the next scene where seeing the child was hated too much, the previous head stepped down due to various crimes, had to reclaim his seat, approach the boy in private to avoid public scrutiny, winning him over to use him since he has Kurama while not doing anything to solve his problem.

In the meantime, the current couple due to discrimination suffered a lot.

The husband, who was head of the clan, was hell bent on proving they did nothing wrong while raising his elder son, seeing as his clan's hope.

While the wife quietly raised his two children, lacking any voice to object to her husband.

She knew that even if his expectations were high, their clan just didn't have the opportunity to rest.

She knew she was sacrificing her older child so that his young brother would have a chance to have a normal childhood.

Naruto's mind eases, seeing how brilliant the older child was, winning the exam at relatively young age though he had a bad feeling when the older child joined the part of the corrupt higher ups army to woo the higher ups.

He felt bad for the younger child, who was viewed as a failure by his father, lacking talent his older brother had.

So the younger kid trains hard, believing he can gain acknowledgement from his father.

Coming back from home enthusiastic after doing well at the test, he was greeted with silence in the clan compound.

The kid wondered where his clansmen went, and went deeper into his clan.

'Why….. Just why?!' Naruto questioned when the corpse began to appear.

Naruto again puked on the river, when he read extensive detail of the wound the corpse had.

The younger kid, with tears in his eyes, rushed to his house to find his parents.

His heart went sullen with each corpse he saw until he reached his home.

He called out his parents, but he got no reply.

He had a terrible feeling when looking at the door that leads to their room.

He felt dread in his heart, reluctant to open the door.

But gathering courage, he opens the door, seeing his elder brother, on top of his parents corpse…

His elder brother left, leaving his young brother alone, where the book ended with the younger brother wallowing in his misery.

'...Why did his elder brother do this?...Everything was going …no …supposed to be fine…'

Naruto wiped his tears, noticing tears marks appeared on his face.

He was relieved it truly ended, where only one page remained.

He was eager to know the author of the book who hooked him to read.

'Wait, why is there a seal here?'

He knew it was an enclosing technique, a jutsu Sasuke once taught him, useful for storing stuff.

Curious what's inside, he used an unsealing technique to unseal, revealing a portrait drawn by hand.

Naruto assumed it was artwork of the first couple, since he can see a yellow haired man and red haired woman.

'This is…'

Looking at the man, he realised the man looked exactly like him, from eyes to hairstyle, where only the lack of fox marks on his face is main differentiation between this two relative to age.

But one that caused him the greatest reaction was the red haired woman beside him

'Wait a minute! Didn't I see her from

my dream!'

Seeing her image, he began to recall his supposed dreams

He recalled her warm embrace of her.

He recalled her last words before she dissipated.

"Mama is sorry Naruto.."