A/N: First fic for Naruto (Don't look at my other fic I intend to delete it, it's horrendous D=)
Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Naruto.
"Oi jiji!" That just brought a smile to the Third's face. Not everyone saw it, but he had started to think of Naruto as his own grandson ever since he saw him that fateful day…
Flashback no Jutsu:
His blackened and charred body struggled to move in an attempt to get away from the evil red eyed men. 'What did I ever do to them?!' The leader of the group pulled out a kunai and started to make deep slits in his skin agonizingly slowly. Not a single part of him was left uncut. Another brought a bag of salt out and began to slowly rub it on his wounds, making them burn with the intensity of a white hot sun. Slash, rub. Slash, rub. They then picked him up roughly and brought him over to a barrel that stank of alcohol and dunked him in, holding his head under the surface.
Blood flowing freely down his body in rivulets, the young boy could only look up at his aggressors in mournful blue eyes as deep as the ocean. Smirking, the leader lit a small fire at the end of his finger and touched it to the tiny boy's shoe. The alcohol immediately caught fire and soon traveled up the boy's body in entirety, engulfing him in flames. The group left him there, burning and crying as his body went under immeasurable torment. The men had given him a drug that forced him into consciousness to experience every single moment of unbridled pain…Those crimson red eyes so much like a demon's would forever haunt his mind…
The Sandaime looked up at the faint sound of falling leaves in front of him. Standing there were three ANBU personnel, one with seemingly gravity defying silver hair in a dog mask.
"Hokage- sama, something terrible has happened to Naruto..."
Without a word, Sarutobi bolted out of his chair and used his crystal ball to locate Naruto, before disappearing in a whirl of leaves. Using an extremely light suiton jutsu, he put out the fires on Naruto's body before gingerly picking him up. There was no more crying, only a dead look in the boy's eyes. "Hey Jiji-san..."
Flashback no Kai
"Jiji! Can you do me a favor?!" Naruto had changed quite a bit. He had abandoned the old orange jumpsuit for a black cloak with rustic orange flames creeping up from the hem. He now wore his hitai-ite around his neck, leaving his jumble of golden locks to tumble down freely. His eyes though were filled with sadness and hopelessness, which he still insisted on covering with the mask of happiness.
The Hokage was in much worse shape. His fragile heart needed time to mend and it was only time before he named his successor. The epic fight with Orochimaru had left the Sandaime Hokage in a deplorable shape, his body battered and torn. The Shinigami had decided in a merciful impulse not to take his soul due to the partial sealing, leaving Sarutobi close to death. So now Sarutobi was just a placeholder until they found Tsunade. Not to mention the damn paperwork…
Sarutobi shuffled some papers on his desk before looking up and asking "Naruto what can I do for you today?"
"I need you to gather all the villagers, both shinobi and citizens, for a meeting tomorrow. If it doesn't turn out the way I hope it will, I'm leaving the village until I see it fit to return." Sarutobi's pipe fell out of his mouth as Naruto explained, ignoring the shocked look that fleeted across Sarutobi's face.
The town center was completely packed, full of shinobi and kunoichi and civilians alike. Naruto stood at the front on a small platform infront of a microphone, seemingly immune to the sheer multitude of disgusted and reviled gazes that tried to bore through him like a knife.
"Alright all the kids please come up front!" Seeing the anxious faces, he quickly added, "Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you alright." They slowly drifted towards the front, out of their parent's embrace to protect them from 'the demon boy's taint.' The ANBU surrounded the perimeter, their faces hid by their masks that betrayed no emotion.
"Hey kids, would you like to hear a story?" A chorus of 'yes' erupted from the children up front, while the adults wondered what the demon was up to this time.
"Yosh! It's a story of tragedy and sadness, of betrayal and of love. You see, years ago, there was an ancient and powerful demon that attacked a village, just like we had been attacked. He was fabled to crush mountains and raise powerful tsunamis with just one motion, the likes of which have never been seen before. When he started to attack the village and all hope was seemingly lost, their powerful village leader came out. He was the village's greatest and youngest leader, and was feared and respected across all the shinobi lands. On that fateful night, he rode in on a gigantic summon almost as big as the demon itself, in his arms cradling a young boy as if it was his lifeline, and a battle of epic proportions erupted. Seeing no way to win, the leader used an ancient sealing method to seal the demon and, at the cost of his life, defeated the demon. He offered himself up to the Shinigami at the price of saving his village from terror and destruction. He truly was a magnificent and noble leader…
He trapped it inside his own son, because no other parent would even consider condemning their own child to a fate such as a demon container. The leader's dying words were 'Please protect this child and treat him like the hero he is.' But it was in vain."
Gasps and hisses erupted from the crowd at the demon's audacity. 'How dare he defile the fourth's name?!' Killing intent started to emerge from many of the jounin who had lost their loved ones and friends from battling the Kyuubi while the civilians were dumbfounded.
"That same night, two elite ninja from their village tried to assassinate the boy, claiming that he would grow up to be the embodiment of the demon. Their previous village leader protected the boy with all his might, and prevailed. The boy's life was saved. But…None of the villagers would accept him. He lived on the streets, where the villagers would throw stones at him, deny him food and spit upon his feet. To them, he wasn't even worth his weight in garbage. He was beaten mercilessly, within an inch of his life, while the guards who were assigned to protect him simply watched, or sometimes even joined in the beatings. All he wanted was the recognition of his peers and fellow villagers…He was thrown out of his orphanage at the age of four, and so his home turned into a wet cardboard box covered in mold and grime. He scavenged from the trash bins for food, because the shop owners either threw him out or gave him rotten and poisoned food. He was once burned alive by the most prestigious clan at the time. He was burned at the age of four."
"No matter what wrongs were done to him, he put on his most cheerful mask and went on with life, enduring all the hardships that came with him, for he could not even have the liberty of killing himself."
"Oh he tried alright," seeing the looks of abject horror on many of the children's faces. "He tried many times and still has the scars to prove it, yet the damnable demon inside him always kept him alive even when he wanted to die."
"He joined the ninja academy, where on the third day of school, the teacher threw him out of a second story window while burning his books, claiming that his kind has no right to learn the ways of the ninja."
At this point, all the children were crying, and even some of the kunoichi could be seen shedding a tear at the story. Naruto looked over to the Sandaime to see him give a nod of approval with watery eyes and an understanding smile.
"The boy continued on in the academy, failing the exam twice before a new teacher arrived. This new teacher wasn't like the others, he liked the boy for who he was and didn't blame him for the demon's attack. Under this new teacher's tutelage, he progressed well. But he still failed the exam. However, later that night, he prevented a potentially terrible disaster from happening, but the only recognition the boy got was the mentality that the 'demon boy' had caused the event to happen in the first place. He learned an A Class Kinjutsu in three hours…at the age of twelve…Yet got no recognition whatsoever."
"His jounin sensei in his group never bothered to teach him, and only focused on the prodigy of the team, leaving him and his teammate in the dust. He worked hard to prove himself to everyone. He defeated a B-Class shinobi that the so called 'prodigy' could not; he defeated the prodigy of the year above him, all just to prove his worth to the community. During their Chunnin Exams, he defeated a demon container much like himself and saved the life of his teammate, only for the credit to go to the prodigy of the team, who really stood there without helping, paralyzed by fear. Soon after, this teammate left the village to seek out power…A corrupted power that ruined his heart and his soul. He was the container's best friend and rival. Using the power given to him by both sensei and evil, an epic battle was waged between the rivals. The 'prodigy' punched a hole three times into the chest of the container before leaving him for dead."
Out of the corner of his eye Naruto could see Kakashi, his eyes filled with regret. Kakashi knew he had made a mistake, though he never knew how terrible it was. He foolishly accepted Sasuke's explanation of defeating Gaara without any hesitance, and didn't even bother to get Naruto's viewpoint. And now, his favorite student had run off with Orochimaru while almost killing Naruto in the process.
"Children," Naruto whispered quietly. "Let me ask you one more thing before I conclude this tale." With this he brought out of his pocket a storage scroll and a kunai. "You see these two items right? Just a simple storage scroll and kunai?" A chorus of "yes" was heard while the children rubbed their eyes from the tears.
"People of Konoha, observe!" And with that, he sealed the kunai inside the scroll. "Konoha's children, would you say this is a scroll holding a kunai or is it a kunai?" The kids looked confused for a second before shouting out that it was a scroll.
Naruto's face lit up with happiness. "Alright children, keep that in mind. Now for my final question…Do you think the boy was a hero or the demon?" The children almost looked incredulous at the seemingly obvious question. One boy spoke up. "He was a hero of course! How could he be a demon after all of that?!"
Naruto's face suddenly darkened and a chill seemed to press down upon the village. "Boy, why don't you ask the adults behind you? I'm sure they'd like you to keep away from the…demon child. I am Konoha's proclaimed 'demon,' and from today onwards, I resign as a shinobi and shall take my leave of this wretched village!" His eyes turned blood red and his pupils became slits like a cat's, or fox's. His whiskers darkened and his hair grew wilder and was streaked with red. A malicious aura that suffocated those present began to emit from his body. "MAY EVERYONE HERE WHO HAS WRONGED ME BURN IN HELL FOR THE ATROCITIES THEY HAVE COMMITTED!"
In one fluid move, he pulled out a kunai, sliced off his headband and shunshin'd the hell out of their lives.
"…Naruto…" A whisper upon a fallen leaf…
A/N Time: Meh...Reivew for meh, I want to see how much my writing's improved. =D And whether or not I should continue the story.