I had this one waiting to be put online.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter One
No one cared for him, so he grew up cold, bitter, and hated by the village. At four years old, she had caught him running away from the village because she was returning back to Konoha from a mission. He had himself armed with a kunai knife that was probably stolen from a real shinobi. There was a frighten look in his eyes that made her wonder if he feared all shinobi or just a few. She approached him with caution, as he could be dangerous if he tapped into the Kyubi's power
"Back away!" Uzumaki Naruto screamed. He didn't like the sight of her red eyes because it reminded him of the Uchiha bastards. The kunai he held tightly onto sunk into flesh, but it wasn't the red-eyed lady. At three years old, Naruto discovered that he liked pain and threw himself off many buildings along with using other types of pain creators, but he didn't react to many things anymore. Every emotion besides hatred was alien.
The flesh his kunai hit was his own. He sliced his neck, hoping she wouldn't do anything to him as he died like they wanted. What she did do though would shock him completely. She picked him up and rushed him back to the village at a speed only a shinobi could get. The hospital had caught glance of him, and they turned their back upon the Chunin and boy. He was going to die, and Kurenai could feel his life slip as the blood soaked her front. No. He wasn't going to die.
"Heal him! He's just a child!" Kurenai shouted at the medics. The so-called medics would rather waste their chakra on people that were going to die no matter what instead of a child. "Just heal him! You're supposed to be healers!" One medic did come forth, and he healed Naruto's neck wound that was healing very slowly on its own. He put a bandage around it and looked at the Chunin.
"You take care him now. The boy was trying to please this village once more," the man said with a shake of his head and a sigh. He walked away as Kurenai took her chance to escape. She didn't know where the little one lived, so she took him to her place and went to dig through her late older brother's things from when he was a tyke. She had lost her family to the Kyuubi, but somehow she didn't hate this little boy.
Naruto woke up in an unfamiliar place and in a nice soft bed. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around before his eyes rested upon the lady from the day before, sleeping on a chair. He moved to escape the place when an arm struck him back onto the bed. The lady was awake now, and she didn't look too happy.
"I'm Yuhi Kurenai. I just have one question for you, Naruto. Do you want to die?" Kurenai asked the little one. She held back tears when he nodded. "I don't want you to die. You're just a little confused." Naruto backed away from her touch, and he looked up at her with cold eyes. She saw the hurt within them, and she knew she couldn't help him. "Naruto, can you promise me that someday you'll smile?" Naruto looked at her outstretched pinky and reheard her words within his mind. Yeah. He could, so he linked his pinky with hers and was set free. She wasn't going to hold him forever now.
Naruto was outside before he looked at the clothes he was given. She gave him a black long sleeve t-shirt with the words 'Lil' Tigers' written in white on the front with the number eleven and brown cargo pants. The clothes seemed to be old and worn as they were slightly faded and were probably a brother's. He promised in his heart to repay a red-eyed woman that wasn't an Uchiha.
Twelve-year-old Naruto was still cold, and the scar across his neck made him look dangerous. He didn't pass the Genin Exams the normal way. No, he had to steal a scroll and gain the respect of a teacher he once thought hated him. Naruto listened to the lecture that Iruka-sensei and stared out the window. When it came to Team Seven, he rolled his eyes at Haruno Sakura, a weak fan girl, but when Uchiha Sasuke was said, Naruto felt his anger double and began to shout.
"I won't be on a team with a bastard from the Bastard clan. I didn't graduate at the bottom of the class, so why the hell am I on his team!" Naruto shouted. He looked at the Chunin with cold eyes that were naturally there.
"Naruto, just because you grew up alone doesn't mean you should be selfish. The Hokage and I put these teams together. Most of the teams have specialties, so we put them together. You, Naruto, have a single specialty. You work best in assassinations, so your team is expected to be the Assassination Squad under Hatake Kakashi. We didn't know who else to give him, so we asked him. He chose Haruno and Uchiha, so you'll have to deal with it," Iruka said. He sighed and looked up at the Genin, who was the perfect assassin. The boy reminded the Hokage of Kakashi himself because Naruto lived by the book and nothing else. The shinobi rules were his life.
"Iruka-sensei, you said Team Seven is the Assassination Squad. What do you mean?" Yamanaka Ino asked. Iruka smiled. He loved teaching the kids about unknown things before they left his class forever. It was the better for them anyways.
"The Genin sometimes specialize in certain areas. Most are basic, so it's rare for an Assassination Squad. They go on missions that are purely assassin missions. Their training would probably be different ways to kill a person, but they are one of the most important squads. In the war, they destroy agents of the enemy without trouble and take on the most important mission as well. Hatake Kakashi is our best for them," Iruka said. Naruto ignored the rest of the speech and then waited for his sensei to show up. Sakura was staring at him with large eyes.
"Is it true that you once killed a man for looking cross-eyed at you?" Sakura said. Naruto shrugged and looked up at the ceiling. There must've been a million little squares up there, so he started counting. He got to a million and five hundred thousand when their sensei showed up. He smiled at them and waved his hand for them to follow. In a line, Team Seven shuffled out, and that was the last time anyone who wasn't the Hokage saw them again. No one wanted to know what happened to them.
Months later, Team Eight and Team Ten met up at the Chunin exams. They were waiting to see if Team Seven was allowed in. The older Genin glared at the rookies, but they mainly ignored them. A group that was a year older than them walked in with a kid with weird eyebrows talking about amazing teamwork of a rookie group. This caught all their interests, so they listened in the one-side conversation.
"I challenged the one, but they worked as one. I could tell from the strength of each of their punches, they could handle their own against Jonin leveled or higher. All three of them had the same scar on the same cheek except the one kid had it on his forehead for there were already scars on his cheeks. I asked why they looked dressed to go to a funeral, and the one with snowy white hair said 'we don't go to funerals. We make them.' His tone was mono while the other two had the most emotion. The kid with the snowy hair had a scar across his neck and hate-filled eyes!" the kid shouted. His teammate, a Hyuga, ordered him to be quiet. The rookies could figure out who the one kid was by the hating eyes, scar, and monotone voice. The door opened for another team. "That's the team!" All eyes fell on three cold-faced Genin that made up Team Seven. The eyebrow kid wasn't kidding about the scar, but he didn't say anything about their clothes.
All three wore black cargo pants and the regulation pouches. Naruto wore a black button up, short-sleeved shirt with a black tank underneath because the shirt wasn't buttoned. Sakura had on a deep red, long sleeved shirt, and Sasuke wore the same thing except for in black. All three of them had swords and other weapons strapped to their bodies as well as what looked like bombs. Naruto and Sasuke wore black, fingerless gloves while Sakura wore regular black gloves. Dangling out of Naruto's mouth was an unlit cigarette.
"So all of Rookie Nine is here now," Kiba said. He grinned and led his team over. Ino tried to latch herself onto Sasuke, but Naruto and Sakura had their swords drawn to stop her. No one saw the two move or saw Sasuke give a command. "Finally going to becoming something better than dead last? I thought you hated the Uchiha clan?" Naruto put away his sword and looked at Kiba with dull eyes.
"As Team Seven, we are Flame, Fox, and Flower. As soon as Hatake-sama or Hokage-sama dismisses us from our duties, we become Uchiha, Uzumaki, and Haruno. Inuzuka-san, I'm sorry if your tiny brain didn't understand what the difference is," Naruto said. Kiba became angry at that comment and raised a fist. Naruto only yawned, making Kiba even madder. This time, Sakura and Sasuke didn't have to save Naruto.
"You shouldn't be so loud," a silver haired Genin said. He pushed up his glasses and looked at them. "I'm Kabuto." He showed everyone but Team Seven (who weren't interested in them at all) shinobi cards. Kiba asked to see the cards on Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura. Kabuto showed them and was shocked. The information was classified unless permission came from the Hokage.
Ibiki strolled passed them and plucked the cigarette out of Naruto's mouth. His Chunin proctors passed the bear of a man for he stopped to look at the cigarette and Naruto. The rest of Rookie Nine stared at the two to see what would happen next. Ibiki laughed and handed the cigarette back.
"What kind of shinobi smokes mint flavored cigs? Every shinobi knows to smoke odorless unless they're in the village, and then it's just the same. Kid, you need bigger balls to smoke those types of cigarettes," Ibiki said. He was about to walk away when Naruto grabbed his wrist. "What now, little boy?" Naruto sighed.
"Ever hear rumors of a group of four shinobi that slaughter missing ninjas left and right and leave a mint scent behind?" Naruto asked. Ibiki figured the kid was a copycat, but it was better than nothing. He nodded. "Hatake Kakashi and us three little kids are that group. I'm their minty fresh guy!" Naruto had a crazed look in his eyes, and Ibiki backed off. He began explaining the rules of the test and gave them their seat numbers.
Ibiki grabbed a hold of Kakashi's collar and shoved three papers in his face. The two other Jonin in the room, Kurenai and Asuma, looked at the papers too. All three papers looked identical except for the handwriting. The words and pictures were the same.
"Not once were they caught cheating, and yet, they have the exact same answers!" Ibiki said. Kurenai sniffed the air and laughed. "That white haired brat had the nerve to smoke his girly cigs in the middle of the test!" Kakashi and Asuma laughed along with Kurenai. "What's so funny?" Naruto was a strange kid indeed.
"Naruto's cigarettes go with his strongest Katon technique. He invented green flames with a mint scent than smoky. The flames don't burn. They melt whatever they touch," Kakashi said. Ibiki took back all he said about girly cigarettes and marched out.
In the Forest of Death, night had fallen, and Naruto couldn't help but dream of that lady who had red-not-Uchiha eyes that matched the color of wine with a musical voice. He never threw out those clothes she gave him because, someday, he was going to give them back with a smile he's been given out to the air when no one looks. He only smiled when he thought of her, and that only made his search for her harder.
Orochimaru attacked the next day. Naruto gritted his teeth when he was injected with some strange poison. Everything felt like it was on fire, and then suddenly, a bunch of cuts exploded open on his body. Consciousness was lost to the pain, which he barely felt. Sasuke was already out, leaving Sakura alone. She growled and knew she couldn't stand a chance. Orochimaru left quickly, and she carried her teammates to lower ground. She would protect them with her life like they would her.
Naruto was woken up by Ino and Shikamaru, but he found it painful to move. Every step he took caused more pain to arise out of his body. He hid it from the others as Team Seven rushed away. The scroll they needed was quickly found as well as the tower. When Sasuke and him opened the scrolls, he dropped his and fell to the ground as Iruka showed up. Sakura and Sasuke were shocked while Iruka went to see what was wrong.
He woke up in the infirmary with a single bandage on his arm. Beeping machines told him that his life was still intact. Kakashi stood by his bed with a grim face. Naruto didn't want to talk to this man at the moment. He had to prepare for the next test and become a Chunin. He didn't want it to end this way.
"Naruto, you can't participate in the exams any longer. These machines are the only things keeping you alive until Orochimaru is arrested and gives the antidote. Naruto, we won't let you die, so we're pulling you from the exams," Kakashi said. Naruto sighed and looked at his hands. They were scarred from the kunai, shuriken, and jutsu he used and looked strange without the gloves. He tightened them into fists and looked at Kakashi.
"Keep me in the exams please. She's going to be there, and I have to show her my smile," Naruto said. He showed an emotion Kakashi never saw on Naruto's face, and the Jonin sighed. Without talking, he walked out and noticed the hurt on Naruto's face. That memory would forever be burned in his mind. He almost wanted to turn around and say 'you'll stay'. He couldn't at all.
Naruto was allowed to stay in the exams if only he could walk out there for his match. He listened for his name on the intercom while his hand was tight around the wires. He wore only his black pants because the shirt would only get in his way and that his shoes were lost like his gloves. When his name was called to go against Inuzuka Kiba, he ripped out the cords and screamed. Using the wall for support, he walked out to his match.
"You can't expect me to fight an injured ninja. He can barely stand without shaking, and I don't want to hurt him," Kiba said. Naruto was panting and looked at the dog boy. He couldn't muster a glare at the moment and just wanted to go back to the machines. "Naruto, think of your health." Up in the stands, Kurenai watched Naruto's face. He grinned large and proud as she choked back tears.
"Inuzuka-san, I'm going out with a bang. The proper shinobi death," Naruto said. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it as Hayate said go. Everyone who was watching the match couldn't believe the smile Naruto showed as Kiba and Akamaru ran close to him. No one in the building was aware of his heart starting to give up along with his mind shutting down. "Goodbye Kurenai-sama. Thank you." Kurenai couldn't believe it and turned away to cry. This boy was cold and ready to die.
He beat Kiba and Akamaru using his flames to, not melt, but freeze them into a single area. To knock Kiba out, he punched him. Naruto's cigarette fell to the ground, which he stomped on it with his bare foot. There was clapping, but Naruto barely hurt it as he vomited blood. His eyes wide and mouth smiling, he fell to the ground. His heart gave several attempts to keep active as he looked up. She was there, so he raised his hand to catch one of her tears.
"Love you. You showed me happiness…kindness," Naruto said. She smiled and brushed some hair out of his face as his heart stopped. Everyone in the stadium knew she wasn't going to let him die, but she began crying. Sakura looked down at him with sad eyes before turning away. The medics didn't even look at him, and Kakashi was working to start his heart again with electric chakra. Burned flesh could be smelled a mile away.
"Damn it, Naruto! I told you to quit. Why couldn't you listen?" Kakashi asked. He gritted his teeth and charged the chakra in his hands. This would be his final attempt before declaring Naruto dead due to poison that caused a heart failure. His hands touched the body causing it to jump a bit, and Kakashi lowered his ear to listen. A heart beating sound wasn't there. It was too late for Naruto.
"Winner is the late Uzumaki. Neither fighter moves on," Hayate said. He looked at Kakashi, who was staring at his hands. No one noticed the hand twitching as the medics finally took the dead body away. Kurenai went to check on her students because they mattered more than a dead boy. She couldn't remove the picture of a four-year-old kid gripping onto a kunai out of fear of dying at the hands of her. He looked human back then, and even when he grinned, she could see that little boy wanting to break free.