Ok guys, this is my first fanfic so here's the rundown. I want reviews to continue, since this is the first chapter of my first story, we'll start out with 5. I welcome flames. They help improve my work, just NO ANONYMOUS FLAMES! Don't like them, never will. I'll try to make long chapters, but like I said, this is my first fanfic. Now on to the first chapter of The Fire Within. (This is the edited version.) Most of this is the same as the unedited version, I just made a few corrections in the way I wrote the story.

Regular speech

Demon/Inner speech

(Dream/Flashback speech) Thoughts

Demonic Naruto/Gaara/and so on speech


Chapter 1: First Day at the Academy

A young boy with wild blond hair walks out of his apartment and locks his front door knowing what he would come home to. He learned long ago that he was the container of the Kyuubi. He was four when

the Kyuubi first contacted him.

(flashback)

Naruto was walking down the street with a big wagon so that he could bring back supplies from the hardware store. The villagers had broken into his house for the third time that week and he was getting tired of running to the third hokage for help fixing his house. The only thing he took from the old man was his weekly support money for food. The hokage rarely noticed a broken down apartment because Naruto always repaired it shortly after he found it destroyed. He usually had a specific route to follow that circled most of the village to avoid the villagers, but the young boy was too tired to take precautions. He decided everyone should be asleep anyways.

He bought everything he needed at the hardware store after the uneventful trip there. He was about halfway back to his house when a middle aged man stepped in front of him. The man was as tall as most adult men. He had short brown hair, a green vest on, and a Konoha headband. Nine other men landed behind him from the roofs of nearby buildings.

Naruto saw them and just muttered to himself. "Damn it. It's not enough to be ambushed by villagers at night when there's nobody to help me. They have to be the god damn ninja!"

"My point exactly brat." said the ninja in front of him. Then the shinobi behind him took out kunai and began to laugh.

Naruto had been staring them down for a good five minutes, thinking of any reason he deserved this and considering he couldn't find any, he was starting to get really pissed off.

"Why... Why do you only treat me like this!" By this time everyone had noticed his eyes were blood red and his whisker marks had darkened. He walked forward scowling at them. They were literally shitting themselves out of fear. The thing was, Naruto didn't realize in his state of fury that the leader slipped behind him. He had just enough time to scream in pain as he fell down with a kunai stuck in his back. The rest of the group walked up smirking and while some cut him up even more, the others just kicked him. Somewhere in the middle of this, Naruto fell unconscious.

Naruto woke up in a long tunnel with more tunnels branching out everywhere. He was sitting in a steady flow of water, but he wasn't soaked or cold. He stood up and suddenly a deep voice started to ring through the tunnels.

"Ah, I finally got you in here. Walk to the end of the tunnel, so that I can talk to you face to face." Naruto did as he was told and came to a gigantic room. On the other end of the room was a huge cage door with a piece of paper with the word "seal" on it. The Kyuubi walked into the light hoping to scare the child in front of him.

Naruto started to tremble and shake and the Kyuubi thought he was successful in scaring the kid to death. Then, much to the Kyuubi's suprise, Naruto started yelling at him. "You're the reason everyone hates me, aren't you!"

"Now wait a second, let me explain kit."

"NO! Do you know the kind of hell I've been put through because of you! I have been beaten, cut, stabbed, kicked, my house has been destroyed many times, everybody sells me overpriced food, and on three occasions they've SET ME ON FIRE!!!!!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. Wait, did you say they set you on fire?"

"Yea, and in case you didn't know, IT HURTS LIKE HELL!!!!!"

"Well, I guess I should get to the point of why I brought you here." Naruto just sat back down and frowned at the fox. "I just wanted to clear the air between us first. I propose that we get to know each other and become friends, because I've examined the seal and even if you rip the paper off my cage, I'm not going anywhere. The thing is you're still going to get beaten by the villagers, because they hate me for no good reason."

"Hold on you stupid fox. The village has the right to hate you. You attacked us four years ago."

"First of all, call me Kyuubi. I was provoked to attack your village. That snake Orochimaru had killed my mate. I just came to take revenge on that one person. I tried to negotiate for Orochimaru's head, but some jackass with silver hair that called himself Konoha's White Fang tried to neuter me with a sword. Now THAT hurt like hell. I still have the scar to prove it too. Want to see it?"

Hearing this Naruto had a tight hold on his balls while wincing. "I'd rather not, but I can understand why you attacked Konoha. What happened next?"

"Well I was through negotiating. I decided that if I ripped the place apart, that bastard Orochimaru would die too. I made damn well sure to step on Konoha's White Fang for what he did to me. I hope he's enjoying hell right now. Heh heh heh. Turn's out the coward Orochimaru fled the village years ago. He just wore the Konoha headband to make me attack the village. After that, your fourth hokage sealed me in you and here we are today."

"Well I guess I have to side with you on this one. I'll help you with finding and killing Orochimaru. Agreed?"

"Agreed. Thanks a lot, kit. In return, I'll help you out whenever you call. I should probably send you back now, you have a visitor. One last thing, if you want to talk, just think what you want to say and I'll reply."

"Thanks fox... I mean Kyuubi."

With that, Naruto woke up in the hospital. The third hokage was standing beside the bed. His eyes widened when Naruto woke up. "Thank goodness you're all right. What happened to you?"

"Just the ninja again, old man. Nothing serious." Naruto said with a big grin.

The third started to rub his forehead. "I'll take care of it as soon as I get back to the office." he thought. "Get some rest Naruto. Your apartment is being repaired as we speak." He sighed then left the room.

(end flashback)

"Well this will make it more difficult for them I guess." he says as he walks toward the academy. Then immediately his attitude changed for the better, "Oh well, today is my first day at the ninja academy!" He then proceeds to charge down the street knocking down anything that stood in his way, apologizing as he went.


Naruto ran into the school hoping he wouldn't be late on his first day. Luckily, he got there in time and sat himself down beside a pretty girl with pink hair. She looked at him, noticing the familiar whisker marks on his cheeks. "Is it that boy from the park? It's been a long time."

(flashback)

Sakura sat underneath a sakura tree crying into her knees having just been teased by Ino and the other girls about her big forehead and how she doesn't stand a chance with Sasuke. She sat there for a few more hours before a boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and strange whisker marks on his cheeks came over. "What's wrong? I don't like seeing people cry." he said.

"People keep making fun of my forehead and..." her voice trailed off.

"And what?" he probed, "besides, I think your forehead is pretty cute." Then he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, earning a blush from the four year old girl. "So, what's your name anyway?" he asked.

"Haruno Sakura" she said, starting to cheer up. "Great, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you Sakura-chan." Again, she blushed at the suffix he used with her name.

He walked her home, cheering her up even more along the way. By the time she got home, her smile almost split her face in two and her sides were hurting from laughing at Naruto's jokes. The time came to part ways, and this time she leaned over and planted a light kiss on his cheek causing his face to turn bright red. Sakura laughed at Naruto's antics and went inside as Naruto walked away with a feeling of accomplishment. Then Sakura realized she didn't ask were he lived or if she would ever see him again. Frowning at her stupidity, she wondered if they would meet again one day.

The next day, she went to the park again only to meet Ino and the other girls. "Still chasing after Sasuke, Forehead?" Ino said in a mocking tone. "Nope, you can have him Ino-pig." Sakura replied because she had done a lot of thinking last night, and it was safe to say she had a new crush. Ino looked dumbfounded as Sakura walked away with more confidence than ever.

(end flashback)

Iruka walked into the room and saw Naruto and Shikamaru with their heads down. He picked up a couple pieces of chalk and threw them at the two boys, hitting them both in the forehead... hard. Shikamaru just groaned and woke up. While Naruto, being the idiot he is, flipped over his chair hitting his head on the desk behind him. Everyone in the class (except Sakura) started to laugh, while veins were popping out all over Iruka's face. "Everyone be quiet!!!" Iruka practically screamed at the class. When everyone shut up, he started teaching about chakra and how to use it.

About three hours of staring at the girl next to him, Naruto finally realized who he was looking at. "Wait a minute... I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!" Naruto yelled, startling Sakura. "How have you been since that day in the park, Sakura-chan?"

At this point, Iruka was just plain pissed. He walked up behind Naruto with the best angry face he could make, while everyone he passed got ready for the show.

Hearing everyone's muffled snickers, Naruto slowly turned his head around. When he spotted the angry Iruka behind him, Naruto's eyes widened and he whimpered.

"Hall. Now." Iruka sternly said.

Naruto walked out of the room like an inmate heading for the chair with Iruka following him. Seconds after the door closed the class could hear screams and loud thumping sounds coming from the other side. At one point a dent even appeared in the door. After a few minutes of this, Iruka came in and continued to teach, while Naruto crawled in with lumps and bruises everywhere.

Once the swelling had gone down, Sakura answered Naruto. "Everything has been great, Naruto. It's been a while, huh, Naruto."

Giving her one of his giant grins, he said "Seriously! You want to go to Ichiraku's after class so we can catch up, Sakura?"

"Yeah, that would be fun." she said smiling back at him.

Sitting right behind them was Ino, who was tearing her hair out trying to figure out who this guy was and how Sakura knew him. Then she put two and two together. "He must be the reason Sakura stopped chasing after Sasuke and started blowing off every insult I threw at her. I guess I should thank him, because of Sakura's lead I saw Sasuke for the jackass he is and stopped chasing him myself. He made me and Sakura friends again. Oh well, time to interfere." she thought with a grin.


After class, Naruto and Sakura were at Ichiraku's ramen shop having dinner and honestly, Sakura was amazed he could eat so much. He was on his fifth bowl and not even close to being full.

"One more, old man!" "Coming up!" At this rate Tsuchi thought he would become a millionaire.

Sakura was thoroughly enjoying herself too, that is, until she heard an all too familiar voice coming to ruin her fun. "Hey Sakura, what are you doing here?"

"Please not now, Ino." she begged in her mind. Unfortunately Ino walked in anyway.

"One beef ramen, please." she ordered as she sat down on the other side of Naruto. "So Sakura, who's your friend here?" she said smirking at Sakura.

Sakura gave Ino a death glare as Naruto replied for himself. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto. What's your name?" Sakura smiled because she hadn't told Naruto that she and Ino were friends again.

"My name's Yamanaka Ino, nice to meet you." As soon as the name Ino came out of her mouth Naruto immediately started glaring at her. She could have sworn his eyes even flashed red for a second!

This lasted for about five minutes before Sakura put her hand on his shoulder. "It's alright Naruto, we're friends now." With that Naruto calmed down.

"So how did you two meet? Are you dating? Why haven't I heard about you until now, Naruto?" Then Ino started firing off a million other questions. While Naruto was trying to answer the questions as quickly as Ino asked them, Sakura had tuned out after Ino asked if they were dating.

Four bowls of ramen, a billion questions, and one empty frog wallet later, they left the ramen stand. Naruto went home on his own while Sakura decided to follow Ino home to give her the longest lecture she's ever given.

The funny thing is, the entire walk home all Ino heard was, "Blah blah blah blah blah and another thing blah blah blah BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!" Eventually Ino woke up though. "INO, ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!?!?!" So finally Ino spoke up.

"Sakura just let it go. All I wanted to do was meet him." "THAT IS NOT ALL YOU WANTED TO DO AND YOU KNOW IT!!!!!" Things continued in that fashion until they got home.


Naruto in the meantime, couldn't be happier. He meet Sakura again, which he always wanted to do again. He had ramen for dinner, which happened a lot, though not with two pretty girls. And he made a new friend, now that was a rare occurrence for him!

He couldn't believe it! This was going to be an incredible school year. He walked home extremely happy, until he walked through the door to find the place wrecked.

"GOD DAMN IT!!! NOT AGAIN!!!"


Well that's it. The first chapter, hopefully with many to come. Special thanks to Shouri no Hana for pointing out some mistakes in the unedited chapter. Remember, rate and review. I could use your comments. Until next time, SEE YA!!!!