Naruto woke up in cold sweat and with raged breath for what felt like the seventh time that night and wondered what it may have been about. He knew he was the Jinchuuriki of the Biju known as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, Kyuubi but what it had been doing inside of him for the past twelve years he had no idea.
Nevertheless he sat up and shook himself from his thought-ridden stupor and put his feet on the cold floor, the floor of his apartment. He had been living in that apartment his entire life, ever since the Hokage had bestowed it unto him. Although he tried to keep it in the best condition possible, it was always hard to achieve since the villagers went out of their way just to make his life a living hell, believing that he was the devil, the demon itself. Ever since the villagers and even some of the ninja of Konoha had figured out that he was the Jinchuuriki of the Fox they had hated him with a passion.
Even though in his state of profound depression he still found the energy to get out of his bed and put some water on to boil, to cook up a cup of his favorite ramen, Miso. He sat down and proceeded to dig in to his favorite ramen cup flavor and realization dawned on him as he remembered, today was his birthday.
He always hated his birthday, as the villagers always took it upon themselves to try and end the pariah's life to ensure that the demon had no chance whatsoever of escaping at any point in time, leaving the blond to constantly run away in fear from the villagers and always stay alert and on his toes, as was the duty of a ninja, Naruto was just pushed into the habit a little bit earlier than everyone else.
The twelve-year-old Demon Container had for twelve years on the same day every year been running from multiple people, civilian and ninja alike. Years of hiding and running constantly had not only led to him not having to train because of his disposition with the people of Konoha, and also for his reflexes to be sharper than any other Genin his age, for sometimes the ninja and civilian populace would take positions and hiding places above rooftops and around corners, his brain had to have the ability to keep up with his eyes and move accordingly to what he saw, years upon years of constantly sharpening his reflexes and eyesight. He was the sharpest tool in the shed physically, but when it came to mental capacity, he was lacking…severely. After spending so long acting on reflex alone his brain needed not to plan or orchestrate any sophisticated movements other than where to go next and how.
Naruto could hear the fireworks outside, he saw the flurry of colors outside his window and he could hear the whistle of the containers of explosives as they flew through the sky as the explosions that came after. Today on his day of birth was also the day that the Kyuubi, the monster that ravaged Konoha had finally been sealed into the young baby, but the populace thought it had just been killed, even though they though that Naruto was the demon. Today was the day that the Kyuubi had disappeared from the face of the earth and never to appear again. But little did the hidden village of Konoha know, the Kyuubi had other plans.
Despite his train of thought, he mulled about his rituals, waking up at 7:00 had been his forte for the duration of the year, as he had nothing better to do than get up go out early in the morning or late at night to train and sharpen his reflexes, so that the other villages and many other ninja would not be awake.
Every day he got up to practice his chakra molding, his control of the spiritual essence, and the more physical aspect of practical applications such as running from an enemy that proved to be too strong. He would often go out and find an animal, the biggest and scariest animal that he could find, so that he could provoke it and make it angry, and then continue to run for his life. Naruto figured that if he couldn't get better by running on his own, then he would need a motivator, an incentive.
His life worked out to be pretty good for this purpose.
Until one day he had picked an opponent too big, too large and too powerful. It was the first day that he actually found himself outmatched against nature. This day was going about its course in the infamous Training Ground 44, or more commonly known as, The Forest of Death. Not knowing the full extent of the creatures that reside within the forest, he blindly entered with a desire to be challenged. What he found was astounding…nothing. He had found nothing for the first half an hour of his venture into the forest. Until he noticed something, something any normal civilian wouldn't have noticed. The slight rustle of twigs and the sound of leaves being crushed in the distance, up high in the trees, and far behind distant trees. The Demon Container knew that this was not what he thought it was, no. It was not a ninja, due to the fact that a ninja would not be clumsy enough to make such a mistake as to give away their position. Which left only one viable option; this was an animal.
He was being hunted.
What he felt at this moment was nothing more than exhilaration as the creature circled him incessantly, waiting for Naruto to make his move, and to strike. But Naruto stayed put, waiting for his captor to finally pounce on him and attempt to take him down. Though while he was thinking and waiting, the animal had made its move, catching Naruto by surprise.
The thing was huge, he didn't even know what it was, where it came from or what is was called. It was huge in size, maybe thirty-five feet long, much longer than he. It had scales as large as his head and its eyes were on the top of its head, those giant yellow eyes that peered at him with such intensity. At the end of the creature's head there were two black holes that were shown to be nostrils, and under them, the creature's mouth. A giant gaping mouth with humungous fangs that curved back towards its mouth. Huge scales lined its entire body along with a eerie hiss-like noise accompanying the beast wherever it went.
The thing was huge, and provided much more of a challenge than he had bargained for. He ran away as soon as he saw the creature pounce and aim for the kill. Although the creature was much faster than Naruto was, the demon contained still felt he had a chance. He jumped over the thing to try and confuse it, but Naruto did not know much about this thing, if anything, and was very naïve in his approach. The animal sailed right under his body, but right after, brought its tail to catch up with it, hitting Naruto right in the head and throwing himself right against a tree. Naruto felt winded, and felt that it was too late. He saw the snake peer at him from its position across the forest floor from him, and slowly moved across to where he was.
Naruto thought that this was the end when he saw the snake coil up, until he had an idea. An idea that forced him to plan, and quickly.
The millisecond before the animal hit him he jumped up to avoid the animal and up into the air, only narrowly missing the creature's gaping mouth. After realizing that Naruto was no longer where he wanted him to be, the thing could do nothing to stop himself from flying through the air as it crashed through the tree in front of it, and behind where Naruto used to be. Naruto was sailing through the air, taking a moment to note that this was the highest he ever jumped in this entire life. He had only just realized that the snake had crashed through the tree when he had landed, and had again, taken a moment to appreciate the mess he had caused.
He was broken from his daydreaming when he heard the hiss of the creature in front of him. Immediately he readied, entering his own battle stance and preparing himself for whatever was to come. He was confident in his ability until he heard multiple hisses from where the thing had flown off into the distance and had turned a shade lighter. He had realized that if he did not possess the ability to kill one, he would surely not have enough ability to kill many. He wondered to himself, "maybe if I can distract one of them with a clone I can sneak around an"-
His thinking was cut short by a loud crash coming from behind him, and his vision blurring until he hit a tree head on. Not having been knocked out just yet, he looked up and turned around, and although extremely blurry and dizzy, could still make out three large fuzzy figures that all looked alike to the one he had outsmarted before. But now there were more of them, and he was in no condition to run or fight whatsoever. Despite having almost no chance of survival, he ran anyway. Stumbling over little twigs and tree roots on the way due to his concussed condition. He ran for his life, he would run until his legs gave out from under him.
He ran, and ran, and ran, until the group of hostiles finally caught up with him and decided to collaboratively end his life.
The three beasts jumped up into the air and descended onto his position when Naruto looked up all he could see was scales and big yellow eyes that promised death. He sat down and closed his eyes waiting for his demise and felt his body give a giant quiver throughout his muscles and his veins. Naruto could feel the power pumping through his body as this moment, but alas, it was only a moment. When he opened his eyes and looked up again the three foes that were no more than a half-second ago above him were on the ground many feet away from him, writhing in pain and screeching so much that it hurt the demon container's ears. He backed away and waited for the loud and intrusive noises to stop. When they did, he walked towards them and inspected the bodies of the creatures he had seemingly killed involuntarily. They seemed to have been burned to a very high degree, and they still looked to be degrading, as if being eaten by whatever his body had done. He looked closer unto the bodies and noticed the faint red glow of something that was still eating the bodies of whatever he had just killed.
Awestruck, he stood up and calmly turned around, only for smoke and the crackling of fire to hit him right in the senses and he looked around in panic only to notice that whatever had burned the creatures had also burned the trees around him, leading to a giant forest fire that was to quickly spread to other parts of the forest. He noticed the danger of the situation and quickly ran out of the fire's radius as fast as he could, running again for his life. There was nothing he could do to stop this fire, he knew not of any water type jutsu, and he didn't know anyone that did, maybe someone at the academy, but probably not. He wasn't even a Chuunin what would they do to help him, nothing probably.
The only thing he could do was run away from this fire and let it to burn itself out. He would calmly run back to town and enter his own room calmly just as if nothing had happened and pretend to know nothing of the fire, or what had happened.
That was exactly what he did. He left training ground 44 and went back towards his apartment. Nobody questioned him, and nobody wondered if he had committed this crime. The officials of the council just put it down to a neighbor-hidden village, or bandits.
What he was interested by was the action of the Fox in the forest, the Biju sealed in him. Why had it released so much chakra? Was it to keep him alive? Naruto had no clue whatsoever but he figured that if it happens more often he wouldn't mind. The Fox had saved his life and he wouldn't bat an eye if it did it again.
He walked back up to his apartment, passing two other genins on the way, Sasuke and Sakura, the only two ninjas his age that he had ever known that had shown him any respect whatsoever. Sakura, the one who was nice to everyone, and Sasuke, the only one his age who knew what it was truly like to have no family and no friends. Sasuke and Naruto had a peculiar relationship. Naruto and Sasuke had never really liked each other, but only trained with each other and talked to each other because of their position in life. They had little in common, but what they did have in common more than made up for whatever they didn't, and that was that they didn't have any family or friends, only each other. They didn't talk to each other when they walk past one another, and they didn't visit each other's houses, they didn't find or see the need in any of those actions.
They trained together and they put up with everyone else together.
It was not so much as friendship, but more like a mutual understanding, that they both needed each other to complete their goals in life, Sasuke wishes to seek revenge on his brother, and Naruto wished for everyone to respect him as the greatest ninja ever to exist.
Naruto walked Sasuke with just a brief nod and nothing to Sakura as her silence indicated exactly her intentions. Not to talk to him. Sakura had always been cautious in Naruto's presence, ever since he told her off for talking too much that one time. Sakura was the type to hold grudges, and also the one to blame her problems on everyone else. What she didn't realize is that the reason Naruto had yelled at her was because she felt the need to incessantly talk about how much her family annoys her, and about how boring staying with the same group of friends can be. Naruto took offence to this and promptly told her to respect what she had and not to take these things for granted. Because Naruto had never grown up with a family or friends, but Sakura didn't know that.
He passed the two and said nothing to either of them. He passed them and continued to his apartment with nothing to say for the blood that stained his clothes, nothing to say for the muddy patches on his outfit and the cuts in his vibrant orange shirt, and the leaves in his hair. It looked as if he had stayed the night outside and didn't bathe.
He fell onto his bed and fell asleep instantly, never feeling more alive.
Ever since the event in the forest, he had felt powerful. Like there was something within him that had been sleeping for twelve years that had finally awaken.
Within seconds of being asleep, he saw nothing of his dream but giant glowing red eyes, radiating evil red chakra. The eyes seemed to close and the room he was in rumbled with deep, demonic laughter.
"hahahahaha, welcome child, to the life of a demon".