Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and the Shounen Jump.
As a Ninja one of the first things you were taught at the ninja academy, was to never let your guard down - while sleeping being no exception. They all knew that letting your guard down at the wrong time could mean death either for one self or a team mate.
Even though he always thought about it while being on missions or in enemy territory, he had never thought about it while being at home sleeping in his own bed. That would explain why he didn't wake up until the window in his bedroom was shattered, making a violent noise.
He instinctly rolled down from his bed while grabbing a kunai from his nightstand. He landed on the ground and shifted into a defensive stance, while his sapphire blue eyes dashed around the room, in the search of enemies.
His senses finally woke up, and he heard the screaming and yelling coming from the streets. He quickly got up from his stance, ran to his now shattered window and looked down onto the streets. He just barely got a glimpse of a mob of about twenty people wielding everything from pitchforks to kitchen knives, before having to dodge a barrage of stones thrown at him.
Being aware of the situation and what he had to do he ran to his closet and pulled out only the most essential things – a sleeping bag, some kunai and shuriken, and a set of clothes. He stuffed it all into a bag and swung it over his shoulder, just in time, as the front door to the apartment block was kicked down. He could hear the footsteps of the large mob run up the stairs to his apartment.
He ran through his bedroom and into the back of his living room where he opened a window that led into the dark alley that was his 'neighbor'. He knew that this was the only way he could escape without having to confront the mob. He put his right foot on the frame of the window and calculate how far he had to jump to land in the pile of garbage two stories below. However, just as he was about to jump, he froze. He had forgotten something, and he knew exactly what it was. Stupid idiot, he thought to himself. Just how could he have forgotten that?
Just as he came out of his bedroom, his front door was slammed down and the crazed mob stormed into his apartment, swinging their weapons over their heads and screaming curses at him, not haven forgotten his training he molded his chakra, focused it into his feet and set off with such incredible speed that people with no basic ninja training would have no chance of keeping up with him.
He ran through the mob, dodging a few sharp objects on the way, and leapt through the window with all the power he could muster. As he was in mid-air he turned his head to take one last look at the mob, but instead his eyes went wide when he saw a pointy knife headed in a straight-line for the middle of his back. As it closed in he could see that there would be no way he would be able to dodge it, and as it was thrown in spot where could reach with neither of his arm he tried to deflect it by throwing back his right shoulder and bringing up a kunai from the holster on his right leg. However, the knife closed in faster than he could reach down, get a grip on the kunai, pull it out of its holster and bring it up to defend himself.
He screamed in pain. He had landed on his right arm and he could feel the sharp knife which had impaled his triceps make contact with the cold and hard ground whilst getting pushed further into his arm, ripping apart his skin, tearing apart his muscles and breaking his bones. He let out another scream, this one sounding more than that of beast than that of a 13-year old, human boy. His left hand which was surrounded by a glowing cloak of dark, red chakra, shot up to where he had been hit and tore out the knife, damaging even more muscle and ripping apart even more skin tissue in the process. The pain was unbearable and he was on the verge of fainting.
From his apartment he could hear the cruel laughter and hurting insults being thrown at him by the angry mob. He felt his prisoner react to the taunting mob and the red chakra began flowing to the wound which was being healed at an inhumanly rapid pace. He felt the pain ease, and he opened his eyes, seeing nothing but a dark, blurry sky. He forced himself up off the ground with his left hand.
He walked down the alley with his bag hanging loose on his back and his right arm hanging down his side, bending in an unnatural way. Looking back he saw his apartment – or what had been his apartment – being destroyed by the villagers whose recognition he had once sought. So far it had proven futile, and the villagers' reaction to his recent battles had done nothing to help him.
Of course there were those who weren't blinded by the past and had begun recognizing him for who he was instead of what he contained - but those people were still few, and as far as he knew those people still wouldn't stand up for him in a fight, even though he'd saved them from destruction just a few months prior.
He kept up a slow pace all the way to the village gates, where he stopped. Standing on the border of the village he knew he had to make a choice. Either he could go to his Sensei's house and ask for shelter until he could find an affordable apartment, possibly on the outskirts of the village where he wouldn't be recognized. Or he could jump over the gate, out of the village, and be declared a traitor, a missing-nin, and an enemy to the village of Konoha and all of its inhabitants – which included his friends and teammates.
He looked up at the sky as a single tear travelled down his face, past the whisker-like scars on his cheeks and down to his chin where it let go and fell to the ground where it was soon joined by a mix of his salty tears and rain drops. ''Even the sky is crying'' he thought to himself, a sad smile crossing his whiskered face. He knew what he had to do.
He turned around to take one last look at the village that was lit up by the fire which illuminated his apartment. He clenched his left hand around the item which he had gone out of his way to save from the crazed mob and looked down at it. It was who he was. This item held within it his heart, his soul and his dreams. He kneeled and laid it down on the ground, carefully – he knew that his decision was final. He shut his eyes and took in a deep breath before turning to face the big green gates of Konoha and uttered his last words as a shinobi of the leaf village. ''So history does repeat itself, huh Sasuke?''. He focused chakra to his feet and he jumped over the wall and into the darkness of the night.
He just missed seeing a giant water dragon slam down on his house, dousing out the flames.
A man with long white hair and a headband with the kanji for 'oil', stood looking at the work of his jutsu, the water dragon being the only technique he knew would put out the fire for good. He felt no emotions but anger at the sight of the burnt down building, how could they have done this to his student? Jumping in a window he looked around the apartment - if you could call the burnt down apartment, with no roof, that – for any signs of the knuckleheaded blonde.
Not paying enough attention as to where he was stepping, the poor man tripped over a fragment of what used to be the roof, and fell head first down on the floor. Quickly jumping right back up, looking franticly around until he was assured no one had seen the embarrassing accident.
''So much for always telling the brat to watch and be aware of his surroundings''He thought as he dusted himself off ''If he had seen that I would have to listen to his rants as to how I didn't even follow my own advice''. Looking around the Sannins eyes fell on what appeared to be a damaged picture frame lying under one of the uprights that had once held up the roof of the apartment. He lifted the upright off the frame and threw it to the side. Picking up the frame he used his sleeve to sweep off the thick layer of dust and debris on the picture. As it was revealed he could see that the picture was in pretty bad shape, even though, he could still see what it was supposed to be and he was shocked to see that his student had left it behind. It was a picture of ''Team Seven''.
To the left, looking stoic as ever, stood Sasuke Uchiha, the last surviver of the Uchiha massacre and his students' closest friend. It was just two month ago that the Uchiha had decided to desert Konoha and his team, to go study under Orochimaru, his former teammate and friend. Orochimaru had just like Sasuke led quite a hard life before joining the shinobi ranks of Konoha and in his search for who he was had tortured and tested jutsus and chemicals on his subordinates and comrades.
In the middle of the picture, wearing a black facemask that covered the bottom half of his face and his headband strapped over his left eye stood the team's sensei Kakashi. Kakashi was a very gifted ninja and athlete and the fact that he had received the Sharingan in a gift from his late teammate made the jounin all the more frightening to face in battle. It was the Sharingan that had helped him obtain the nickname of ''The Copy-Ninja'' after, allegedly, having mastered over a thousand different jutsu. Team Seven was Kakashi's first genin team and, while having made a few minor and some greater mistakes every now and then, he had managed to bring all three of the young shinobi up to be respectable and fairly powerful for their age.
Also in the middle of the picture, standing to Sasuke's left and to his students' right was the pink-haired and ill-tempered Sakura Haruno, who was sporting a large smile and an equally large forehead. Sakura was much like Tsunade, his female teammate who also just happened to be the Hokage of Konoha, very intelligent with above average chakra control. However, unlike both of her male teammates, she hadn't made it to the finals of the chuunin exam and as a result her training had been somewhat neglected resulting in her falling behind both of her teammates by quite a large margin. His student had always had somewhat of a crush on the pink-haired kunoichi but she had always, which didn't surprise the sannin even slightest, had an eye on the Uchiha.
Lastly in the right side of the picture stood what he assumed to be his apprentice. Assumed was the right word, as the fire had damaged the picture in the spot where he was supposed to be standing. Not even his students' trademark of spiky, blonde hair and an awful looking, attention demanding, orange jumpsuit could be seen. In the small time he had known him the boy had sought to be the center of attention. He would always make less seem like more and he always sought the opportunity to rant about how he one day was going to become Hokage. His self-confident demeanor did rub off on some people, and he had already proved that he could back up all his big talk with his fighting which was impressive, to say the least, cause the kid really did talk highly of his himself and his future. A small smile crept up on the face of the sannin as he laughed inwardly at the kids antics. Stupid kid, he thought to himself.
Slowly looking up the white haired hermit once more took in the scene of destruction that was presented before him, mentally debating with himself whether or not to go through with his idea of taking the blonde on a training trip. The only one talking against it would be Tsunade. She couldn't argue that it wasn't safe to take him away from the village, even with Akatsukis interest in the boy. The blonde had just been attacked in his own apartment, in her village and right under her nose after all. Neither could she argue that the kid wasn't mature enough for a training trip this long. They both knew of the conditions he had lived under while growing up, and they had both heard of all the traumatizing events that had taken place in the kids' childhood. Questioning his maturity was out of the question.
He knew that taking the boy away from the village for a few years would be good for both the kid and the people of the village and there could be no way that she could argue against that.
It's settled then; he thought to himself and sat off to the Hokage tower. He knew that he was going to receive a beating for waking her up in the middle of the night, but considering that her favorite genin had just been attacked he was pretty sure that he should be able to survive without too many broken rips.
Sporting a big grin Jiraiya landed on the top of the Hokage building and jumped in through the window heading straight for the Hokages bedroom.