Author's Note: Yeah, I'm back. This idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to put it down on paper. Hopefully you enjoy. Also, keep in mind, like ADL this story is not what it seems. In addition, it starts from the beginning like ADL did. Anyways, let's begin.

Legend

Arc 1: Dreams

Chapter One: A New Dawn

Naruto clenched his teeth as he sat in the front of the classroom, textbook open on his desk. In the tome, should have been words, but instead were a mess of symbols that moved, shifted, and convulsed.

Some of them even decided to float off the page and wave at him.

Naruto groaned as he looked up and froze, eyes widening. "Not again," he whispered.

Standing in front of Naruto was a fairly tall, fair-skinned man. He had blond hair with jaw-length bangs that framed the sides of his face. However, Naruto was focused on his bright blue eyes that twinkled with sickening fake joy.

"Son, read to me line fourteen on page seven," he spoke, leaning on the desk behind him.

Naruto opened his mouth, cautiously, and slowly preening through the text.

"I...I..."

"Can't read?" the man asked.

Naruto looked down in embarrassment, not answering.

"How sad," the man said. "The only person in your class who can't read. I'm kind of glad I'm dead so I don't have to deal with you."

Naruto started trembling, clenching his fists. "This is just a dream," he whispered.

"Sorry, a dream?" the man said. "The son of the Fourth Hokage can't even read!" He shook his head in disappointment. "Just think how disgusting that is. Everyday, I would be burdened by a no-good kid who would never amount to anything." He sneered, and Naruto flinched. "But you know what, you might not be able to compete with kids mentally, but what about physically, eh?" he said with a laugh. "Come on, just show off that impressive chakra you got from Kushina."

Naruto didn't look up. Tears began to fall from his eyes.

"Come on. Just channel some chakra," the man chided.

Naruto didn't move.

"Oh, wait," the man said with another sneer. "You can't! You can't even use chakra." He held out his arms, welcoming a retort. "You're the only one in the academy who can't." The man walked up to Naruto's desk, glowering at the boy's head. "And not one of them is my son. Not one of them is the heir of the yellow flash."

Naruto didn't look at him.

In response, he slapped the boy, knocking him off the chair. Naruto landed sprawling on the floor, cheek tingling as he glared at his father.

Minato glared down at him. "What are you going to do?"

He got up and ran towards the window. With a grunt, he jumped, smashing through it, wincing as shards of glass dug into his skin.

"That's right!" the fourth yelled. "Run! Run away from the truth!"

"Shut up!" Naruto brushed past him, running down the endless school yard.

"You can never run away." Minato stood ten feet before him once more.

"Shut up!" Naruto turned left, putting more and more energy into his legs.

"You can never escape this village."

He tried pushing more, but he hit a barrier. He could never outrun his fate.

"You will always be an accident, a Jinchuuriki forced to bear the pain of the people around you."

Naruto didn't respond, turning again and running with all his might. Tears streamed down his eyes, born from the pain that stemmed from the core of his soul.

"You have no parents, no friends. You starve for attention, burdening those in the village."

Naruto sobbed, breath wearing on his chest. "Shut up."

"You were never meant to be born."

Naruto grit his teeth, pushing against his limits, legs straining.

"Everyone hates you."

Naruto tripped, body grinding on the dirt.

"I hate you," Minato said, suddenly standing above his son with that patent glare of his.

"I don't care," Naruto growled, hands balling and gripping the dirt underneath.

"Of course you do, you naïve little fool."

"No," Naruto roared. "I'm not doing this anymore!" He felt a strange voice, toneless call to him. "I'm my own person. I never listened, and I never will." The voice grew in intensity, breathing a newborn strength into his limbs. "I am Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto stood up, eyes glowing, body shaking with an uncontrollable power, one that threatened to explode him from the inside out. "And I," Naruto said, body vibrating like a bell, "will find my OWN way!"

Naruto took a step, and the earth shook and the winds cleaved. Colors melted and his vision became a blur as he moved with hurried grace and unbeatable power.

Minato appeared before him, opening his mouth. "You are—"

Naruto crashed through Minato, blasting through him in a burst of power. Minato broke, vaporizing into yellow dust. Naruto kept on running, speeding faster than a bullet train.

"You're right..." Naruto spoke, finding a new confidence within him as he rushed through the endless yard. "I can't away run from the truth.." The yard, began to stretch before him, twisting, convulsing like a thin rug pulled to the brink, ready to tear. "But I can..." A light shined before him, eons away. "I. CAN!" He roared tears vanishing in the wind. "Run towards..." The light approached warming him in its soft embrace. "My destiny."

The yard was eviscerated in a ray of brilliance and all Naruto saw was white.

His eyes snapped open to rays of dawn. The lights streamed through the windowsill to the right of his bed, shining on his face.

For a moment, Naruto exhaled before saying, "The hell was that?" He blinked as he looked at his hands, trying to feel his chakra.

He closed his eyes, feeling the well of power beneath his skin, and, with a heaving breath, pulled. Nothing. Naruto gave a sigh.

"Damn, still a dream." For a while, Naruto stared at the ceiling, settling into a sense of longing and desire that intwined his heart. "If only I could use chakra." He gave a dull smile. "I would be the most badass person this side of fire country." He grinned as images of grandeur swirled in his head. "I would have graduated two years ago, made some nice friends, and maybe..." His smiled drooped.

The image of his father sneering at his inability became engrained into his mind. "Just maybe become somebody worth dying for." He laughed. "Then maybe they would write my name in the history books!" He held out his hand, as if going over the name. "Naruto Uzumaki, man of the hour." He chuckled as he rose from his bed. "The man who would not relent." He began to imagine, dreaming of his soon-to-be accomplishment. "Graduated from the academy at age ten, Chunin at age twelve, Jonin at age fourteen." He fell back onto his bed, gazing at the clean, porcelain roof. "And age sixteen, I would be in the bingo book. They would call me..." He paused, looking for a name, before holding his hands out for emphasis. "The Orange Flash." He grinned. "Then..." His grin grew threatening to split his face. "In the caption, underneath my picture, it would say "beware, beware, the blonde hair'." He laughed. "Nah, that'd be too cheesy. I need something awesome, something spectacular...something... awesometacular." He pumped his fist in the air, thinking of something equivalent to his greatness. However, before he could finish his thought, his rudely awakened (and quite peeved) friend interrupted.

"Naruto shut the hell up!"

"Damn it, Kurama! I'm just having fun!"

"No, you're brooding." The great-being within the seal deadpanned.

In response, Naruto sarcastically gasped. "I am not!"

"Really?"

"Really." Naruto affirmed.

"Really, really?"

"Really, really."

"Really, really, really?"

"Okay, now you're just being annoying."

"Which brings me to my real point. You see that irritation you have? The feeling of burning longing to shove a brick down my throat? That's a mere modicum of my malice at being woken up by your incessant bitching!"

"Fine, you're angry. Wouldn't it be easier to just say that?"

"No, nitwit. Because only an insane person would spend inordinate amounts of time dreaming about things that'll never happen. Seriously, you're pathetic! You do whatever you can to make yourself feel special! You have to stand out, and you do it in the most infuriatingly insipid way possible!"

Naruto rolled his eyes at Kurama's words. "Well you're having an alliteration adoration today."

"...That's not funny."

"I must maliciously dubiously disregard your yammering."

"Okay... now that was just plain stupid, but point taken. Waste of time. However, you always try to make a spectacle of yourself."

"Well, now you're just being a giant pineapple."

A pregnant pause.

"...I do not know how to respond to that."

Naruto laughed. "Exactly."

"Okay, you're doing that thing where you're diverging from the main point."

The blonde blinked. "Whatever do you mean?"

"God! Stop being so-" Kurama paused and let out a few deep breaths.

Naruto was giggling in response.

"Okay... remember the classroom incident?"

The blonde's eyes twinkled with reverence and glee, going back to his first days at the academy.

He sat in his chair, bored. His blue eyes stared off into space while he twiddled his thumbs over a worn textbook. As always, Iruka was lecturing, probably over some elementary physics, which made him hate everything. So, to make sure he didn't go crazy, he would always drift off.

At least, that's what he tells himself. He just hated science. Well, that wasn't true. He loved the ideas, the images of grandeur, the ways it tried to rationalize things were created. He had actually tried to pick up a book on string theory. Tried.

But God, he didn't need to know how to calculate the distance a ball would travel, at...

Wait, what was he thinking about again?

"Naruto!" Iruka called out.

The blonde stood straight up. "Huh?"

"What are you doing?" the older man asked. His hands were on his hips and his foot tapped, falling into beat that counted down Naruto's life.

The boy simply stared back for a second. This was going to be the same thing. Iruka was going to tell him to start focusing, that he would never amount to anything, and anything Naruto said in retort wouldn't matter.

However, today was different. Instead of defending himself, the boy would agree with Iruka, but not in the way that he would expect. Yes, definitely not expect.

"Urm... what am I doing?"

"Yes, what are you doing? Not even that, what do you do every single day in here. You never pay attention."

"Err..." Naruto paused for a second before sighing and saying, "Masturbating."

Silence.

The class stared at him.

"W-what?" Iruka stared as Naruto stared.

"Yes! I masturbated here!" Then he pointed to where a random girl was sitting. "I masturbated there!"

She fainted.

"I masturbated everywhere!"

Iruka just stared, jaw opening and closing like some dying fish.

The blonde just yelled the last word to the heavens once, more clenching his fists in frustrations. "Everywhere!

Naruto didn't know if the teacher knew if he was serious or not. However, the kids didn't know any better, and such...

"IT'S EVERYWHERE!"

"OH MY GOD!"

"THE GERMS ARE IN MY EYES! MAH EYES!"

The memory lingered within the boy's mind, causing him to close his eyes and snicker. "Oh come on. That was hilarious!"

Kurama groaned. "God, I wish I could eat you."

"You have."

"That was in your nightmares, that doesn't count."

"And you wonder why I brood? Don't I deserve that right?"

"Only if it works. On you, it doesn't."

Naruto's eye twitched. "I hate you."

"And I hate this cage, but it ain't going anywhere soon."

"Is that a threat?"

"No, dumbass! It's a fact! You think I like being here?"

Naruto snorted. "I know you don't not like being inside me."

Now it was Kurama's eye that twitched. "And why is that?"

"Because you're a lonely demented fox with no friends. I'm the best thing that's happened to you since you learned to use chakra."

Kurama snorted. "Really, I don't consider a short, retarded, narcissistic blonde exactly welcoming."

"Not like you're anything great. You couldn't stand another one of you."

"Which is why there's only one of me."

Naruto groaned. "Dammit Kurama! You know what?"

"What?"

"I bet you're family tree is a cactus. Everyone's a prick." Naruto smirked, satisfied that he had taken the opportunity to deliver the first blow.

"Insults, huh? Well, you're so poor when someone saw you kicking a can across the street and asked you what you were doing you said 'moving'."

"That was ONE TIME! Besides, roses are red violets are blue, god made me pretty, what the hell happened to you?"

"Che, the only way you'll ever get laid is if you crawl up a chicken's ass and wait," Kurama hissed.

"Really? Well, you have enough fat on your ass to make another human," Naruto said.

"Well, I looked up a hobo in the dictionary. The definition was you."

"You can't even read!"

"You can't even read!"

Silence.

"Dammit," Naruto cursed. "You're such an asshole."

"Oh, come on. I thought you had thicker skin than that. Seriously, no parents, hated by the village, only ninja to fail the academy twice, not counting today. You should be used to losing out."

Naruto just sighed. "For your information, I can read. I just do it slower than the rest."

"Yeah, but does any Hokage have trouble with reading? Does any Hokage lack the ability to mold chakra?"

"Screw you, Kurama. I said that one time. Why won't you let it go?"

"Because... you're still trying to be a ninja."

"Not just any ninja. The best ninja."

Kurama sighed. "Damn it Naruto, give up. If it didn't happen the second time, it's never going to happen."

"Right, I'm going to listen to the giant, sociopathic freak. Let's see how that works out!" he remarked, bitter sarcasm dripping from his voice.

The great beast decided that he really didn't have to deal with a teenage ball of puberty and self-loathing. "You know what? I give up. I'm going to sleep."

"Yeah, sleep twenty three hours of the day. That's all you're good for."

"Shut up and go to school. You're going to be late." Naruto blinked and looked at the alarm on his drawer.

"Crap!" He groaned, shooting up from bed. "Crap, crap, crap, crap, craaaaaaaaap!" Naruto sprinted to his closet like a jackrabbit after drinking a six-pack of energy drinks.

A dark chasm, one fill with hatred, pain and sorrow-emotions that reflected the worst of humanity-contained a cage. It stretched farther than the eye could see, holding a being older than the elemental nations themselves.

"Foolish boy..." Two massive crimson orbs materialized behind the cage, glowing with power, yet filled with despair. "You think you're so alone..." Suddenly, a goldish emerald orb of light shined, revealing the gargantuan form of the crimson-nine tailed fox and his glowing eyes. It's body hunched over the orb, red energy seeping from the beast's body and containing it. "But I have always been there for you..." The ball of light convulsed, waves of energy spilling out against Kurama's own crimson chakra. "I will always be there for you." The beast groaned, hunching over the light as it died down and darkness engulfed the area once more. "I will always love you."

Naruto grinned, checking himself out in the mirror with his orange gear. "Hell yeah." He walked over to his door. "Exam time!" He opened the door, stepping out to the warm day and screaming to the heavens.

"Look out world! Naruto Uzumaki WILL be a Genin today! Believe it!"

He smiled, nothing would stop him, not even the voices that disagreed with him.

"Shut up!" A woman yelled on the street.

"Nobody loves you!" An old man yelled downstairs.

"Go suck on a cactus!" He didn't know where that was from.

"Everything's already looking good." He smiled, and walked downstairs.

I'll be honest, this is a rewrite of A Different Legend in a way. Everything will be more streamlined, and the characterization will be changed. Speaking of which, Naruto's core character has changed. He's still damaged, but in a less annoying way (I feel at least) and with a crazyass backstory. However, unlike before he isn't some super genius, although he will have some moments of brilliance (like in the manga). Also, he will have some awesome abilities.

Anyways, until next time.

Storm