Hello and welcome to my first fanfic

comments and constructive criticism welcome

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any part of the world created by Masashi Kishimoto

Thump . . .

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Naruto's heart beat quickly against the inside of his chest as he yet again ran for his life. The blond boy was 12 now and was close to becoming a shinobi of the village, but not if the mob chasing after him had anything to do with it. They had been hunting him for a good five minutes now and even though the crowd had no training they were easily able to keep all eyes on the orange-clad boy.

'Oh God, not again, don't they know I'm not a monster but the boy who keeps them safe?!'

Flashback

Naruto had learned the truth about the defeat of the Kyuubi no Kitsune (Nine-tailed Fox) from a text scroll based upon the disasters of the known world. After years of name-calling and beatings, Naruto had had enough and wanted to know why he had no family, why he had to withstand the pain of beatings and why there was no-one who he could call his friend.

Naruto had gone to the library to try and find some answers. He had forced himself to be quiet as he read a scroll in the corner of the room next to some shelves. The scroll told about how the Bijuu were the protectors of the world and the many nations. Naruto had been confused at first but read on to find out that the Bijuu were not normally violent and that if they were to attack a human it was usually in defence. After learning about this, Naruto found yet another scroll about how many Bijuu had been used by humans in wars and how people had come to obtain them.

The truth, which he learnt, was that a Bijuu could not be killed, but had to be sealed into day-old children in order to be defeated. Naruto, on that day, had found out the truth about how the Fourth Hokage had stopped the Nine-tailed Fox. The day the Kyuubi was defeated was also Naruto's birthday and, with this in mind, Naruto had come to a single conclusion that the Fox's spirit had been sealed inside him. With this, Naruto learnt why he was alone, to everyone he was a memory of a dark and bloody time and they thought that he was, in fact, the Kyuubi.

Flashback ends

The truth was that Naruto had been influenced by the Kyuubi without knowing it. His favourite colour was orange, which he had made sure was on every item of clothing he owned. Also his face sported three pairs of whisker marks, running halfway down each side of his face.

Naruto jumped over a dustbin that stood in his way, and ran forward with fear in his eyes, turning corners quickly and leading the pack behind him through a maze utilizing the side-streets of Konoha. Against the shadow of a setting sun, Naruto's spiky yellow hair stood out on the walls of dark alleys and his deep blue eyes shone outward alerting them to his whereabouts.

Naruto continuously tried to outrun the village mob behind him, using all the tricks he knew, but they would not budge and with the addition of a few ninja in the group, any hiding spot or technique was easily discovered. Scrambling on all fours around a corner, Naruto looked over his shoulder to see if they were still following him. He ran straight into a wall and let out a cry of shock and pain. Silently cursing his own recklessness, Naruto fell and was greeted by his head hitting the ground and his vision becoming blurred. He blinked at the pavement until he was no longer dizzy and then remembered what was happening.

When Naruto looked up again, the villagers had found him sprawled across the floor. They stood over him in a semicircle, each one showing a set of eyes that laughed with malicious intent. Naruto sat there in fear. Knowing what was expected from previous beatings, he quickly formed a protective ball and closed his eyes waiting for the pain he knew would likely follow.

After a few seconds Naruto opened his eyes to a sight not many would believe. The mob had walked backwards allowing him room to breath. Naruto uncurled and slowly got up to see why they had not performed their sick ritual. Naruto stopped, his ocean-blue eyes locked on a man who had shown up from nowhere. The stranger in question was definitely not from Konoha. As far as Naruto could see, he wore a dark blue cape which seemed to be trapped by the silver flames that were stitched in a circle around the lowest section and sleeves. Even in twilight they looked as if they were flickering with meaning and power. A small gasp escaped him. The man who stood in front of him looked almost identical to the Fourth Hokage.

The villagers were frozen. He had shocked everyone with his presence and the power his gaze had. The man had appeared as a flash of yellow, scaring the civilians of the Hidden Leaf village. He opened his eyes, revealing bright blue irises shaped like shuriken and released a massive amount of killing intent at the villagers. Most villagers ran at the sight of his appearance, others ran as soon as they saw the frost-fire eyes. Naruto watched as each villager struggled to get out of the cramped alley, they pushed and scrambled over the legs and bodies of those pushed to the ground during the stampede.

Only a few of the fifty or so stayed. All of those who did were ninja, and they were all at the rank of Chuunin. The stranger decided then that he would not be as patient with the ninja as he had been with the villagers. Naruto's eyes trailed the man as he kicked up a dust storm with a single leg movement and he rocketed into the group of six ninja. Shouts of pain and curses were the only things to be heard by Naruto before they all died down and then there was only silence. When the dust cleared Naruto saw all of the Leaf ninja on the floor clutching various injured body parts and the stranger stood in the middle scowling at the Chuunin.

The man turned to face Naruto in a fluent movement. He gave Naruto a smile to show he was a friend, then started to slowly walk towards him.

Naruto stepped backwards before the words, "I'm not here to hurt you." entered his ears.

Then, one of the downed Chuunin whipped out a kunai with an attached explosive tag and threw it at the pair. Naruto ducked and the man threw himself over Naruto as a loud bang was heard around the Hidden Leaf. The man opened his eyes to see that Naruto had passed out on the ground. The stranger picked him up in his arms and marched off to the Hokage's Residence, his face full of fury.

When Naruto woke up, all he saw was light. He blinked a few times trying to get his vision to clear. After ten seconds or so, everything came back into focus. Naruto realised by the comfort of the warm couch that he was no longer out on the street. With his vision back, Naruto looked clearly for the first time since he had awoke. He was lying face-up, his eyes facing the ceiling of a round room. The light source which had disrupted his vision was a long, rectangular diffuser held up by long rubber wires with chains wrapped around them. Naruto turned his head slightly and noticed that it was still twilight outside. With this new information he realised that he must have been out for only a few minutes. He looked around the room remembering that he had stood in it many times; he was in the Hokage's office.

Naruto could hear talking but to him it sounded like a muffled animal. He wished that his head would stop exploding so he could listen to what was being said. He looked over to the desk near the windows of the curved room. The stranger who had rescued him now sat in a chair on the side of the desk closest to the door and was in a conversation with the Third Hokage. After lifting himself to an upright position and massaging his temples, Naruto was able to hear a little of what the two adults were discussing.

"I don't see how that has anything to do with how he is being treated! It's a disgrace to my uncle's memory and to Naruto himself!"

"I know this," replied Sarutobi "but I cannot just tell them that Naruto is not what he is, everyone who is able to know, knows. I am sorry that he has this burden, that you both do, but my hands are tied by the Council. If I were to give any special treatment to Naruto they would call for his blood and say that I am under the influence of a …. " He cut short when he realised Naruto was awake and listening in on the conversation. After a single cough the Hokage finished his sentence, " . . . of a certain animal."

Naruto stared at the stranger who was in all regards arguing with the Hokage over something to do with him. The man then turned to look at Naruto and smiled again, showing warmth.

"So, you're finally awake, Naruto." The man seemed to know him but Naruto had not met him before. The man continued. "Oh yes, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Zorn, and as you can probably tell just from the looks, I'm a relation to Konoha's Fourth Hokage."

Naruto stopped dead, he didn't think that there was anyone who was a relation of the Fourth, for all the world thought the Namikaze clan had died out with the Fourth.

"So your name is Zorn Namikaze?" Naruto asked with his head slightly tilted to the left.

"Yes. It is pleasing that you have a knowledge of my family. That should make things a little easier. Oh, and just so you know, I will be helping you learn the ways of our clan."

"NANI? What do you mean . . our clan?"

"What I mean is that as the last two Namikazes in the world, we have to help each other." Zorn gave another grin which would challenge Naruto's any day.

"But I'm an Uzumaki!" Naruto looked at Zorn for a second with a confused look on his face, then both Naruto and Zorn turned to the Third who by now had his face in his hands.

Zorn let out a heavy sigh which was leaking anger. "Sarutobi! Why the hell haven't you told my cousin about our family? Didn't the boy ask about his father?"

Naruto spaced out. In a few minutes, his world had been turned upside down.

'This man is my cousin? I don't believe it! Well, he knew my name when I didn't know him and he seems to know the old man well enough.' Naruto focused his train of thought. 'I'm a Namikaze? Wait, NANI? The Fourth is my father? Oh Kami, thank you for allowing me to find out that I have family.'

Naruto had realised that the two adults, his cousin and old man Sarutobi had still been arguing over the information which the Third had kept from Naruto. He tuned back in to hear the last part of the ranting.

"His father had many enemies, I'm sure you can understand that. If they knew Naruto was related to him they would have killed him to get back at his father. Besides, Naruto had no-one to help him apart from me as he grew up and the village hated him because of the Fox!" Sarutobi slowly went wide-eyed as he realised that he had let out the secret about Naruto and why he was hated. Slowly, he turned to Naruto to see that he wasn't curious or even angry about this.

Zorn noticed this as well and asked, "I take it you figured out that you are the Jinchūriki of the Nine- tailed Fox?"

Naruto nodded his head in reply. "I hated being called names, such as monster or demon, without knowing why. So I went to the library. I read a lot on the Nine-tailed Fox and the other Bijuu and now I understand why I am hated."

"You are not hated Naruto, the Fox's spirit is, yet those idiots down there cannot understand the simple reasoning that you are you and the Fox is the Fox." Zorn told his cousin, "Never believe that you are anything more than your self, Naruto Namikaze."

Naruto let the words of his newly-found family sink in as tears came forth.

"Thank you. I. . . I guess I needed to hear that from somebody."

Zorn looked upon his cousin with a sad smile.

"Come on Naruto, lets get you home so you are ready for the exam tomorrow." Zorn started to walk towards the door. "I will meet you tomorrow morning Sarutobi-sama. Until then."

Naruto looked over to the old man and smiled at him. "Don't worry ojiisan, I don't hate you for not telling me. I'm just glad that I have a family now and the knowledge that I'm actually a Namikaze. Although I still cannot get my head round the fact that I'm the Fourth's son!"

Naruto started walking to the door to accompany Zorn when the Third stopped him.

"Wait Naruto, we didn't mention that you father was the Fourth."

"Well, it's simple how I know." Naruto stopped for a big breath "Zorn said that his uncle had decreed that I be regarded as a hero, and the only people around the time of me becoming a Jinchūriki to actually know that I was one, as a fact, are you and the Forth. Using logic, it makes sense that the Forth was the one who sealed me and asked, as his dying wish, that I be seen as a hero. He actually cared about me. Zorn also stated we were cousins, and with that knowledge, the Fourth was my dad."

The Hokage was surprised to say the least. The small boy who had been regarded as an idiot and dead last at the academy was able to understand a complex situation like that and figure out who his father was.

"I told you he wasn't dense, Hokage-sama," Zorn said in pride as he left the room and started walking outside.

"Well done Naruto. I see now that I should have told you sooner." He took a puff of his pipe. "But please do understand that it was for your protection against your father's enemies."

"I do understand old man." Naruto grinned and gave the Third a hug. Just then, he heard Zorn's voice from outside the Hokage residence.

"Hey Naruto, are you coming? I have to show you a ninja technique before the academy starts tomorrow!"

"Awesome! I'm coming now, oniisan!" Naruto ran out of the room leaving behind a tired, smiling Hokage.