Author's Notes: Hey everyone! This is my first fanfic, so please don't hate on me too much if I make mistakes. If you see something that is wrong, just drop a review or pm me and I'll try to fix it as quickly as I can. Thanks and enjoy the story!
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"You'll never catch me you bastards!" screamed the ten-year old as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him in his escape from the angry men chasing after him because of his latest prank.
"Get back here you brat!" The older men were a couple blocks behind the blond child, being unable to keep up with the young kid as he weaved around the other people walking down the street.
"All I did was set off a couple of stink bombs," Uzumaki Naruto yelled behind him as he continued to outrun his pursuers. "I was just doing you a favor since you smelled so bad you old geezers!"
Seeing the gate at the entrance of the village coming up, Naruto figured he could lose the guys following him by hiding out in the forest until they gave up and head home afterwards. "Later, loser," screamed the academy student as he sprinted out the gate and into the trees.
The Chunin guarding the gate were too surprised by what was going on to react in time to prevent Naruto from leaving the village and could only watch as he disappeared from sight with the mob of men smelling like they bathed in dog crap following after him.
"Well, you don't see that every day," Izumo said as Kotetsu just scratched his head trying to understand what just happened.
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From his vantage point on top of a branch near the top of one of the many trees in the forest that surrounds Konohagakure no Sato, Naruto waited until he could no longer hear the voices of the men that chased him out of the village. "Finally," Naruto said to himself and he dangled his legs of the branch, slowly kicking them back and forth as a small way of amusing himself while he waited for his pursuers to give up and go home.
Looking up at the sky, Naruto noticed that the sun had disappeared, and the moon had risen to take its place, surrounded by the myriad of stars only visible after the sun sank past the horizon and allowed the stars to come out for anyone looking upwards to see. 'I must have been out here longer than I thought if it's already dark,' Naruto thought as he felt the cool nighttime air make him shiver as the loss of heat the sun provided during the day made itself known.
Deciding that it was about time to head back to the village and hopefully make it to Ichiraku Ramen before old man Teuchi closed up shop. Right before Naruto could take off to feed his ramen addiction, he heard a soft howl coming from nearby. In the battle of what to do next, curiosity won over hunger, and Naruto started to tree hop in the direction of the sound.
Coming to a stop next to a large clearing, Naruto looked down to see the source of the howls he heard earlier. A group of six wolves were meeting in the clearing, with the howl from earlier just a signal to bring the pack together. As the wolves started to trot out of the away from the tree Naruto was hiding in, he decided to follow the pack, figuring that he could just get a couple bowls of ramen tomorrow to make up for missing it today.
Following the wolves from a safe distance in the trees in order to avoid detection, Naruto watched as the pack continued on in a seemingly random direction until the lead wolf stopped and turned its head towards its right, sniffing the air as if searching for something. Naruto started to panic, thinking that he had been noticed. Just as Naruto was about to leave for the village, the wolf took off in a different direction than where Naruto was hiding, making Naruto calm down as he followed along with the rest of the pack.
After running for a few minutes, the lead wolf slowed down and started to sniff around more. The rest of the pack caught up with it and watched as the wolf stopped sniffing and inched its way towards an inconspicuous hole in the ground. As the wolf got closer to the hole, Naruto could hear the entire pack quietly growling at the hole just as two rabbits darted out of their home and raced away from the predators.
The pack of wolves gave chase to the pair of rabbits as they desperately tried to escape the painful fate that would come if they were caught by the hungry wolves. Naruto watched the wolves dipping in and out of the foliage, slowly starting to surround the rabbits as the pack spread out encircle their frightened white-tailed prey. Noticing they were surrounded, the two rabbits stopped and hid behind a tree, hoping that the wolves would leave. The wolves only moved closer, however, and slowly crept towards the rabbits.
Just as the first wolf crouched, ready to launch itself at the rodents, a loud roar came from a nearby cave. Standing on his back haunches stood a large bear, over three times Naruto's size. While the wolves came together to rally against the new threat, Naruto saw the rabbits quickly flee to safety, eager to escape from the impeding brawl. Hearing the group of wolves start to snarl at the bear, Naruto snapped his head back towards the fight about to break out, just in time to witness the midnight black bear charge at the pack of wolves, ready to defend its territory from the invaders.
Knowing that attacking the bear head on would lead to the bear's victory, even though the pack had the advantage in numbers, the wolves quickly spread out, forming a wide circle around the massive beast. The bear, refusing to back down even though it was completely surrounded, turned towards the closest wolf and swung its giant paw at the smaller animal, attempting to score a hit with its sharp claws.
While lacking the strength to compete with the massive bear, the wolf readily made up for the deficiency with its speed, dodging the sharp claws and quickly retreating away from the bear. With the bear going after their pack mate, the other wolves dove at the bear's backside, digging their razor-sharp teeth into the fur covered back of the territorial bear. Roaring in pain, the beast shook the wolves off its back and turned around to attack the animals that caused it so much trouble, but before the bear could go after the other wolves, the bear's original target charged up to the exposed rear of the bear and clamped its jaws around the hind leg of the beast, preventing it from going after its pack. Falling forward, the bear could do nothing to stop the wolves from tearing into its flesh, until the bear eventually died from its wounds. Noticing the enemy was finally dead, the wolves all howled their victory to the heavens, proud of their achievement.
Naruto, seeing how the wolves overcame such a vicious opponent, screamed "Yeah!" while throwing a punch into the air before quickly covering his mouth and looked back towards the fallen bear to see if the wolves heard his outburst. After making sure they didn't notice him, Naruto relaxed onto the branch he was on. "That was amazing!" Naruto whispered energetically to himself. "Even though that thing was gigantic, those wolves still took it down, looking completely badass while doing it too."
While thinking about the jaw-dropping fight, Naruto couldn't help but be a little jealous, wishing he could look as awesome as the wolves did. Imaging a similar scene, though instead of the wolves and the bear, it would be himself and some bad guy which he heroically stopped from completing his evil plan, leading to Sakura swooning over how badass he was. With that thought in mind, Naruto started to backtrack towards the village with a smile on his face, picturing the kiss that Sakura would give him for his imagined deeds.
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AN: As you probably noticed, this chapter is just the setup for why Naruto's actions will be different from canon. I tried to make it believable with how canon Naruto acts in his early years, while also providing the motivation for Naruto to change the way behaves. Next chapter will show the effects this will have on Naruto. See ya soon!
Occupare Tenebris