Chapter One

Naruto

The 9-tailed fox was attacking the village of Konohagakure. It whipped its tails back-and-forth, staring at the innocent villagers through its beady demon eyes. Evil itself lived in him, the evil that no human could ever hope to destroy. The evil that could only be bound by strong powers and seals. Bindings that would eventually break and free the demon within. The Fourth Hokage had sealed this fox into a young infant, who was the son of one of the greatest warriors in the village, Kinomuro. However, the seal the Hokage had placed had cracks, through which the power of the demon would slip and slither through. This young boy was Naruto. The boy grew up being shunned by those around him, ostracized to the outskirts out the social order.

This story initiates when Naruto is twelve years old.

"I don't understand why they all hate me" mumbled a downtrodden Naruto to himself. "I never did anything, I'm nice, I'm funny, I'm smar-well, I can be smart if I tried. Maybe if I….oh, it's no use, they'll never understand…." Naruto sighed. Suddenyl, his eyebrows narrowed downward, giving him a fierce and almost vulpine visage. "I will become Hokage, and everyone will respect me, and like me, and think I'm the greatest! Yea! That's what I'll do. I'll show them all!" Naruto exclaimed, jamming his tight fists into his pockets. "But until then….I just don't know what I'm going to do. I guess I'll…I'll…"

What's that in the distance? It looks like a cloud of dust; something's coming at me really fast. What could it be?...

The cloud dust stopped moving, settling down several feet away from Naruto. As the dust was settling to the ground, some of it floated towards Naruto.

Sand? In the Green Leaf village?

"Who are you?" asked a deep and sharp voice of Naruto.

"Who are you? And what do you want?"

"I asked you the question first. Answer me before I-"

Before the person had time to complete their sentence, Naruto was running towards him at full spped. His body appeared to be a blurred mass of orange color and texture. The stranger merely stood still, awaiting Naruto's assault.

I'm gonna get him! Who does he think he is, coming into my village and asking me questions? Doesn't he know that I'm gonna be the next hokage!

All of a sudden, the orange mass that was Naruto was running away from the stranger, stracthing at himself, wincing and howling in pain.

I feel as if I'm being pricked by thousands of stingers! It feels like bees are stinging me!

"Hey, what kind of jutsu is that?" exclaimed Naruto. Just as suddenly as the pain began, it withered away, leaving Naruto's skin feeling tingly, but no longer in stabbing pain.

"My scorpion jutsu". A thousand piercing stings. Without the poison, of course. However, I could add poison if I wanted to." The stranger smirked, clearly in love with himself and his abilities.

"Well what do you want? And who are you?"

"I am who I am. And what I want is not your concern."

A swirling cloud of sand began drawing up from the ground. It floated over to Naruto, gentle and graceful as can be. The swirling column slowed down half a foot in front of Naruto, and then stopped. The stranger circled around Naruto, like a vulture eyeing its prey. It walked around several times, stopping right in front of Naruto's face. The stranger honey brown eyes bored deeply into Naturo's jet black ones.

"You have a power within you, a power that must be harnessed and utilized. A power of demonic strength and origin. I am Nepa, of the Sand Village. You are Naruto."

"Hey, how do you know my name! who are you?"

"I told you I am Nepa. Do you have amnesia? I know much more about you that I believe you know even about yourself."

"That makes no sense. How can you know more about me that I know about me? What are you, some sort of psychic?"

More like psychotic. This guy is weird.

"Never mind that, we'll have more time to discuss things later. Keep me in mind, I'll be back for you."

And with that, Nepa disappeared. Only a few grains of sand signaled that the man had ever been in the vicinity. Naruto stared at the sand grains, questioning his sanity. As he watched the ground, thinking, the sand began formulating an image of a scorpion with 9 tails. Before Naruto's eyes had full time to focus, however, the image faded and the sand disappeared, carried off by a wind Naruto could barely feel.

Naruto shook his head, closing his eyes tightly.

Must be something in the ramen.

With that thought echoing repeatedly through his head, Naruto turned around to head back to his room.