"-Haah...Haa...-"
A small scrawny boy dressed in torn black clothing panted heavily as he rounded a corner of a street, the moon shining brightly overhead. There were whisker-like marks on each cheek and despite his evident young age, his spiky blond hair was flecked with white. Spotting an alley to his right, at an angle hidden at first glance, he dashed into it, pressing himself against the wall. A few seconds pass and he sees an mob of angry villagers rush past his vantage point, brandishing weapons and torches, shouting as they ran.
"He went this way! After him!"
"Get him!"
"Kill the demon!"
The little boy's heart thumped wildly in his chest as he waited for last of the mob's rumbling footsteps to disappear. He then slung a shoddy knapsack off his shoulders, checking if any of its contents had spilled. Upon seeing no holes he smiled tiredly for just a second before suddenly freezing up, remembering he still wasn't in the clear yet. He looked about and carefully made his way to the end of the alley, which led to one of the many forested areas in the village. At the very edge he took one last wary glance around before disappearing into the undergrowth. This marked the second time the boy took this particular route to get out of town.
It was the end of the fall season; the forest was dyed in orange, yellow, and red. Many of the trees' branches were bare, their fall leaves covering the forest floor, and the small boy's footfalls were heavily accentuated with an audible crunch as he continued to run. After a few minutes of rustling through the bushes and trees, he stopped at a large dying hedge that still retained much of its autumn leaves. He reached under, ignoring the uncomfortable prickling feeling of the barbed roots, and lifted it up as if it was a hatch, revealing a natural hole a few feet deep. He slid himself in on his back as he pulled the hedge back over him. Wiping a few stray leaves off as they fell from the hedge's shaking motion, the boy stared up, his worn knapsack unopened at his side. Bright moonlight shined through the cracks in between the leaves onto his body in the patterned appearance of a net. Naruto noticed this and brought one hand above him, watching as the net-like pattern of light bent around it.
'This is just how I feel...Trapped...Caught...'
The small boy grew pensive and he thought about his past...
In the very beginning of what he could remember, he stayed at a place called an orphanage, a simple wooden building colored with faded paint. Living there was a struggle, and it seemed everyone hated him. The other kids seemed to hate him the most, and whenever he failed to avoid them, they beat him when they thought no adults were looking, spitefully calling him "Demon". The little boy, of course, hated them as well. Sure, he tried to fight back, but he always lost due to their numbers and mostly his weakness. As a result through undergoing this numerous times, he learned the signs of whenever the other kids seemed to form a group, and could always identify the feeling of being watched. Naruto had to struggle for food that the orphanage provided for every other kid except him. He worked hard in sneaking around to steal scraps off the table or when no one was looking. He quickly grew to understand that night was his ally in that regard, and each day Naruto failed and got hungry only fueled his resolve to get better at sneaking around.
There was one person who treated him differently from everyone else, who the little boy latched onto immediately after he was able to walk. She was a bespectacled young woman with shoulder-length light brown hair and emerald green eyes. She always regarded him kindly, and whenever she was around, the other kids wouldn't bother him. The little boy remembered how she would look sad when she saw him covered in bruises from the other kids, and would light her hands in a strange warm, green glow that would make his injuries disappear. It was from her that he first learned his name, Uzumaki Naruto, and his birth date, October 10th.
His time around her was shortlived however, as one day she suddenly disappeared, and Naruto never saw her again. Things got way worse. Immediately, the other adults-who used to only treat him with disdain-changed their attitude to match the children's, and the whole orphanage regarded him with open animosity.
With everyone like that, Naruto decided to avoid them altogether, and left. It turned out that it didn't make much of a difference in his life. Outside the orphanage was a huge village (To which he learned was called Konoha), and everyone there hated him too. When Naruto first saw the people in the streets give him that look- the same face of the people at the orphanage- he froze, and felt as if his chest squeezed his heart tight. He ran, even though there were people in every direction. Panting, he rushed past the buildings to a forest, to which he stayed at to this day. There were people in the forest too sometimes, and Naruto learned that they were 'Ninjas'. The boy generally defined them as people who wore metal headbands with a strange snail symbol on them and were a lot more athletic than the average villager, if Naruto's view of them jumping through the trees was any indication. Encounters with them were rare; the first time he smelled them, as an unfamiliar scent, he already had gotten used to the forest, including how to blend in with it. He evaded or hid from them as they passed by, remembering how ninjas had glared at him in the village.
In terms of food, Naruto lived off the land, although his stomach would growl noisily from time to time in the beginning. Originally, some plants he ate hurt his stomach a lot, making him real feverish and a few turning his skin into different colors. However, those 'episodes' all usually died down within one day, and through this process of trial and error he was able to determine which were safe to eat and which weren't. Overall, he didn't like eating plants very much, and the woods were only home to small animals that always tasted very gritty.
However, while walking around at the edge of the woods he was drawn in by the delectable aromas given off by certain buildings of the village, which turned out to be tasty food of some sort. Although Naruto was someone who didn't want to be noticed by others, it was at times like these where his hunger got the best of him. Seeing how everyone hated him already and the fact he didn't have any money (He also figured even having money was pointless, as who would sell to someone they hate?), the boy figured he had nothing to lose and sought to steal to sate his appetite. He tried his best to do so unseen, so mostly at night where there were less establishments open and less people around. When the small boy noticed how his clothes from the orphanage got all torn due to trekking around in the forest, he branched out to steal more things other than food. The small boy continually seized household commodities, including sanitary products. He typically took care of hygiene at the forest's many streams and rivers. He favored simple black clothing, to blend in at night. The alleys were his friend, particularly because of how no one really went to those and he quickly was able to quickly memorize how they were connected in the village. In terms of stealing, Naruto fell into a routine of where he would create a distraction, usually traps, and take things while no one noticed him. This didn't always work, and the small boy recalled one particular instance where he had broken the back windows of a store to attract the owner's attention while he snuck in the front. Naruto ended up miscalculating how long the owner would be gone and was seen (though in the dead of the night, he doubted the man knew it was him). Hearing the cries of "Stop thief!", Naruto ran out and successfully escaped.
Whenever Naruto failed, or felt he had committed theft too frequently at a certain spot of the forest's edge, he would just travel to the other side or another spot further along. In doing so, Naruto was able to expand his knowledge of the forest and made several 'bases', which were just naturally hidden abodes like under a bush or a thick hole beneath a base of a tree. He had discovered that the village was a lot larger than he had previously imagined, and that the forests were just the outskirts of it, most of the village being a collection of different buildings. While climbing to the top of one the forest's taller trees, Naruto saw that Konoha was bordered by a giant wooden wall more than double the height of the tallest trees.
It wasn't as if Naruto was never spotted, as there were instances where he was chased by people, including ninjas too. Naturally, when he was caught he was beaten, and this occurred more than a few times. Though, this only fueled his drive to be better at sneaking and stealing next time.
So far, it had been about a couple months since Naruto had left the orphanage, and could honestly say his time in the forest had led to some changes to himself. He vividly remembered one time a ninja with a huge dog had chased him into the forest, only to stop and look around confusedly, yelling, "What? There's no trail! He smells just like the forest!-"
-An orange glow enters the corner of his vision, snapping Naruto awake. Apparently, he had fallen asleep. After checking to confirm no one was around, the village pariah got out of the bush to see it was the crack of dawn, a giant sun sitting on the horizon. Leaving his knapsack filled with stolen stuff under the shrub, Naruto made his way to another edge of the forest, his form hidden from sight, watching a different part of the village. Already, there were people about and Naruto just quietly observed them. The small boy had made this into a habit when he wasn't stealing or exploring the forest. First of all, it was a good way to learn things. Especially on the busier streets, people tended to talk a lot and Naruto would just quietly listen. It was how he learned about society, commonplace knowledge, the name of the whole village, or the date, and a whole bunch of other miscellaneous information including personal topics that held no meaning to the small boy.
Observing the activities of ninjas sometimes yielded interesting things too. For example, Naruto was able to duplicate the whole walking on surfaces thing after watching ninjas walk on walls a few times. It made climbing trees a cinch for him, but running up roofs were still a no go due to the fact that he knew ninjas usually traversed the village by leaping on them. But most of all, despite avoiding people and hating them back for hating him, Naruto was quite lonely. He felt he didn't fit in with society, so watching what it's like was the next best thing.
More and more people got out to the streets as the sun rose higher in the sky. Watching the growing hustle and bustle, Naruto spotted a man carrying a small boy around his age on his shoulders.
"Ok son! Where would you like to go?"
"I want ice cream!"
They disappeared back into the throng of villagers. Realizing his loneliness, Naruto's breathing slowed as his chest clenched tight.
'Parents huh?...I wonder where mine are...'
After spending a few hours more alone observing society, the small child suddenly felt it. A tugging in his gut, the reason he always targeted places that were as close to the edge of the forest as possible and tried to make his thefts in the shortest time frame. It was a small tug, but the implications filled the small boy with dread, as it spelled an awakening for a certain something inside of him. Naruto ran back to the hideout as quickly as he could and randomly threw the knapsack into another bush before curling up into a ball. He closed his eyes in pain as the tugging grew stronger, and found himself in a giant sewerlike room that went as far as he could see in every direction, a place he had come to associate as his mind, or mindscape. The sensation in his gut died away as cold water went up to his knees, and the place was dimly lit with yellow light of no discernible source. A huge gate stood a few meters ahead of him, the space between each thick bar easily the width of a street, a big paper with the word 'seal' on the centermost pillar. A gargantuan fox with dark brown fur lied motionless behind it, and Naruto looked on with no surprise as the fox suddenly cracked open one blood-red slitted eye. It then cackled loudly and fit one of its tails through the cage.
"SUFFER NINGEN!"
Naruto saw a big mass of dark brown fur smash down upon him before pulling him to the other side of the gate. Gripping the small boy with a tail, the fox flared an aura of black flames, causing the small boy to let out a throat-ripping scream. He blanked out from the pain for a moment, recollecting a memory of a different time in his short life to escape the present situation.
A small blond child barely older than a toddler clumsily waddled over to a young brown-haired woman reading a scroll at a short table. All day, the little boy had seen everyone at the orphanage behave differently than usual. In the fact, the whole building was covered in decorations.
"Nono! Nono!"
The lady looked up while adjusting her glasses. "Ah, hello Naruto. What is it?"
"Wha' is so special about today? Is it a celera- a cele-"
"A celebration?" Nono finished, bemused, her eyes twinkling behind her glasses as she regarded the small child.
"Yea! Tha'!"
Several distant booming and crackling sounds came from somewhere outside the room. Nono seemed to come to a decision and got up, leaving the scroll on the table. She then picked Naruto up and carried him to the nearest window. Outside the glass, Naruto saw all sorts of colorful lights exploding in the sky, appearing and disappearing in a matter of seconds.
"Wow!"
"Hmmm... Indeed..." Nono smiled as she looked upon Naruto's starstruck expression.
"Well, today is a holiday celebrating the defeat of a kyuubi demon that attacked a few years ago."
Upon hearing the word demon, Naruto froze, his attention to the lights in the sky forgotten.
"What's wrong?" Nono asked, frowning. She placed him back down.
The small child looked down at his feet, expression hidden from the bespectacled lady.
"Does it have anythin' to do wid me?"
Nono gave the barest hint of surprise before kneeling down to the child's height, placing one hand on his shoulder and seeing his sullen face.
"Now what would make you think that?"
"Everyone excep' you calls me a demon..."
Feeling a hand on his head, Naruto looked up to see Nono's slightly saddened face.
"Yes...you are connected, yet you are not."
"Wha...Wha' does tha' mean?"
"It means the demon is sea-" Whatever Nono was going to say was cut short as she suddenly bent over coughing, quickly holding one hand over her stomach and the other covering her mouth.
"Wah! Are you ok?"
Naruto caught a glimpse of a black mark on her tongue as he patted her back. After a few moments, she recovered.
"I'm fine Naruto, thank you." Nono's voice was a little more subdued, and she shakily readjusted her glasses as she leaned against the wall beneath the window. Naruto sat beside her, still worried.
"Haaah...Some things in life stay with you no matter what..."
Nono sighed, becoming lost in thought, and Naruto just stayed silent looking at her with a frown. After a moment of meditative silence, she spoke again.
"But you've had love in your life, never forget that. The purpose of a certain mark is to mix a foreign power to the holder. I believe he wanted...protection and aid to whoever bore the mark on their skin."
"Huh?" The small child didn't really know what she was talking about. Nono hid a smile behind her hand. "Fufu...Perhaps you'll understand when you're older."
The lady adjusted her glasses again and reached inside a pouch strapped to her waist, pulling out a small scroll.
"Here Naruto, watch this."
She unraveled it, revealing it have a strange pattern of black lines on it. Naruto watched carefully as she made a funny sign with her hand, and a small cloud of smoke appeared, covering the scroll. When the smoke faded away the small boy saw a metal pointy thing lying on a empty sheet.
"Cool!"
Naruto excitedly shouted. Nono simply waited for the small child to calm down a bit before saying. "In the past, this weapon was used to hurt many people, and yet now..."
The child saw her make the same funny sign, and the metal thing disappeared, the scroll filling up with black lines once more.
"...It can placed in something else, but others can know that it's there."
Nono said before putting the scroll away. Upon seeing Naruto's puzzled look, she apologized.
"Sorry, that's the best way I can say it without giving up my life."
"Huh? Oh well, can you teach me how to do tha'?" Naruto still didn't get what she was talking about, but still was interested in how she did the whole storing thing. By then however, the noise outside stopped, and Nono took a glance outside and then at the clock.
"Sorry Naruto, it's curfew right now. Maybe next time, ok?"
There was no next time after since that was the last Naruto ever saw her. Although he still didn't understand what Nono meant by protection and aid, or who "he" was, the small boy understood the whole kunai knife thing was a metaphor for him. The small boy was fully aware of why he was hated. The giant fox had once gave its title as 'The great Kyuubi no Yoko, the demon that blows away mountains with a swing of its tails', while the villagers always referred to him as a demon. It wasn't hard to put the two and two together. Though, it seems the villagers thought he was the demon itself, instead of it being in him, not that it made much of a difference.
Meanwhile, the Kyuubi was still burning the small boy with black fire in a fit of rage. The fox had done so with such vehemence as long as he could remember at random intervals, and Naruto especially hated the infernal creature. Every time, he would be in his mindscape with the fox, while his body would slump motionless. It was a strange feeling, because while being tortured by the Kyuubi, Naruto could also feel the sensations of his body and was aware of his surroundings. The small boy also figured out that the Kyuubi could know what was happening to him outside the mindscape.
Originally, when the Kyuubi tortured him at the orphanage, there was little he could do; he was too little and small anyways. He remembered the few times it happened in front of Nono, and she just thought he was just taking a nap or something. But after he left the orphanage, there would be a tug in his gut, almost as if it was a warning as the Kyuubi would awaken just a few moments after. It couldn't have been from the fox, and Naruto was grateful as without it, he would have collapsed to the mercy of the villagers many times over, which would not have been a good thing. Also, whenever Naruto failed, he would feel something in the same place he felt the tug in his gut rumble in discontent and anger too. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't the fox.
The whole routine with the fox wasn't without its effects. Besides his whitening hair, Naruto always felt some sort of surging energy through himself as the Kyuubi continually burned and crushed him in the grip of black flames. It always helped him out when the nights got too cold. Naruto felt his mind grow clearer, and he could remember better, which caused him more pain and suffering since the memories of the Kyuubi's torture were usually on the forefront of his mind, so it was like he just replayed the whole experience over again. This sort of mental energy seemed to influence his physical body somewhat too, as he felt as if he was marginally faster and stronger after. Injuries that Nono used to heal recovered quickly on their own. Even when his arm was broken all he needed to do was to fix it in place for a little while and it would be as good as new. His senses, particularly smell and hearing, were heightened. The small boy had gotten used to suffering, and developed the ability to think clearly in the face of it. Also, he could feel the emotions of others, including how they felt about him, which in terms of the villagers was always negative. It was a vague sixth sense for now, but Naruto could feel it getting stronger.
After nearly an hour of more smoldering agony, the fire in the Kyuubi's eyes began to recede and its black flame aura dimmed. It was clear that it would be going back to sleep soon. Before doing so, it started one of its customary rants about how weak and puny humans were.
"Heh..." Naruto wheezed out, albeit still crushed in one of the Kyuubi's tails. "Weak and puny...Yet they still beat you didn't they? Wouldn't that make you way more pathetic?"
Naruto knew he was risking more pain, but he decided that he liked pissing it off since he hated it so much. Besides, his fear of the fox had already long disappeared and he had gotten used to being tormented by it. Defiantly, the small child weakly tried to put on a mocking expression while the Kyuubi growled in anger, its sleepiness forgotten.
"SILENCE WEAKLING!" Veins bulged in the giant fox's eyes as it roared. The small child held captive in the fox's dark brown tail screamed as he was lit in flames once more.
It was winter now, and under a starry night Naruto slowly trudged through the snow covered ground. He was dressed in a (stolen) thick black coat and pants, his now a little frayed knapsack over one shoulder. Although Naruto wanted to just stay in one of his warm underground igloo bases, it was only a few days before the annual Rinne Festival and all that gift giving stuff, and he didn't want to lose out on pilfering any new interesting things the shops would have for this time of year. The villagers tended to stay inside when it snows at night, which makes it easier for him.
Rounding a corner, the village outcast froze as he spotted a small girl wearing a black kimono crying on the snow covered ground. The lamplight above accentuated her dark blue hair and her face was hidden in her hands.
He knew from eavesdropping the whispered conversation of a few adults that there was some sort of law against talking about the Kyuubi and him. Well, he reasoned that was probably why the village kids his generation and a little older were the ones least aware of him anyway, assuming that the law was made around the time of his birth. Of course, the adults always called demon brat and other such unflattering remarks, so the village kids didn't look too well to him either, with the orphanage kids being the worst.
'But I have never been seen or talked about around this neighborhood so...'
"What are you doing out here?" Naruto stepped towards her, an audible crunch of snow accompanying each step. The small girl looked up from her distress, revealing featureless white eyes with a tinge of lavender coloration.
"..I...I..."
"It's chilly out, you should go home. Where's your house?"
She looked around a bit before shaking her head.
"Oh well, come on. Let's go."
He grabbed her hand and led her away in a run. The boy thought that maybe, this was his chance to a good deed and maybe not be so lonely anymore. Following the girl's scent trail backward and reading the small foot indentations in the snow, Naruto eventually made his way to the edge of the neighborhood to the treeline.
'Huh? She ran quite far away...'
Naruto thought as he ran. Eventually the trail led him to a clearing where a big traditional style building sat in its center. Although it was enclosed by tall walls, the huge interior house was still visible by a great deal. The small boy marveled at it as he and the girl stood at the open entrance doors, two characters above them spelling Hyuga.
"You live in a big house like this, and you're crying?" Naruto said, causing the small girl to look at him.
"I don't have anyone, but I don't cry about it. Crying doesn't do anything..." The small boy trailed off as he had a sudden thought.
'Wait. The orphanage was big too, and she ran so far away from this place. Was coming here the right idea?'
"Hey ummm, do you want to come back here?"
"..." The girl did not give an answer, still silently staring at him, the cold winter air giving her rosy cheeks. Naruto, who still looked straight ahead, saw the faint yellow glow in the interior courtyard of the complex. After squinting a bit, he could see that the glow was given off by a few lanterns above a small crowd of people all wearing black clothing. Naruto's sensitive nose caught of whiff of something from the wind that blew through the doors.
'Smoke? No it's incense...Let's see, a crowd of people dressed in black with incense...It's a funeral. She ran away, so that must mean...'
Naruto turned to meet the small girl's white eyes.
"Someone important to you died." Seeing how she still didn't say anything, Naruto continued. "Running away from reality doesn't make it any better."
'At any rate, the night is still beginning.'
"Well, see ya."
The small boy readjusted his knapsack, and turned around in a sprint, heading back to the neighborhood from where he came. There was still time to steal stuff before he got too sleepy.
"...Thank you."
Hearing that soft murmur, Naruto paused in his step, but quickly recovered, his small figure disappearing into the trees.
It would be about a couple months before Naruto saw her again. One day while he was walking through the now defrosted forest near the neighborhood where he met that girl, he heard noises which sounded like childrens' voices in the distance. The edge of the forest Naruto usually went to in order to sneak into society was in that direction, so Naruto decided to check it out. He was wearing dark green clothes as his usual outfit when taking a walk through the forest, to remain better undetected by ninjas who would be in the forest sometimes. After making his way to the less thicketed area did he see what was going on. Narrowing his eyes, he climbed up a nearby tree.
The small girl from before was there, but three older boys stood in front of her.
"You're one of those weird people who think they're nobles! You think you can look down on us now?"
"What's with those creepy eyes?"
"Freak!"
She looked to be on the verge of tears, and when the middle boy reached out to shove her, Naruto leapt from the tree.
Wham!
The agile pariah had landed a dropkick from the air, knocking the taller boy facefirst into the dirt. The other two were stunned for the briefest second, which was disrupted when Naruto leapt at them, scratching, biting and kicking. Even though those other boys looked to be twice his age, Naruto warily made sure to keep them on one side. Every animalistic swipe and bite was accompanied with a quick agile step back. Through this little routine, Naruto was able to unbalance one of them and make his head fall on a exposed root. Of course, it wasn't as if he came out of it unscathed. Naruto did get some bruising in the process, and the remaining one knocked him back with a punch to the face, earning him a split lip.
He growled, something deep inside him echoing his anger. His pupils slitted and nails extended into claws. The older boy let out a brief frightened cry of "Demon!" before Naruto grabbed his face and smashed it into the tree next to them. It was a bit invigorating, and Naruto wasn't even breathing hard as he watched the older boy's face slide down the rough bark.
With all three down for the count, Naruto then turned to Hinata, partly in dread but mostly not sure what to think. However, the small girl only seemed to be concernedly staring at something on his face or neck, and with a start did Naruto realize the pungent taste of blood in his mouth, with it also trickling down his chin onto his neck.
Suddenly Naruto heard from the rustling of the tree-branches some distance away and knew that something adult-sized was heading towards here.
Naruto heard a voice say "Oh there you are." a second before a short-haired white-eyed man landed from the canopy of the trees, looking at Hinata while a mass of veins bulged around his eyes. He then surveyed the whole scene, barely a glance spared on the three unconscious boys, before settling on the bleeding Naruto, whose blood was starting to stain the collar of his green shirt, although the cut on his lip had already closed.
"This boy..."
The man grabbed the small girl by the arm.
"Come, we are going back."
"Wait... He came to my rescue." She said, unsuccessfully trying to break out of his grip.
"You must not get involved with him. Let us go."
The man said, dragging her away while she looked back at Naruto.
"B-but..."
Naruto stared silently at them, their departure leaving a bad taste in his mouth, besides the blood. The fact that the man wasn't loudly advocating for his demise like other adults didn't make Naruto feel any better. His claws receded and with a blink, his eyes were back to their original blue.
"Tch." 'But then again, I guess I shouldn't have expected anything, so it wouldn't hurt so much. Helping people sucks.'
Naruto looked back at the three unconscious bullies. 'How about hurting people? Two of them saw me so...'
The boy spotted a big rock the size of a watermelon naturally embedded in the dirt and scraped it out. Lifting the rock above his head, he smashed it down on the two that saw him, causing big bumps to swell on their skulls. After a second's contemplation, he grabbed the rock and repeated the process to the kid who he had knocked out with a dropkick.
'...Just to be safe...'
The unhappy boy then walked back deeper into the forest with nary a sound.
It was the next day and Naruto decided to first see if the villagers were aware of him before moving to a different area, so he headed to the edge of the forest to eavesdrop on any conversations he could. But while walking through the forest on the way there, he began to hear a faint voice somewhere deeper in. Sniffing the air, the only person he could detect in the forest was near that big house that girl lived.
Leaping through the trees, he spotted the small girl from before.
"H-hello? Is anyone there...?"
She was timidly walking through the undergrowth, looking behind her at every noise, cradling a small brown box in her hands. The bush ahead of her rustled a bit, and the girl immediately threw both arms forward, holding the object in front of her.
"T-thank you for saving me yesterday..."
She said nervously, eyes shut. After a few seconds of silence, she creaked open one eye to see a small deer exit the bush, take a look at her, and trot off. Up on the branch, Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. 'Is she looking for me?'
If she was, Naruto didn't sense any negative intent from her and was rather confused. When he was spotted before, Naruto saw more than a few occasions that adults would tell kids about him being a terrible demon and other junk, which the kids would then adopt the same attitude the adults had for him. Based from what the white-eyed man had said about him yesterday, Naruto judged that the man had done the same thing to that girl.
'So why is she...?'
As they were the only ones there, Naruto decided to figure things out and leapt off the branch, startling her when he landed two feet away.
"You are looking for me?" He asked bluntly.
"Y-yes...Here you go..." The small box was pressed into Naruto's hands.
"Thank you for saving me yesterday..." She managed to say clearly, looking straight at Naruto's face. The boy himself was currently inspecting the item with undisguised interest.
"...What is this?" When he didn't receive an answer, he looked up to see her absorbed stare. "Eh, hello?" He waved a hand in front of her face, which seemed to snap her out of it.
"...Sorry...It's medicinal cream for injuries..." She said in a small voice while looking down at the ground, a tint of red on her cheeks.
"Thank you." Naruto said as he put it away into a zippered pocket, although he was inwardly thinking that he wouldn't have to use it for now, or maybe ever, since injuries he got in the past healed before he ever bothered to address them.
'Wait! I'm not alone now!' Naruto thought with no small measure of excitement. It was the first time since Nono that he was with someone who didn't hate him or despise him in any way. However, the feeling quickly faded as the silence between the two children lengthened. 'Now what?'
"...Er, do you want to check out the forest with me?" Naruto suggested, already mapping out in his mind all the cool spots to show her.
"...Ah...Yes...!"
And so they went. Naruto showed her places to pick colorful mushrooms (While pointing out most of them aren't edible), hawk nests, clearings where grass grew taller than them, and the top of the four giant heads that overlook the village.
It was sunset when Naruto brought her to the top of the largest waterfall he could find, which was also his favorite fishing spot.
"Wah..." The girl breathed. Small bursts of light appeared all around them as the fireflies came out. Miles of dark green forest could be seen below, and accompanied with the the orange glow of the sky, it made for a truly breathtaking sight.
"Yeah it is cool isn't it?" said Naruto, busy planting a makeshift fishing rod into the ground before standing up. A sudden thought occurred to him and he frowned.
"Come to think of it, what's your name?"
"...Hyuga Hinata..."
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"
The twitching fishing rod caught his attention and Naruto, with practiced timing, pulled out a carp the size of his arm. Fishing was a skill he figured out last month by himself, and since then, hunger wasn't a problem. Fish were bony, but Naruto didn't really care about that when he ate them cooked. He still stole from society on night raids, but only for interesting items or delicious foods he liked, such as red bean soup or dango. He stuck his prize on a large stick over a fire he prepared ahead of time and recast his line, having seen a whole school of fish in the pool before the waterfall.
While catching some more fish and cooking them, Naruto began striking up a conversation with Hinata about himself, even talking about the Kyubi being in him (To her horror). Hearing her gasp, Naruto calmly remarked.
"Huh. So everyone does think I'm the Kyubi."
"No...! That's...I didn't know about that before either...! It's not your fault...!" said Hinata worriedly.
"Yeah well, there's nothing I can do about it. There's some sort of law against talking about this in the village anyway; I'm only telling you this 'cause we're the only ones here and you don't hate me." Said Naruto, having already come to terms with it.
Naruto got to learn about Hinata, including her clan and its specialties.
"...But...I...don't like...to practice taijutsu...I'm just...no good..." Hinata confessed quietly.
"Eh? Really? Can I see some anyway?" Naruto asked curiously, wanting to see a bit of the village's reputed strongest taijutsu style. Hinata's cheeks grew redder for some reason when he said that and she pushed her fingers together for a bit.
"...Ok..." Hinata said shyly, as she stood up and proceeded to pull off a few intricate rotational maneuvers coupled with palm thrusts.
"Wow..." Said Naruto, watching intently at her movements. A thought suddenly came to him and Naruto stood up, throwing away his fish skeleton. He moved to stand about ten feet away from Hinata before saying.
"Hinata, let's wrangle a bit."
"Ehh?!"
"Yeah let's practice taijutsu together! Come on." said Naruto with an eager smile, beckoning her with curled fingers.
Hinata just stood there for a second before slowly and hesitatingly getting into a stance, feet apart with one arm extending out into a palm with the other held at her side. Naruto seriously sprinted at her and took a swipe, his hand shaped like a claw. In a split second, Hinata pivoted, pushing Naruto's arm to the side and drove her small palm forward in a quick, precise thrust. Naruto felt something drive into him and fell backward, stunned.
"...Oh I'm sorry, it was only meant to stun...Naruto are you ok...?" Hinata asked worriedly. Seeing him unresponsive, she panicked a bit.
"I'm so sorry Naruto, I should have never-" She was cut off in surprise by Naruto's sudden laugh.
"Heh...Hahahaha No this is great Hinata! You could have easily beaten those three older bullies yesterday. Don't you know what this means?"
"...W-what...?"
"You aren't bad, you're great at this! You just got to believe in yourself! Be more positive and confident!" He stood up, moving closer to her, and poked her in the chest while staring deep into her white orbs.
"You already got the ability inside, now all you need to do is express it!"
Hinata shyly looked down, her face reddening.
"...Thank you Naruto..."
They talked a bit more after that, with Hinata expressing some anxiety over entering some sort of academy for ninjas in the future.
"Academy? This wouldn't be a big red building with a sign that says fire on it, would it? The one under that big mountain of faces?"
"...Y-yes..." Hinata stuttered.
"Then you'll be fine! I've seen kids there practice fighting before, and you're way better than any of them! In fact, I'm pretty sure those guys from yesterday went there, and you could have kicked their butts!"
"...O-oh..."
More of the sky grew darker as the sun sank deeper past the horizon. Seeing how late it was getting, Naruto decided to bring Hinata home. The walk back was rather silent, with Naruto noticing Hinata sneaking glances at him every so often for some reason, while he himself quietly thought about her in general.
'She can really do things, but...' He thought back to those bullies. '...She's weak at real tense situations...?' Naruto looked back on everyone who hated him and/or wanted to beat him up.
'I think she's weak against that kind of attitude in general. If Hinata is seen hanging out with me, they would be like that to her too. Maybe I...I should...'
As the Hyuga compound came into view in the distance, Naruto stopped to say.
"Hinata...I'm going to be moving soon. This is probably the last we're going to see each other, at least for a while." He said reluctantly, already planning on the next forest base he would go to.
"...Oh..." Hinata replied, her weird mood from before seemingly dispelled.
"Goodbye." Naruto turned around and disappeared into the foliage.
It was that time of year again, where the village of Konohagakure would hold the largest celebration Naruto ever witnessed from it, all to commemorate the anniversary of the Kyuubi's defeat.
Having witnessed it one time before in its entirety after leaving the orphanage, Naruto marked it as a three day festival from October 8th to his birthday, October 10th. The small boy had watched salesmen pop up all over the place selling cool wares and could feel the villagers general cheerful sentiments as they enjoyed the festival. It was a positive attitude that Naruto completely didn't share, in fact he went as far away from the populated areas of the village as possible, no stealing, just as far into the woods as he could. The thought of his birthday brought him no joy, only unease and a sense of being wronged as he knew that the Kyuubi was the one responsible for this whole situation for him.
At the daytime it the villagers would wholeheartedly enjoy the festival, but at night it was a different story. At nighttime it was as if something was brought out in them, they would hunt him down, forming mobs and screaming cries of hatred. Last year Naruto was able to avoid them, but then again last year the number of neighborhoods that knew of his presence was much smaller.
Whatever the case, Naruto just hoped that the Kyuubi festival would pass quickly.
It would be a vain hope. Of course they would find him. Through the night, Naruto ran through the undergrowth, the roar of an angry mob heard behind him. Yes, the villagers certainly were much more incensed than last year, with the mob much greater in number as well. The small boy had outrun them several times already, yet they always seemed to know where he was, which didn't happen last year at all.
'But how? What changed?' Naruto thought as he ran, so far not really winded at all. It was especially puzzling because he was positive that in the forest he couldn't be detected using any of the five senses, even by that dog clan's famed nose.
'Could it be the kekkei genkai of Hinata's clan?'
Naruto was struck from his thoughts when he felt a familiar tug in his gut.
'No, please not now...'
The tugging grew in intensity before Naruto felt his body collapse into the grass, his consciousness migrating to his mindscape. The kyuubi awakened, slowly lifting itself to its full, towering height. It regarded Naruto's tiny figure in the distance with feral grin, squeezing one of its ginormous dark brown tails through the extremely spaced thick bars of the gate.
"Suffer."
The Kyuubi intoned maliciously, eyes widening in anticipation as its tail wreathed in dark flames and wrapped around Naruto, causing him to begin screaming. After a few seconds outside the mindscape, the fox saw a large number of humans surround its vessel's prone form.
"Ah? What's this?"
"There you are demon-brat!"
"Nice job with the sensing technique!"
'Sensing technique? I see...'
Naruto thought beneath the pain.
"We'll make you pay for what you've done demon!"
Other such calls echoed through the bedlam, and the Kyuubi's grin widened as it saw Naruto being tightly bound and carried off by the crowd.
"I see... So they blame you...heheh...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" The giant fox erupted into cackling laughter.
"As if you, YOU! Are a demon?! HaHaHa...This truly is too amusing..." It calmed down and let Naruto out of its grasp, throwing the boy violently against a pillar of the gate. Naruto collided headfirst with it just when he was regaining his senses, and felt an exploding migraine as he fell down into the sewer water in a large splash. He heard the Kyuubi speak in an interested tone as it looked down at him with its closest approximation to an evil smile.
"Let's see what these deplorable humans come up with, now that you are under their mercy..."
The mob had taken him to a nearby rock quarry and everything went downhill from there, with being pounded by rocks as the opening act.
"J-just le' me...die ah'ready..." Naruto garbled through a mouthful of blood. The small boy was pinned to a wall of stone and covered in red, with sticky blood clumping on some parts of his skin and torn clothes. Fresh blood spilled freely from the many places the mob had stuck him with weapons, and from the stumps where his arms and legs used to be. The fox, of course, was living this up cackling madly the whole time. Naruto wasn't sure how much time passed, being disoriented the whole time.
"Let you die? Hell isn't enough for the likes of you!"
"You can't suffer enough demon!"
While the villagers continue to throw mocking jeers at him, Naruto was suddenly doused in some sort of liquid. He strained his nose to smell past the overpowering stench of blood.
'...Oil...?'
In a part of his vision not obscured by blood, Naruto spotted a ninja step forward to the front of the crowd.
"You deserve this."
The man made several handsigns and spat out a gout of fire at the small boy. The mob then left, the rumble of their footsteps disappearing into the distance. The acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air as Naruto's entire body was coated in flames. He couldn't even scream as his lungs were filled with smoke. Naruto's skin blackened and peeled as the small boy wriggled around desperately. It was pure agony, in a different way than with the Kyuubi's black fire. When he was burned in his mindscape, Naruto's mental body or whatever it is wouldn't be altered in any way while the Kyuubi burned him.
Somewhere along the line, the fox calmed down.
"Your clan does possess astounding lifeforce beyond any other humans, but it appears any more than this means your death." The fox's grin widens as it reached out and grabbed Naruto with a tail covered in black fire.
"I can't have that now, can I? Let's see..." Said the fox as-a-matter-of-factly.
Naruto's sizzled and mutilated body suddenly relit as black flames appeared, dancing across his form in a vulpine-like shroud.
"Aah..Aagh...AAAAAAAH-"
The small boy squirmed around with much more energy, screaming all the while. He ripped free, falling facefirst into the crimson pool of his own blood on the rocky ground below him.
The red liquid steamed, evaporating from the heat. Slowly, the weapons began to be pushed out of his body, his blackened skin flaking off, flesh forming from the stumps of his missing limbs. When the flames died out entirely, the fox going back to sleep, it appeared as if Naruto hadn't just been burning alive. Aside from his burnt and torn clothes, he looked completely fine. However, Naruto didn't care about that, his mind consumed with hatred over the fox and especially those damn villagers.
"...I was wrong, I don't need anyone...I never needed anyone...I wish I was really alone... I want revenge...They want a demon? Fine... I'll give them a demon."
The small, bedraggled child thought darkly as he slunk off into the trees, a face full of hate.
How to be a demon? Naruto certainly did not want to ask the Kyuubi for an answer. But generally his impression was that a demon is something evil and malevolent. With vengeance on his mind, the small boy set about using his developed skills in traps and distractions for different purpose than theft.
The next day, luring one of villagers was a piece of cake. An older boy, a bully from when he met Hinata, played near the edge of the forest. Naruto incited him by throwing a rock, and led a chase resulting in the other boy falling in a trap hole.
"Hey! Let me out demon!" It did appear that smashing a rock on his head before did work, as although the bully did know of him, he didn't seem to remember how Naruto had beaten him before.
Naruto wordlessly picked up rocks and began throwing them with all his might, each hitting with a resounding thwack! Naruto grinned widely as the older boy began getting stained in red. Yells of indignation gave way to pitiful cries as Naruto went on, taking each cracking noise he heard with satisfaction.
"Hahaha! You deserve this!" Naruto growled at the bully's prone, unconscious form. 'You certainly won't be the last either.'
From his black jacket, he pulled out a bottle of cooking oil and poured it down onto the bleeding kid. Naruto then took out a box of matches from his pocket, lighting one.
"I'm gonna burn you all...starting with you."
Just when he about to drop it into the hole, Naruto heard the chirping of insects and leapt up by instinct. Behind him down below he saw a swirl of bugs disperse into a man covered in a hooded thick dark-brown cloak and wearing a porcelain spider mask. Just when the small boy was about to land he felt a hand around his ankle and was pulled into the ground, with only his head sticking out.
'I couldn't even smell these guys...' Naruto thought with wide eyes as next to him, another man in the same attire but with a panther mask leapt out of the ground. The small boy recognized those people as masked ninjas he'd seen around the village.
"Target acquired. Remove all witnesses."
"Doton: Earth Flow River."
Said panther-mask, his voice lacking any emotion whatsoever, making what Naruto recognized as a tiger hand-seal. The small boy saw his trap hole close up in what looked like mud with the bleeding bully still inside. Naruto felt a cloth cover his mouth, smelling a sweet scent that was similar to the plants that always made him sleepy. Everything faded to black...
On the edge of consciousness and through lidded eyes, Naruto found himself lying bound on the ground in a large ovular room with a large desk, the word kage inscribed on it along with the leaf symbol of the village (Naruto still thought it looked like a snail). The two ninja were there, with their backs to him. A short monkey-faced old man, dressed in a red robe and a wide hat with the character for fire on it, stood facing them and Naruto. The small boy recognized him as the village leader from hearsay, as well as catching glances at him before. It was night; Moonlight poured in from several large windows behind the desk, casting a shadow on the Hokage's stern face as he conversed to the two ninja.
"-tensions are scaling higher in the village. Word of this must not spread amongst normal shinobi, lest the Uchiha find out with their spies. I have no choice but to rely on you Root."
With a disgusted grimace, the Hokage then gestured to the semi-conscious Naruto.
"Pah...as for this cursed demon, take it away for now, I don't care what you people wish to do with it in the meantime but keep it alive. The Uchiha must not get their hands on it and control the ninetails once more-"
After that it just sounded muffled to Naruto as his vision grew dimmer. The small boy hatefully glared at the hokage before slipping out of consciousness.
When Naruto woke, all he could see was the blinding glare of a white light above him. Giving himself a few seconds for his eyes to adjust, he saw clean white walls all around him, along with many different types of complicated-looking machines. The small boy was tightly restrained on a surgical table, with only room to move his head. To his left a few figures stood around another table, inspecting and preparing numerous long metal instruments and other medical equipment, not that Naruto knew what any of it was. All of them were garbed in large white coats and animal masks, except for one man who had no face-wear, possessing pale white skin and snakelike features.
"Kukukuku...Danzo has quite the opportunity here for me. It looks like coming back to this village was worth it after all..."
The man chuckled disturbingly. He looked up, noticing that Naruto had awakened.
"So you're awake..."
Startled blue met slitted gold as Naruto reflexively asked.
"Where am I? Who are you?"
"A place you'll never leave...As to my identity, I am the great Orochimaru of the Sannin..."
By that point, the other masked ninja surrounded the bound boy, each brandishing a metal utensil. Orochimaru followed behind them, his gait easy and an amused smirk gracing his features. Now that the masked people were closer, Naruto could see blank eyes behind their masks.
"Experiment one, begin."
A monkey masked person intoned emotionlessly.
It was torture. They did a lot of things, but the only ones Naruto really understood were consisted of him being literally being taken apart. They cut into him, extracting organs, muscles, and other flesh; limb removal was a common thing they would do too. Words were useless; it was if the masked people never heard his pleas and screams while Orochimaru wasn't fazed, cheerfully humming while sporting a sadistic, fanged grin. Afterwards, the flow of blood leaking out of him would be stopped by one of them using the green glow technique thing, although this time Naruto never felt any respite, having screamed himself hoarse every time. He then would be taken and left alone in a cell, where the Kyubi typically woke up, and by burning him, regenerated Naruto fully. Its container's predicament brought the fox no end in terms of vindictive glee. Stewing in his cell, hatred grew in the small boy's heart. The boy had long lost track of the time he spent in this awful place, his hair already fully white.
One day after a particularly painful experiment (literally costing him an arm and a leg), one of the masked people was about to wheel Naruto away when Orochimaru stepped in.
"You have your own experiments, but I will try something on the side for me. Go on as you would!"
Orochimaru remarked. The masked person did not move, and the snake sannin turned to Naruto while waving a hand behind his back.
"It won't interfere with your whole pseudojinchuriki creation business. Now go."
An exhausted Naruto had the fortune of seeing the snakelike man roll a creepily long tongue over his fangs.
"Or would you like to join our little friend here?"
Through bleary eyes, Naruto saw the masked person disappear behind the door. It was only him and Orochimaru now, with the snakelike man staring at him with a grin so wide it looked like it bisected his face.
"Well, I would like for you to be whole for this procedure...It's success rate is less than 2%, after all."
The man took a seat with crossed legs, apparently waiting patiently Naruto to regenerate. He didn't have to wait long, the Kyuubi waking up and regenerating his limbs in a matter of seconds through the sheer potency of burning Naruto with its chakra.
"Kukuku...The Kyubi's regenerative powers look to be quite useful...It's no wonder the root couldn't pass this up..."
Said Orochimaru, eyes narrowed hungrily. The snake sannin was puzzled when Naruto continued to burn in black flames, but chalked it up to the brat not having good control over it.
"Then again...Such malice...Such evil...This really doesn't appear to be a power humans can control at all..."
Murmured Orochimaru, enraptured by Naruto's shroud of black flames. Naruto's spontaneous combustion died off after a few minutes, leaving the boy breathless and the verge of consciousness.
"...Still, outbursts such as this would greatly interfere in what I'm about to do..."
Said Orochimaru, the tips of the fingers on his right hand flaring purple flames.
"Five Elements Seal."
The Sannin brought his arm down forcefully onto Naruto's stomach. The boy screamed in pain and everything turned black.
"-unseal."
Naruto heard as he regained bits of consciousness, before he felt sharp pain burst from his abdomen. Fully awake and still bound, he saw Orochimaru withdraw a hand from his stomach region and began pacing back and forth, nonplussed. The Sannin seemed fully absorbed in his self-discussion, muttering to himself, not noticing that the village pariah had awakened.
"...It's definitely a success...almost 96% integration, the body showing no signs of breakdown or rejection after 10 hours...Strange...Every subject prior immediately showed signs of degrading, with the only previous successful case on the verge of death, his survival a miracle really. But here is too much of a leap, as if there was no risk to begin with..."
Orochimaru's eyes glinted.
"...I wonder..."
The Sannin retrieved a scroll from the folds of his cloak. Unfurling it, Naruto saw it covered in strange black lines just like Nono's scroll from that time. Orochimaru made the same funny handsign as she did, although only one black line on the scroll disappeared. Two thin vials of blood appeared in his hand out of a puff of smoke. The snake sannin put the scroll away and moved out towards one of the strange machines out of Naruto's sight. It took a few moments before the white-haired boy heard Orochimaru's voice.
"Definitely related to that slug, but why...?"
Naruto suddenly saw Orochimaru's face pop above him, the man scrutinizing him intently.
"Yes...that blonde brat...that old blond bat...It all fits..."
The snake sannin began to chuckle mirthfully, his mystery apparently solved.
"Kukukuku...How ironic...To think the child she abandoned would grow up to become...Kukukuku...Fate sure is funny!"
After calming down a bit, Orochimaru addressed Naruto.
"Your body is young, but this is too delicious to pass up. The constitution of the mokuton, particularly its regenerative feats, coupled with the Kyuubi's miraculous healing capabilities, and your heritage...If those traits could be passed to me, perhaps my body would finally become physically capable of mastering that mode."
The snake sannin grinned and opened his mouth wider than humanely possible. Naruto looked on in horror as a gigantic white serpent slithered out, easily encompassing most of the large room. It somewhat held Orochimaru's previous face, and was made up of countless smaller white snakes, some of which seemed to take in Orochimaru's previous body, which had fell to the ground as a heap of stretched skin.
Forked tongue flickering in and out, Orochimaru spoke to Naruto, despite his jaws not moving.
"Before you die, behold my true form, and the secret of my immortality...!"
The monstrous serpent lunged and swallowed the small child whole, biting through the restraints in the process. However, it immediately burst into black flames and spat Naruto out, the boy hitting a white wall with a thud. The flames died out in a few moments, but Naruto tiredly could see that it was in pain. Dead snakes were taken into Orochimaru's form, replaced with alive wriggling ones as the snake sannin grimaced.
"...It looks like I can't use you for my body...The Kyubi's chakra is a poison that even I am not resistant to...Which means the root will certainly fail, at least by their method of conducting the experiments."
The gigantic serpent mused, as it slithered for the large doors.
"...Not that I have any reason to inform them of this. I tire of being back at this pitiful village. Perhaps I should take the nearest root as my body before I leave. It's not like their tongue seal is any use against me. They're emotionless tools, so it would be simple to possess the mind of any of them."
Naruto hatefully glared at as the white snake squeezed through the door, promising a vow of vengeance. He collapsed right after, mental fatigue and hunger taking its toll. Hours later, the masked people returned, one seemingly replaced with a different person (Different mask and body structure). The experiments continued on.
AN: This took way too long to write.
Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)