Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Naruto; Masashi Kishimoto does. Good thing too, cause my drawing skills are awful. Well this is my first foray into the world of narrative writing, so I'm sure I will have quite a few mistakes or clichés. There will be no Yaoi, except if I make a joke about Sasuke. Expect Sakura bashing, and some minor Sasuke bashes as well, although their attitudes will improve eventually. Or at least by the time this story reaches the time skip (assuming I actually write that much).

"Character talking"

"Thinking"

"Kyubi talking"

"Kyubi thinking"

Naruto: Koori no Kokoro

ナルト：氷の心

Chapter One: Mask of Ice - Part 1

A young child, merely five or so years old was shivering, curled up into a ball, and crying. The child had bright blonde hair, three whiskers on each of his cheeks, and pale blue eyes, full of tears. His outfit would be laughably obnoxious, if not for the circumstances by which the boy received it, and the scars that accompanied the bright orange jumpsuit.

Flashback

The day before, a couple of civilians in charge of a local restaurant noticed the boy, Uzumaki Naruto, standing in front of the building, staring at the delicious treats and assorted dishes on display.

They whispered to each other "Look, it's the monster" and "Ugh, doesn't it realize that nobody is falling for its petty little schemes? You would almost think it was a normal boy, instead of a demon" the other man responded "the little bastard killed my fiancé, and I want to see him suffer"

"Then let's trick him" the man paused for breath, continuing "I know some Hyuga Shinobi who could help us hurt the demon, all they would need to do is cut the chakra to his eyes."

"Brilliant!" exclaimed the man "the best part is that we won't leave any evidence, and if he can't see, then he can't recognize us for the Hokage later. If we're lucky, he may even die!"

Confused and frightened, Naruto tentatively approach the younger of the two men in order to beg for food. Two weeks prior to this point, Naruto was kicked out of the Konoha Orphanage, for being "too happy", and so he wandered the streets, searching for scraps of food and shelter.

As he walked up to the young restaurant owner, the man by the name of Zankoku smiled, inviting him forward.

Confused by the strangely warm reaction, Naruto approached the man who then said "You must be hungry. Would you like a small bowl of rice and salted fish?" to which Naruto smiled and said "yes please, thank you very much!"

Unfortunately for Naruto, this was one of the worst possible choices he could have made, as he took a small bite out of the meager meal, and the drugs within promptly knocked him unconscious.

Flashback End

And it was within impractical, uncomfortable cloths that Naruto woke up. This loss of his favorite outfit, a black T-shirt with an orange spiral and jeans, was quickly overshadowed by another fact; when Naruto opened his eyes, everything was still black.

Naruto was horrified – he was not book smart, but was unusually canny for a 5 year old, and he realized just how bad his situation was. There was humiliation from the inferred fact that at some point, an adult must have stripped him down to his underwear, seen his scarred body, and he promptly flinched. He didn't feel any pain in his lower body, so at least that didn't happen to him. The other massive, horrifying problem was that he didn't know where he was, and was blind. There was little else for the boy to do, but curl up and cry.

xxxScene Breakxxx

The Sandaime Hokage was a genius in many aspects of life. He was the Shinobi no Kami, the summoner of the monkey contract, and a great teacher. These aspects however, did not help him at all with the current problem he was facing.

"Where is Naruto-kun?"

He went to the orphanage a while ago, looking for his surrogate grandson, and was enraged by the matron-in-charge's dismissal of Naruto onto the streets. He had an idea though, now that one of his best tracker ANBU returned from a long-term mission into Kumo.

"Inu-san!"

A man wearing a dog mask appeared "Hai, Hokage-sama!"

"I have an A-rank mission for you, do you accept?"

"Hai, what is the objective?"

At this the Hokage became slightly nervous "To locate/rescue a juvenile civilian from undetermined dangers" Inu was growing more and more suspicious of why he was given the mission directly, when he suddenly put the facts together.

"Hokage-sama, is it Naruto who is missing." Inu said with clenched teeth.

"Ye-"

But the moment the Sandaime formed the word, Inu was already racing across rooftops, summoning his nin-dogs and barking out instructions:

"Find Uzumaki Naruto. If anyone is threatening him, attack. Contact me ASAP"

"Please be safe Naruto. I will never forgive myself if you died!"

xxxScene Breakxxx

Naruto was scared. The only audio cues he had to his location was the rustling of leaves, which was useless seeing as Konoha was known as the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

"Help!" he yelled, not caring if his kidnappers were still nearby "HELP!"

But no one responded.

"Why?" he asked "Why does everyone hate me so much" as far as he could remember, the villagers hated his guts. They snubbed him, ignored him, or on the night of his birthday got drunk, and hurt him. "Does Hokage-jiji know? Does he let these things happen to me?"

"Does he not care?"

Naruto is prone to assuming the best of people, but his blindness coupled with his isolation was causing him to doubt his "jiji". He could take it if the Hokage a little angry because of his little pranks, but if the Hokage became apathetic towards him, then he would break.

Hours passed by, and Naruto ran out of tears. Loud in his mind was a single word-

"Why?"

"why?

"why"

And eventually, even that abandoned him, as he finally drew a conclusion,

"It doesn't matter"

"Even if he does care for me, he still has failed to help me"

"The only person I can rely on now-"

"Is me."

"What? Who was that! Show yourself!" Naruto exclaimed angrily

"Quiet. Simply think instead of yelling"

"Why?"

"Never mind. You'll meet me soon enough"

Suddenly, the total stress of the day hit Naruto, and the lack of nutrition caused him to pass out.

Chapter 1 End

A/N Good? Bad? Please let me know.