"Naruto of the Village hidden in the Grass"

By Quick-n-Popular

Disclaimer: "Naruto" is owned by its author, Masashi Kishimoto. I own only this story I've created and the original characters I've introduced.

Author's Note: This takes place in an Alternate Universe as predicted by the title of this story. Some facts are omitted due to the obvious fact of Naruto's absence from Kohona.

Enjoy!

Chapter One: A new life with a woman named Ai

It was raining in Kohona. Many of its inhabitants scurried as they quickly made their way inside to shelter themselves from the rain's biting presence along with the wind making it impossible, even for the most skilled Shinobi, to escape its wet death-trap.

One lone figure stat huddled in an alleyway unable to escape the rain. A bloodied, bruised, ragged small form sat clutching his arms as he sat next to a garbage bin behind a recently opened restaurant. Already wet from head to toe, the six year old boy whose dampened blonde hair clung to to his eyes, shuddered as the coldness accompanied by the wet, torn, clothes he wore made his present state even more unbearable. He quickly raised his head as he heard approaching footsteps.

"The demon brat gave you the slip, huh?" Said a voice close by.

The boy trembled and weakly got back to his feet as he continued to hear the conversation continued by another voice accompanying the one he heard as it came closer to his area at a close pace.

"Yeah, but no worries. Rats usually seek shelter in woodpiles close by. I'll find him soon enough." The other voice replied.

The boy made an inaudible startled sound as his voice was already ravaged from having been screaming and yelling from his previous beating. Looking in all directions, he soon heard the footsteps approaching his current location quicker than anticipated. The boy limped as he shuffled his back out into the crowded open street. He soon met the eyes of those who noticed him with either deep resentment or just contempt. None, however, approached or spoke to him as all were in their haste to get indoors. The boy, who had been knowing this kind of treatment since his birth, wondered if the village he had been born into had anything to offer besides what he had endured for these long, tormenting, years.

"There he is! I see him!" Yelled a voice behind him.

The boy shuffled quicker through the crowd at a quicker pace, his eyes alive in terror. He was thrown side to side as people bumped into him and he soon fell to the ground as one was harder than the others were. The boy clawed at the ground, coughing wildly from the pain he was already in from his previous beating. He could hear a person behind him approaching quickly as a man's voice carried in.

"There you are!"

The boy felt the back of his shirt being pulled from behind him as he was forcibly turned around and laid roughly onto his back. The boy immediately put his arms in front of his, already, heavily bruised face, awaiting the pain he knew was soon to follow.

"What do you think you're doing!" A feminine voice shouted.

The boy kept his pose as he breathed heavily. To his amazement, he wasn't feeling the pain he had experienced before and he slowly allowed his eyes to open a little as he saw his attacker looking away from him at someone behind him. The man was scowling.

"I'm giving our little demon his just punishment. What's it to you? You DO know what he is, right?"

The boy, then, arched his head back and looked at the person the man was talking to. A woman in her late teens, early twenties, who was dressed in Shinobi gear, with long crimson-red hair, hazel-green eyes, looking absolutely livid; glanced down at the boy for a moment before turning back to the man.

"No, should I? Grant it, I'm a from another village but it looks like, to me, that you're beating on a defenseless kid. In anyplace, especially in my village, barbarians like you would be dealt with in the most harshest ways."

The man growled, "Well, if you're from another village, then you should mind your own damn business. In any case, if you had heard, this village had been attacked six years ago by the demon fox Kyuubi. It nearly wiped out half of our village and killed our Hokage, the Sondaime." The man then gave a venomous look as he pointed down at the boy on the ground who seemed to be lost in the conversation they were having, "This was the place that creature had been put into. It's a disgusting reminder and an insulting creation of what had happened to our village. Now, if you don't mind, I'll take this thing away and dispose of it."

The woman's eyes narrowed. "No, you won't." In a lightening-quick move, she grabbed the man's throat and had his body slammed down against the ground, cracking it in the process.

The man gasped out before his eyes closed and his body went limp.

The boy shook wildly as he looked at the body of his pursuer and the woman standing over him. He then shook even more violently as he saw her eyes set upon him. the boy tried desperately to back away as she soon was walking towards him.

"Relax kid, I'm not going to hurt you like that monster there."

"Y-You...k-killed him." The boy gasped as he continued his hasty retreat.

The woman turned back at to the man lying on the ground. "No, i didn't. He's just out for the moment." She turned back to the boy and squatted down as she gave a kind, warm, smile.

"What's your name, kid?"

The boy, his eyes still wide in fear, trembled as he spoke. "U...U-Uzumaki N-Naruto. That's what the lady at the orphanage said."

the woman nodded. "Why aren't you still at the orphanage, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruto casted his eyes at the ground. Tears enveloped his already parched eyes. "S-She said 'No one will ever want such a disgusting little demon like you. You will get out now or I'll send for someone to drag you out.'" He looked back at the woman who was scowling.

The woman looked around, seeing the area had already been vacated, she turned back to Naruto.

"Naruto, has anybody showed you any kindness here?"

Naruto looked at the ground, again, shaking his head.

The woman put her hand to her chin as she thought for a moment, then, she smiled and extended the same hand out to him.

"Uzumaki Naruto, would you like to come with me to my village? It'll give you a chance for a clean slate at life. No one will ever have known of you and there you can start life where you'll make friends and, if you like, I could take care of you."

Naruto starred at the ground for a moment and looked up at the woman, skeptically. "Why?"

The woman shrugged, "It feels like the right thing to do. Besides, I'm a good judge of character and I can tell, just by looking at you, that you seemto be a kind boy at heart."

Naruto thought for a moment, looked arounbd, and then slowly staggered as he picked himself up off the ground as he took her hand.

She smiled as she helped him up. "My name is Tokoshiro Ai. You may call me Ai, if you like."

With his cracked, dried bloodied lip, Naruto managed a smile.

"Ai." He said, dreamily.

Ai smiled as she then scooped up the young boy. She reached into her bag, on her back, and took out a spare rain cloak. Despite it being too large, she bundled Naruto in it. Ai carried Naruto out with her, in the rain, to the gates leading out the village.

It had been three hours since the two had left Kohonagakure, the two now on the outskirts of Fire Country.

Ai glanced down at the figure fast asleep on her shoulder, probably due to exhaustion. She sighed and gave a small smile as she looked ahead to the road they were on as they made their journey to her village which was still a day away.

"Well Uzumaki Naruto," She thought, "I don't know if this was the right thing I'm doing, taking you away from the place of your birth as I am; but it feels right. Where we're going, you WILL find some solace and a better environment than you've been brought up in. However, as life has taught me, there will always be pain on life, in one form nor another." Ai smiled as she felt his steady breathing against her chest. She held onto him a little tighter as she jumped into the trees and then the two of them made their way into the night's dark hours.

to be continued...

A/N: Kohona's reaction to Naruto sudden departure will be in the next chapter. Trust me, I haven't forgotten, nor do I wish to change, Sarutobi's feelings toward Naruto. Naruto's life in the new village and the life that's going on in Kohona will go back and forth in this story. And he will be meeting the usual main characters in later chapter but not MUCH later chapters, rest assure.

Please review, as always.

Q-n-P