Second Naruto fanfic. In this one, they start the Academy at six, and the Uchiha Massacre happens when Sasuke was five instead of six. Yes, Sakura's father is abusive. Yes, I'm going to make her useful *gasps
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
"There you are, Little Demon!" The drunken villagers crow as Naruto sprints among the forests, his tiny five-year-old legs wobbling with exertion. As the crowd behind him gets nearer and nearer, a shuriken hits his thigh with a wet thunk, causing him to cry out in pain and collapse to the ground. The crowd approaches him eagerly, throwing bottles, stabbing with knives and glass, punching, kicking, breaking, shattering. He could only curl up into a ball and wait for them to finish. When they finally do, he stays in place, his wounds slowly healing, the glass embedded in his back melting away.
They're gone, right? He asks himself, looking around the training grounds cautiously before emerging from behind the bushes and diving into the lake. Soaking and spluttering, he washes off the dirt and blood, leaving pale, clean skin behind. Silently pulling on his clothes as he dries himself with the towel he stole three days ago, he walks among the training, shoulders hunched, eyes welling up with tears that he allowed to fall silently. Why me? He asks, curling up in a ball beneath a tree and shivering as the night wore on. Why do they hate me so much? I just wanted some food… I just wanted a blanket… why did that lady make me go out of the orphanage? Why does everyone… hate me? I did nothing wrong… I just want someone to not hate me, maybe even like me… What did I do wrong?
Five-year-old Sasuke Uchiha runs among the Uchiha district streets blindly, tears gathering in his eyes at the dead Uchiha lying in puddles of blood, toward his home, his family-were they even alive?
"Ah, there you are, little brother."
"Nii-san! Everyone's dead! Everyone! Who would do such a thing?"
"Do you want to know who?"
"Who, Nii-san?"
"Me." Itachi sneered, leaping down from the lamp post he was perching on and striding towards Sasuke.
"You… you… why?" Sasuke whispered. "No, no, no, no, no! It can't have been you! Not you! Nii-san, tell me who it really was-"
Then, he noticed the blood splattered along his face, the blood on the edge of his katana, the blood staining his clothes-
"Why? Nii-san? Why?"
"I did it… to measure my container. To see how strong I was and how much I can take."
"So you did it just to measure your container? Nii-san, you bastard!" The young boy rushes at Itachi, clumsily swinging his fist, but Itachi caught the blow and stared down at him, smirking.
"Watch these eyes, Little Brother. Look at my Sharingan! Once you have eyes like mine, you will be able to defeat me. For now… I will not kill you. Let us see how strong you can get, how much of my container you can fill."
With that, Itachi vanished.
Sasuke stumbled blindly along the streets, searching for a place not stained with blood, shivering with cold and fright and sorrow. Finally, he reached a training ground where a small boy was huddled under a tree, sobbing silently.
"Are you sad too?" Sasuke asked as tears finally fell from his eyes.
"Everyone hates me… everyone beats me and throws me around and doesn't give me anything… why? Why? Why?" The little boy sobbed. Sasuke fell down beside him and curled up next to him, his body shaking with sobs.
"He killed everyone… he killed everyone I know and love…"
"Who?"
"My brother…"
Five-year-old Sakura Haruno curled up in a corner of the house, shivering with fright.
"YOU WHORE!" Her father roared, his fist lashing out and striking her mother in the face. "YOU LITTLE BITCH!" Another strike, and a scream of pain. As her mother collapsed to the floor, her father approached her, his face livid with rage.
"You're a little whore and bitch too!" He yelled, his fist and feet lashing out and striking at her over and over and over. Kneeling down, she felt him unbuckle his pants, and then her pants and underwear were being ripped, and her buttocks pried apart.
"No! Not Sakura, not Sakura!" Her mother wailed. Her father's hands stopped, and then he stood up, kicking Sakura's fetal body toward the door.
"Get OUT, and NEVER COME BACK AGAIN! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU BEFORE YOU LEAVE FOR GOOD, YOU LITTLE BITCH! I WANT A SON, NOT A WHORE!"
Two more blows, and she was flying down the steps as she crawled away, away, away from the monster who slammed the door shut. Standing up, she blindly ran among the streets, away from Konoha, into the training grounds where there were no people and only silence and fresh air and-
Two children, curled up underneath a tree, hugging each other, sobbing.
"Help me," she cried, fighting to keep her tears back.
"Help me, too!" They both screamed, telling their stories of murder and neglect and anger and grief. As the three children curled up and hugged each other tight underneath the weeping willow, their sobbing finally ceased, and yet they hugged each other tighter.
"My family hates me," Sakura told them.
"My family is dead," Sasuke said.
"I don't have a family," Naruto finally added on. The three stared at each other, saw the familiar anguish and grief in their eyes, one green, one blue, one black.
"How about we're each other's family now?" Sakura quietly asked, terrified, terrified inside that the last bit of people she had found would not like her, just like her father.
"Yes," the two boys replied. Embracing tightly, they fell asleep under the willow tree. When the Hokage and four Anbu members finally traced the three small chakras to their sources, that's how they found them: covered in bruises and cuts, tear tracks on their faces, exhausted and worn with grief.
Yet still embracing, still hugging each other's family.
"Hokage-sama, their chakra…" the Hyuga started, then stopped, squeezing his eyes shut and opening them again, Byakugan active, the veins bulging as he stares in awe at the children.
"What?" The Third Hokage asked, peering down at the three children, who they had moved to the hospital.
"Their chakra is… one unit. One entity."
"What do you mean by that?"
"It's all one pool of chakra. It seems like someone has connected their chakra-chakra natures, amount of chakra-together. As if now… they can use each other's chakra when they run out… It seems like one large unit, one entity," the Hyuga explained. Hiruzen stared down at the three sleeping children, Sasuke stirring in his sleep uneasily and clutching at Sakura's arm.
"They could be the most powerful people in the world, if they wished…" Hiruzen whispered. Suddenly, Naruto sat straight upright with a scream, startling the other two children from their sleep. They glanced around, eyes wide with fear. All three children, children, staring around for an attack.
As if they expected to get attacked, expected to get ambushed or injured.
"You're alright, children," the Hokage whispered. "You're alright."
"Jiji!" Naruto yelled, breaking into a huge grin. It struck Hiruzen that he could still smile after all the horrors he had gone through.
"Where do I live, now?" Sakura asked the Hokage, who stared, brow furrowed, at Sakura.
"Her father kicked her out," Sasuke mumbled. "Hey, you can live with me…"
"Lucky," Naruto mumbled, before clapping a hand over his mouth and glancing at Sasuke, who had unfortunately heard.
"Are you lonely, too?" Sakura asked, staring at Naruto's red face.
"I live alone."
"Then you can live at the Uchiha district too, Naruto-kun!" Sakura told him.
"Wait, Sakura-chan-"
"No more nonsense, Sasuke-kun. Naruto-kun is living with us, too!"
The three children smiled at each other, Hiruzen looking on fondly. Yes, this would work. They could grow and help and heal each other, fight off the demons of depression and loneliness together, bear each other on the Wings of Gods.
The prologue is short, but the chapters will become longer. Hope you like it!
Please, please, please, please review!