Hatred, that's all he ever seems to know, hatred. Everyone hates him and he doesn't know why. He sees their looks every time he tries to go out into the street and he can never escape those glares. These people they hate him for reasons he does not understand. He is forced to live in solitude because of that hatred, he can't talk to any of the other children his own age because they are always grabbed away before he gets the chance to talk to them.
Why? What had he really been able to do in the few years he had scraped out a living that had gotten him this level of hatred from every man woman and child within this village. He was not a bad person as far as he knew, he made sure that he was as polite as he could possibly whenever talking to people, only to get shouted at in return and called a 'demon-boy' before either being completely ignored, a door closed on his face or even in the worst of cases to be hit.
He had spent many nights in his apartment crying himself to sleep wondering why the whole world hated him so deeply, why the whole world loathed him with such force that it was as if animals could be treated better than him. Crawled up in his bed he lay in foetal position waiting for the blackness called sleep to take him in it's loving embrace, for he knew that only in the shadows of his dreams could he ever have any hope of escaping the harshness of his life.
Outside his apartment a venerable old man stood at the door ready to knock before he heard the sniffling of someone who had obviously given into their tears. How could he honestly blame the boy? He was hated by everyone in the village for no good reason and was forced to try and scrape out a life at the unthinkable age of only five. Five! No child should have to fend for themselves at the simple age of five! It was inhumane! How could it ever be allowed! How could that damn council condemn this young boy to a life of solitude and loneliness the likes of which he doubted many a man could even withstand? He had even volunteered to take on the boy as a foster child but it had been instantly rebuffed by the entire council who believed it would only encourage favouritism. How he could have annihilated the entire council that day overplayed in his mind over and over as he heard the soft whimpering of the child beyond that door crying his lonely heart out.
It became too much for him to simply listen any longer and he reached into his robe's pocket and retrieved his emergency key for the room. Placing it within the lock he turned it and opened the door into the apartment, he was instantly taken aback by how dark it was in the room, sure it wasn't exactly that bright outside, maybe it was about late evening but the sun was still slightly out and allowed some light. In here however it was completely dark. The room was simply just one room with all different amenities in one kitchen and all in one room and a separate area for the toilet. The room itself was immaculate, there was no cutlery cluttering the sink or any wrappers from food lying anywhere, in fact he was surprised that a five year old child could keep a room ever so tidy.
At his musing the object of his thoughts made ye another sniffle and looked up to the person within his house. Cerulean blue eyes met with Hazelnut brown eyes as the small boy on the bed lay in the same position and finally understood the depth of what was happening. He was in the presence of possibly the strongest man in the world, no-one ever said a bad thing to this man, he was very widely liked, respected and above most others feared. That was exactly what the young boy felt just now as he looked at the venerable man in front of him.
What had he done now that had gained the attention of the mighty, Third Hokage?
Hiruzen noted the way in which those magnificent eyes looked at him in fear now. He could understand why too, no-one becomes Hokage unless they are completely and utterly able to lead and hold the entire village together. The small boy moved further away from Hiruzen almost to the point where he was close to falling out of his window. Once he reached the window however he realised that it was closed and even when open did not allow him the chance of escape, despite his small figure he would still have problems getting through that gap. It did not stop him from leaning desperately into the wall hoping that it would give way and let him fall outside.
"Naruto…" Hiruzen called out softly as he felt his heart constrict in the show of absolute fear in front of him, he had seen fear from children before of course, but this wasn't any childish fear of someone bigger than them, no. this was fear of someone who would kill him.
"Naruto…" he tried again as he could see that the small blonde haired boy did not seem at all ready to stop his attempts at escape, fresh tears had appeared on his cheeks already, the boy was terrified.
"Naruto, I promise you that I am not here to harm you" Hiruzen tried to reason gently, hoping tat his gentle tone would calm the young boy down long enough for him to be able to talk to him. Still the boy did not move at all from his place and the tears kept on streaking down his face, barely even glinting in the darkness from his darkened face completely in the shadows.
"I promise you that I mean you no harm, I will even leave my walking stick against this wall and keep my hands behind my back how does that sound?" Hiruzen asked very gently as he set his walking stick against the wall and placed his arms behind his back, just as promised.
He was pleased when he saw the small boy seem to become more at ease with him now, with renewed assurance Hiruzen took a step forwards only for the small boy to instantly recoil and raise his arms in self defence, covering his face. Hiruzen felt yet an other pain in his chest, was the boy honestly that scared of everyone? Was he honestly that used to getting hurt that he instantly tried to defend his face whenever someone came close to him? Hiruzen was definitely going to have some words with that damned council. This boy was terrified of everyone! How was he supposed to ever make friends? How would he ever get an education if he was afraid of everyone?
"Naruto, I give you my word as Hokage that I will not harm you in any way shape or form, I wish only to come over there and sit with you and talk to you" Hiruzen gently told the small boy, this time to his happiness he saw the small nod of the blonde hair and proceeded to move over to where the boy sat and sat at the edge of the bed. He could feel on the bed that the boy had yet again tried to escape from him and was now trying to move away.
"Honestly Naruto, when I said I was not going to hurt you I meant it, now come on talk to me, I have wanted to talk to you for quite some time" Hiruzen told the boy in a gentle way trying to make it sound more positive than negative.
"Y…You want to talk to me?" came the small squeaky voice of Naruto as he turned to the Hokage with a hint of fear still left in his eyes ready to expand at light speed.
"That is correct Naruto, I came here to talk to you young man" Hiruzen said in a happy voice to which he noticed affected Naruto, the boy seemed confused with the tone he was using.
"Why are you talk to me like that?" Naruto asked very suspiciously before he remembered his manners and added "Hokage-sama"
"Why because I am happy that I am finally able to talk to you of course!" Hiruzen answered with a small laugh which caused Naruto to wince slightly.
"No-one is ever happy to talk to me" Naruto answered plainly as he came forwards from the shadowy area that he had been covering himself in "They all hate me" he said as his face finally came forward from the shadows and Hiruzen was privy to a horrible sight. Naruto's whisker marks were no longer the only marks on his face but he also sported a slash that ran from the top of his right eye right down his face and through the whiskers until it met at his chin, Hiruzen could also smell rotting flesh and knew that there was some acidic material on whatever caused that cut.
Naruto turned away again and focused very intently on his index finger which was tracing intricate designs all across his wall. Hiruzen noticed this and realised that he may very well have overstepped himself. That show had been enough, he really needed to vent now, this poor boy had suffered far too much for even him to stand any longer, he was going to find whatever Shinobi had done that to the boy and was going to have some very stern words with him or her. With words possibly moving to blows very quickly, yes very quickly indeed.
"Naruto I will get to the bottom of this, I promise you that whoever done this to you will definitely wish that they had never done such a thing" Hiruzen declared to Naruto before leaving Naruto alone in his apartment again. Naruto sat in utter shock, the fear that he had felt for the old man had almost instantly been replace with affection. The Third Hokage cared about him? That was something Naruto never thought would ever happen especially not with the highest level of ninja in the village. Naruto for the first time in his life was allowed the happiness of thinking that for once someone actually cared about him.
"I would advise you leave the village right now unless you want to die" came a seething furious voice from behind Naruto, the small boy turned slowly only to be met with the balled fist that crashed into his face and sent him off his bed and cracking into the opposite wall. Naruto simply slumped to the ground, he was used to these kinds of beating, he just allowed his body to go limp. Then he was lifted up by the hem of his white t-shirt in order to look upon the face of his attacker, or he would have if they did not have a mask on.
"I will repeat myself only once. Get. Out" the man reiterated very forcefully while at the same time throwing Naruto towards the doorway of his apartment where Naruto landed and slid before rolling slightly and trying to regain his footing at the doorway. He was unable to as a foot quickly connected itself with his stomach and uprooted him from the ground and sent him over the barrier in place on the balcony and he fell to the ground and connected with it in an almighty crack. Naruto cried out in pain as he felt his back cracking against his own weight crashing down on him and harming him so much. There was the sound of feet landing on the ground and Naruto only had a second before he was kicked right in his right hand side and sent right into the side of a building, where he fell to the ground again. Tears were coming out of his eyes in streams and his body was wracked by convulsions as his sobs moved his entire body. He had never had a beating like this one before it felt like every time he was hit an explosion happened and connected with him.
Things were beginning to become blurry now for Naruto, all he could see was the masked man as he made his steady approach to Naruto, he reached behind his back and drew a sword that looked like it had been snapped in half. The man walked up to him slowly as Naruto tried his best to stand on his own two feet even though he could tell that at any given moment his legs may very well just give out on him. He wavered on his feet, his small body could not take much more of this, he had endurance of that he knew but this was a whole different level, he had been beaten off villagers before, this was a ninja and they were making sure they done it right. Naruto kept watching as the ninja got closer and closer, the fear he felt escalated to new heights, he had only just made a bond with someone and now he was going to die?
Fear overtook him. He closed his eyes and fell to the ground with a soft thump as his tears came out again in torrents. He was crying again. The owners of the house that he had been thrown into came out to inspect what all the ruckus was about only to find an ANBU closing in on what looked like a simple small child.
"What are you doing man!" screamed the owner of the home as he came out with his wife in toe who also screamed "He's only a boy!"
"He is a demon-child and therefore is unstable and unable to function within this village properly, he is a danger and I am getting rid of it" the ANBU answered emotionlessly as he finally drew up to Naruto who was crying quietly to himself.
"Time to die demon-child" the ANBU said emotionlessly as he drove the sword right into the centre of Naruto's chest and watched as his blue eyes opened in sheer terror and pain.
Naruto had never experienced this level of pain before and it scared him. He may be five but he knew that this was not something he was going to live through. Closing his eyes he awaited the eternal darkness to take him over and release him from the torment that was his life. As the darkness closed in however a piercing red light took over his vision and he could feel his entire body being supplied with energy, with power, with anger. He opened his eyes to see that everything was clear to him, that was not what astounded him however, what really astounded him was the fact that the ninja that had stabbed him was now picking himself out of the side of Naruto's apartment complex.
The ninja stood straight again and looked at Naruto with hatred, the damn boy had pulled a fast one on him! But there was something about that same boy now. He looked to where he had stabbed Naruto and could see the blood still on the t-shirt but the wound was completely healed over. That was not what had his eyes glued to the small boy, oh hell no. what had his eyes glued to the boy was the raging red chakra that was flaming from his body in the shape of a fox and the fact that the boy's canines had elongated along with his fingernails into claws. But those red eyes were what really got him, he could see the intent in those eyes, the intent to kill.
By this time a dangerous amount of people had heard the commotion and come over only to see an ANBU pick himself out of a building and a small child standing across from him was a demonic chakra pouring from them and looking as feral as a caged beast. Many people had come the area and even some of the parents with the future generation of ninja in tow had come to this place in order only to see the attempted murder of Naruto. None of them had ever seen anything so horrific, of course some of them may have shouted at him or an even smaller minority have actually physically attacked him, after that show of brutality though even they were disgusted more by themselves now.
Naruto was completely unaware of everyone who had surrounded them now, all he knew was that he had to run and he had to do it now. Naruto turned on the spot and tried to run to his right in order to escape but before he was even able to move a few steps the ninja had appeared to his side and delivered a kick to his head that sent him right back into his previous hole in the wall. He did not feel the entire force behind that hit though which surprised him greatly. He fell to the ground again but this time landed in a crouching position and snarled. Everyone who was watching felt a shiver of fear running down their spine. No child should be able to make a noise like that.
The ninja again made a move towards Naruto and aimed a kick right at his chin only for the blow to be caught by Naruto's clawed left hand. While in that hold the ninja jumped from the ground and brought his other foot careening towards Naruto's face again. This foot was caught by Naruto's free hand, the ninja dropped to the ground on his back. Naruto in an act that seemed completely unlike the extremely fearful child that he was released the feet of the man instantly and leapt onto his chest where he started to mercilessly beat the man.
Just as Naruto was about to land yet an other blow to the man's chest there was a puff of smoke and he was suddenly pummelling a tree. Confused by the turn of events he looked up directly in front of him to see the Hokage standing there with the ninja he had been attacking sitting on the ground slouched over. That was not what Naruto was looking at however, he was looking at the look the Hokage was giving him, the worst look and child can receive, the look of disappointment. Naruto was on his feet instantly and backing away quickly as full understanding began to dawn on him. The red chakra began to leave his form and move inside of him as his claws and fangs receded and eventually his red animalistic eyes faded and he was back to his normal five year old self.
"I…I…I didn't mean it…..I…I …" Naruto tried in his small tone before he thought all was lost and simply turned on the spot and ran.
The ninja saw the direction that Naruto was running and could not help but smile to himself, he may have been pulverised but his job was done. The direction that the boy was going indicated that he was going to run right out of the front gates of Konoha into a world he could scarcely imagine.
"Goodbye, Kyuubi Jinchuriki" the ninja said quietly to himself as he watched the retreating figure of the small boy getting smaller and smaller.
Ok here you guys go, please go easy on me as this is my first Naruto fanfic and I don't know if I may have gotten any wrong technicalities. With his age though I tried to work it in with something I plan on making clearer in later chapter if you guys like this one enough that is. Anyway here is hoping that I have made good on this fic, thank you R&R please - Varrukh