The Scarlet Flash
Christmas!
A time where families get together and celebrate with songs, laughter, good food and presents.
A time most people take for granted, since they don't know of any other way to spend this jolly holyday. For one ninja, this was the days he felt lonelier than ever before.
Uzumaki Naruto had never experienced the joys of spending holydays with family and friends. Uzumaki Naruto had neither!
Well, that's not entirely true. The past four years had been good for him. He had gained the trust and respect of many of his peers, and even dared to call a few of them his friends. However, he was always the one who had to come to them. They never asked him how his life was, and how he was doing. No, they just treated him like they would any other person their age that they happened to be friendly with.
When Naruto was born, he was chosen by the fourth Hokage, the greatest ninja in all of Hi no Kuni, to be the container of a great demon.
The Kyuubi had rampaged over the whole world after defeating the other eight bijuu in the Great War, and had finally entered Hi no Kuni's borders. Yondaime Hokage was the only one with enough strength to even stand a chance in defeating the demon, and he did.
Even with his wife and newborn son in the hospital back home, he proudly stood before the enormous demon in front of him, neither one of them even flinching. The battle lasted for hours, but everyone could see the demon slowly wearing the ninja out. After all, the Kyuubi had limitless stamina and nearly limitless chakra.
With his final chakra, the Yondaime summoned the Death God himself. The deal they made was Yondaime's soul for the entrapment of the demon inside a human vessel. As his parting gift, Yondaime wished for his son to be acknowledged as a hero in his home town. To be known as the son of the hokage, and the prison of the greatest Bijuu. That was the future he saw for his son, and he was ready to give his own life for the safety of his son's.
Even with good intentions like the ones of Namikaze Minato, or Yondaime Hokage as we know him, it was never realistic. No Uzumaki had ever been able to really see the darkness in the people they loved, and Yondaime was the same. He couldn't have known the pain he involuntarily caused his only son. The person he loved more than his own life. More than anything!
Naruto's mother knew what to expect from the little town, but couldn't tell her husband so. The Yondaime was granted enough time to say goodbye to his family before the Death God came to collect, and as he was cradling the little baby in his arms, seeing himself in the little boy, he knew his legacy would live on. He knew then that his son would grow up to be the strongest ninja ever known, and he would follow him from the other side. Namikaze Minato died with a smile on his face, hugging his wife and son.
Sadly, the word about the Kyuubi still being alive spread through the little village. The demon had killed so many loved ones, and even taken their beloved leader's life. The anger and hate could only lead to insanity and suffering.
Armed ninjas came to the hospital followed by just about the entire population of the city, and they knew what they had to do. They knew the Kyuubi had taken over the body of Yondaime's son, and corrupted the mind of his wife. They could not let them live!
When the Sandaime hokage of the Sarutobi-clan came to the hospital, it was too late. The woman Yondaime had chosen as his soul mate had passed away, killed while protecting her baby from the masses. There was nothing he could do for her, but that didn't stop him from ripping the spine out of her killer's back, forcing it down the throats of the others. Never had anyone seen the usually so kind and calm old man this angry, and no one ever wanted to see that sight again.
The boy was now an orphan. Sarutobi would take him in himself, if he didn't know for sure that he wouldn't be able to take care for the boy. So the boy ended up in an orphanage. The day after the baby lost everything, the Hokage told all the villagers that if anyone mentioned the Kyuubi from that day on would be severely punished, and the boy was to be off limits.
But as the Yondaime, Sarutobi had too much faith in the population of that cursed village. He believed that Naruto would be safe and never hurt again…
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Naruto's first Christmas was spent there. The usually so cold and colorless halls of the orphanage was covered with decorations, and lights where set up everywhere. The only place these children could call their home was now a place who deserved this title. But there was one room that differed from the others.
In this orphanage, all the children had their own rooms. Rooms covered with decorations and lights, and toys spread around from one wall to another. One room, however, was left the same. The children usually got gifts and toys on Christmas from some kind hearted villagers. One little boy, only 3 years old, never got anything. His room held the same shade of grey it always had, and the boy had no toys to play with. This boy was Uzumaki Naruto, the boy who was supposed to be the hero of the entire village.
Most of the children were brought to the open homes of families in the city, where they got presents and good food, and got to experience how it felt to be part of a family. No one wanted Naruto near their families. The boy spent Christmas crying alone in his room. Why did everyone hate him? Why wouldn't they even look at him without hate in their eyes? The little Naruto didn't know. The people at the orphanage was the same as the others, spitting at him when he walked by, yelling at him if he made himself known. He never got to make friends with the other orphans, because most of the time he was locked in his room.
Two eyes, clouded with unshed tears, looked out the only window in this room. They could see children laughing with their parents, and the looks of love the adults shoved them. He had never had anyone look at him that way.
Was his life a nuisance to everyone else? How could anyone look with such hatred at a boy not ever four years old? A boy who had never felt the loving arms of an adult since the day his parents was killed. He sat there, shaking as tears was shed. "It's only a few days" he whispered to himself as he hugged his legs.
Christmas went by, and the children returned to the orphanage with new clothes and toys. Naruto eyed them with envy, because he didn't own anything he could call his own. He had never owned a toy in his life, and every time he asked the other children if he could play with theirs, the adults would beat him until the medic-nins had to come mend his bones and heal his bleeding wounds.
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At four years old, Naruto had suffered more broken bones than most ninja would in their entire career. His head had been cracked open only the day before, and now he was lying in the corner of his room as the lady everyone in the orphanage called 'mom' was hacking away at him with a stick. The poor boy had bruises over his entire body, and was bleeding from his ears. That's when everything went black, and the boy entered a week-long coma.
When he woke up, he was in a room he had spent almost as long time in as his own room at the orphanage. He was in a hospital-room, covered in cables and whatever they put into a comatose patient. In a panic, he ripped the devices off his body before he jumped out of the bed. He knew how the nurses looked at him, and he had often returned from the hospital with bruises he didn't have when he came there in the first place. The sound of the heart monitor going over to a steady tone was the first sign for the beating he knew was coming.
The boy ran to the window and looked out. As he thought, it was way too high for him to survive a fall from here. He ran to the small closet and opened it up, curling himself into a ball as he sat in the corner of the closet. He could hear the door of his room open and at least five pairs of feet enter the room. They were talking, and he could hear some of them shouting out in anger "Where did the brat go this time?"
He hugged himself tighter as he could hear them rummage through the room.
A young jounin was just walking past the room at that moment. He had visited some of his friends who were hospitalized at the moment, and he heard shouting from one of the rooms. Since he knew a hospital would be a great target for hostile ninjas to attack, the jounin wasn't about to let this go unnoticed. He walked into the room, ready for battle... but there were none.
"What's going on?" he asked the six nurses. The room looked completely trashed, as they had ripped the bed sheets to shreds, tipped over all the furniture and spilled stale food all over the floor. One of the nurses looked at him before she answered, "One of our patients is gone".
That didn't make any sense to the young jounin. Why would they completely trash the room just because a patient was missing? Judging by the hate apparent in their eyes, he guessed this "patient" had to be someone truly horrible.
Looking around, his ears twitched. What was that? Was that a whimper he could hear from the little closet in the corner of the room? Why the hell hadn't they looked in there? Wouldn't it make more sense for someone to hide in a closet instead of inside the bed sheets? The jounin was glad neither of these idiots had chosen the path of the ninja, because this was beyond embarrassing!
But something didn't make any sense! The level of chakra emitted from the closet wasn't even genin-level. How could anyone with that level of chakra be of any danger to an entire village of ninja?
"Leave this room at once" he ordered, "I'll find your missing patient".
Neither one of the nurses was dumb enough to protest! They knew that the anger of this particular jounin wasn't something they wanted to feel on their selves, so they left. Shutting the door, the jounin looked at the closet. "You can come out now" he said calmly. When nothing happened, he walked over to the closet and opened the door.
Even seasoned ninjas like him could be surprised at times, and this was clearly not what he expected. A little blonde boy was sitting in the corner, hugging himself tightly. What were most disturbing were the injuries visible on the boy's body.
Now, as a jounin, this ninja had seen a lot of pain. He had seen more broken bones and open wounds than most doctors would do in their entire career, yet he was disgusted with the people who could treat a small child this way. No doubt, the little boy wasn't able to trust just anyone, and his beautiful blue eyes where clouded with fear.
"Don't you want to come out?" the young man said. The little boy just shook his head. Naruto wasn't about to trust this masked weirdo if he could help it!
The jounin sighed. 'How the hell do these little persons work either way?' he asked himself. He was a ninja, not a babysitter. His eyes still locked on the boy he sat there in deep thought. He was smart! Not as smart as the average Nara, but he was damned close. He wasn't called a genius for nothing!
Suddenly, the invisible cartoon light bulb appeared over his head. Kid's trusts everything that smiles! He reached for his mask and revealed his face to the little boy. The ninja hadn't even shown his face to the Hokage, so the boy should really feel special. Naruto looked at the ninja's smiling face. 'He's smiling… for me' Naruto thought. The only one who ever gave Naruto a smile was the Hokage himself, and the old man was busy running a god damn shinobi-village.
"Do you want to come out now?" The kind ninja asked, still smiling. He didn't know why, but there was something about this boy that made him feel good and he truly wanted to help. Naruto nodded and slowly climbed out of the closet, looking at his face the entire time.
When he could see the little boy in the light, the ninja suddenly realized just who this little boy was, and now he knew why those stupid nurses tore his room apart while searching. This was the Yondaime Hokage's legacy, Uzumaki Naruto, and he knew that he had to protect the scared little boy from the wrath of the hospital personnel.
He lifted the little boy up and carried him to the bed, sitting down with him firmly planted on his lap. Naruto was confused! What in the ten planes of hell was this guy doing? Didn't he know that he was a monster, and that he was to be hated for everyone else to be happy? He searched the man's one visible eye for the usual feelings he could see in people- anger, hatred and fear. However, he could find nothing but kindness from this man, and he relaxed and let his guard down.
'He must be good at reading people' the ninja thought to himself, 'that will certainly come in handy when he becomes a ninja'. Looking at the boy again, he smiled as the little boy was admiring his hitai-ate. "Nii-san… what is that shiny thingie on your head?" the boy asked. 'Nii-san? Now where did that come from?' the ninja thought, but shrugged it off. He couldn't have known that he was the first person to ever be kind to the boy, and he was just trying to show his affection the only way he knows.
"This is proof of me being a ninja" the young jounin told the boy, smiling as he saw the stars in the young boy's eyes. "Do you want to be a ninja when you grow up?" he asked. Naruto nodded his head, thinking that he could be with kind people like his new nii-san if he became a ninja. "I want to be the bestest ninja in the world" he shouted, making the man chuckle. 'He sure reminds me of his father'.
Suddenly, the door was kicked open. "AH! You found the little demon shinobi-sama" the head nurse said, moving towards the boys. The jounin could feel the killer intent radiate from the woman as she looked at the boy who was hiding behind the ninja and shaking like he could see death himself. "Get your filthy little hands of shinobi-sama this instant" she yelled at the boy, who just increased his hold on the young ninja, "I'm sorry shinobi-sama… I'm going to make sure the little demon learns his place" she said as she stood in front of the two boys.
Naruto was crying again. It is amazing just how many tears kids his age can hide, and Naruto had done a fair share of crying in his short life. The ninja, who had put his mask back on the nanosecond he felt the nurse's presence outside, stood up and glared at the woman in front of him. "Did you forget the Hokage's law Ms…?" he said with a cold voice. Naruto watched in awe as the mean lady almost wet herself, stuttering her pathetic excuses about how the little boy had been being a pain and hurting the other patients. But as everyone who lives in a ninja-village should know: Don't ever lie to a seasoned ninja, or you won't live to regret it.
Naruto's attention suddenly went to the ninja again as he could see a blue aura surround the man. He didn't know it at the time, but only strong doujutsu is able to see the chakra surrounding a shinobi. Suddenly a sound of thousands of birds started to fill the room, and the ninja's hand started to take on an eerie glow. "I have never before been as ashamed of my village as I am now, but I'm going to make sure this boy will survive and grow to become this village's strongest ninja ever. The only problem is people like you, but that can be easily changed" he said. Naruto could clearly see that the head nurse wasn't as cold and collected as she normally is, but was afraid for her own life. With a shriek she turned on her heels and started to run out of the room, only to hear the ninja behind her yell "RAIKIRI" before everything went black.
Hatake Kakashi had promised his sensei, Naruto's late father and the Yondaime Hokage, that nothing bad would ever happen to his legacy, and from that day on he decided to start looking after the little boy. The first thing that had to be done was to get him out of the orphanage, since he could see how the little boy was treated, but that was something he had to ask the Hokage about. Turning around he could see the boy staring at him, but the way he stared made Kakashi calm down. Naruto wasn't afraid of him! He was shocked, yes. But not because he had just been witness to Kakashi thrusting his hand through a woman's chest. He was shocked because someone was willing to go that far… for him!
Naruto knew that he wanted to be a ninja like Kakashi, and he knew that he would have to be a strong boy to get there. Pumping his fists in the air, he looked at Kakashi and smiled as wide as he could. Kakashi knew that he was the first person to ever be on the receiving end of that smile, and he was determined to take good care of the boy from now on.
"I'll make sure your son grows up to be even stronger than you, Sensei" Kakashi smiled and lifted the boy up in an embrace. Before he knew it, Naruto was fast asleep with his arms in an iron grip around Kakashi's neck. "Yes, he's just like you".
AN/ Yeah, you may notice that I have edited this chapter and ask yourself why I did that… Simple! I did it because I wanted the name of the Yondaime to be the same in all my chapters, lol
This story will be a NaruXFemHaku story, with a possible addition of a female Kyuubi if I decide to write the demon as a female. If I do, I have to come up with an original way to release the demon! Either way, enjoy the story!