Summery- A chance meeting, Naruto after being chased by an assailant is left dying as his own heart is damaged beyond repair; a shadowed form looms over him and leaves him with life anew
Disclaimer- Don't own nothing, double negatives don't count neither
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Soft light trickled in through a dirty glass window high in an apartment complex situated in the slums of Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves aptly named as; while it wasn't particularly hidden it was surrounded by miles upon miles of densely packed forest
The life giving light provided by the sun continued to worm its way through the window, past the wooden board used to hold potted plants, past the duct tape used to sloppily fix the window when it had been broken numerous times from bigoted villagers who held some unnamed grudge against the poor orphan who lived inside the dingy one room apartment
The boy in question moaned slightly and attempted to roll over and avoid the very warm and in his opinion evil sun which seemed driven to enticing his senses into awakening for a another day, the action of rolling over however produced a very interesting effect as the boy toppled out of bed landing face first on the cold cement floor
"Annoying bright bugger" muttered the boy as he yawned and stretched haphazardly throwing the sheets back onto his bed as he did so
Half awake the boy stumbled to his feet cracking his back and neck in an attempt to dislodge the stiffness in his young body that accumulated during the cold night and slowly began to shuffle his feet towards his kitchen, living room, laundry and practically everything else
Opening his fridge he was assaulted by the cool air, deciding quickly the boy fished out several cheap gaudy packages given to him with his monthly allowance that the Hokage had delivered since the orphanage kicked him out into the cold
The packages were processed foods that like vitamin pills contained all the necessary nutrients for a growing body such as his own even if they did taste like soggy cardboard mixed with sand, blanching slightly at the awful taste of mass produced goods the boy moved over to his sink and started running water
The water as it always did came out brown and unfiltered and he let it run for several minutes before filling a glass with an almost mud less water and turning off the sink with a slight look of contempt
Clenching his teeth the boy took a few sips of the un-sanitised water and managing to block the worst of it before spitting out the rest, his teeth would defiantly need brushing after this
Finishing up his food the boy walked out of his apartment unknowing of what fate would pass him
This boys name was Uzumaki Naruto
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The day started off as always suffering from both verbal and physical abuse as villagers would blatantly go out of their way to trip or push Naruto their physical violence so poorly disguised that even a blind man could see through what they were doing
The worst part was those that didn't simply 'attack' him would whisper to each other behind their hands but loud enough so that he could hear every word talking about him like he was some disease ridden animal
Naruto often wondered usually after some gutsy villager or group decided to beat up on him and leave him broken in a gutter somewhere, he wondered why people hated him and thought of him as some disgusting vermin, he wondered if it was some family member who had betrayed Konoha or done some awful act but then again he never knew who his parents were and no one had even told him of he ever had parents
He once wondered if it was a bloodline that he had but figured the idea was useless as he had yet to develop any unique skill and as far as he knew he didn't even have an elemental affinity as the teachers at the academy didn't even bother to give him a chance to check simply stating that 'It'd be useless to give this test to something like you'
Feeling something watching him Naruto turned around to see the street empty with not a single person there, ignoring the sense of foreboding Naruto turned back and continued on his way
Unseen by the blond of anyone else a shadow slinked along trailing Naruto's every move
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His time at the academy passed the same as any other meaning Naruto was ignored by the teacher, sneered at then ignored if he asked a question even if it was relevant to the topic before some other student would ask the very same question a minute latter and be praised for his or her lack of forethought much to his chagrin
If he was unable to do something properly he would be singled out and belittled for his 'weakness' while even the top student of the class couldn't complete the task given but was praised for the effort none the less
Seeing the teacher pick on Naruto meant the students in turn started to use him as a scapegoat, if something went wrong it was Naruto's fault, they found a dent in one of the training kunai it was Naruto's fault and for every other little thing that went wrong? Yep you guessed it, Naruto's fault
The teachers cruelty didn't stop there as if he had something that the teacher deemed 'unnecessary' for him to have i.e. source books, scrolls, lunches and the like then it would be 'confiscated' to never be seen again
Each day continued to get worse and worse but there was nothing he could do about it, no one listened to him as they all seemed to prefer the idea that he didn't even exist and if he actually told someone who listened, like the Hokage for example then the teachers and students would deny it saying he was just crying wolf
If he tried to excel at something then the teachers would take note of it and put up additional rules so that he couldn't get any further, he had yet to actually learn any ninjutsu or Genjutsu and only managed to figure things out by copying what other people did and hope for the best and when it came to Taijutsu sparing he would be paired with someone much stronger then him or used as a practice dummy to demonstrate to the class
The only teacher that had yet to be cruel to him was Mizuki but then he would occasionally get a weird look in his eyes and stare at him for long times during joint classes as that was the only time Naruto had him for any classes
As uneducated as he was Naruto knew better then to be in the same room as Mizuki alone no matter how nice he seemed
One of the new forms of abuse the teachers had set up had been written tests, fixed written tests to be precise while the tests were relatively simple, easy even the teachers marking his test would continuously mark him down without giving a single reason and sometime erase or write over correct answers so the end result gave him the result 'Dobe'
While the other children went out to play for lunch Naruto was left to clean the rooms and later admonish him for a sloppy job when they couldn't do better
But eventually another arduous day had finished and Naruto was free to go as he didn't wait to be let off just simply running out before one of the teachers could come up with some imagined slight against him
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While making his way home Naruto continued to feel uneasy as the sense of being watched had slowly increased over the day disappearing whenever he tried to find the source and he was slowly becoming more and more paranoid jumping at the smallest sounds
Crash
Eyes widening Naruto broke into a run as he heard a crash in the alley adjacent him, he wasn't going to take any chances running wildly with his legs pumping madly and his heart racing Naruto ran full pelt looking over his shoulder and all around him his vision dancing and weaving as he moved through the unpopulated streets
His blood pumped heavily in his ears as his heart continued to beat faster and faster, his breathing became laboured and shaky as fear started to take grip in his mind making his mind race at a hundred miles a second, the constant thought of "I'm about to die, I've got to run' kept playing over and over as he continued to run
He hadn't been looking where he was running so naturally he was unaware that he was moving further away from Konoha as the scenery of houses and buildings changed to bushes and trees, he had other things to worry about then where he was
"I need to get away' thought Naruto continuing to run, his whole body was tired and sore from the day at the academy and he was holding his side in pain as a build up of lactic acid was causing him to develop a stitch in his side
Exhausted He dropped to the ground behind a large oak tree panting and out of breath his lungs and throat burning in pain from the sudden abuse as he gulped down clean fresh air
Crick
The sound of a twig breaking was enough for Naruto freeze up completely as he even stopped breathing in an attempt to remain quiet, his ears strained as he tried to hear anything in the forest he couldn't hear any birds chirping, not any animals moving and there wasn't even a breeze in the air
The silence created from the environment was as unnerving as it was unnatural so much so that the silence was deafening as it rung in his ears making him sweat in anxiety
Crick crack crusss crick
Naruto almost let out a gasp as he heard the sounds again and paralysed in fear all he could do was hold his breath as his eyes darted back and forth
Crick crick crick crick
Now shaking Naruto could only wait as the sounds of twigs and leaves grew louder with each step whoever was after him took
Naruto watched as a shadowed man garbed in a black ninja outfit complete with facemask crept right by him not noticing the blond who had managed shift to the side out of the peripheral vision of the ninja
Relieved Naruto let out a breath he was holding as his lungs finally started working as his heart calmed down waiting another minute Naruto turned away from where the man had went and turned to move away
Only to come face to face with the masked man, numbly Naruto looked down at his chest where a kunai protruded cutting cleanly through clothing, skin and bone straight to his heart and out the other side of his chest
"Ugh... hugh... unn" Naruto muttered blood flowing freely out of his mouth as he dropped first to his knees and then on his side, he looked into the eyes of the man who had killed him and was frightened beyond belief
In the mans eyes were not sorrow for killing a child and taking away an innocent life, there was not anger like those that passed him in the streets, no there was boredom almost apathetic as the man was simply waiting for him to finally pass away
Naruto was almost relieved that the man seemed detached as he killed him but he so wanted to live, he had yet to even experience a day of happiness or make a single friend, he hadn't even found a purpose for living his last moments spent fruitlessly gurgling on his own blood darkness descending into his vision as his world was painted black
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His job done the cloth masked man tapped the radio next to his ear switching the unit on the soft crackling showing that it was working properly
"Himura this is Fox hunter mission accomplished I'm now deploying 'evidence' and making my way to location gamma and begin operation Cloudless skies"
The radio played static for a second before a man supposedly Himura picked up "Copy that Fox hunter and good luck"
Fox hunter almost smiled under his mask before fishing a cloud headband along with several long strands of hair and placing a Kunai into the palm of the rapidly cooling corpse of Naruto, next he opened a small clear vial containing blood and poured it over the kunai and some onto patches of the ground and in the dirt before pocketing the empty vial
'If all goes well we'll rid ourselves of that damned cloud' thought Fox hunter 'and that senile old goat will be the one to help us'
Taking one last look at the corpse of Konoha's newest martyr he gave a brief prayer for the child's soul as he knew it would be impossible for the child to be put to rest any other way the council and villagers would make sure that he never got a proper burial
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Kakuzu walked along the path through Konoha his presence concealed to even the most powerful of shinobi and his body invisible from displacing air particles with wind element chakra, a ninjutsu he developed so no one could see him when he didn't want to be seen differing from Genjutsu which could be dispelled his would be active as long as he wanted it to
He had recently found himself in a dilemma as to what he was to do with his life, he craved money as he was greedy beyond belief but had no reason for having the money, and there was nothing he needed or wanted and was almost content with his present immortality
Even being part of the organisation Akatsuki was proving little challenge to him, his last great challenge in his over one hundred years of life had been shodai Hokage and now he was beginning to wonder if there was any point left going on
He had surpassed everyone he knew, outliving those he couldn't beat but was slowly believing it was all for nothing, his colleges among the Akatsuki were mere brats compared to him and he wondered what would happen once he finally died, he had no one who would remember him, no one to pass on the techniques he had developed over a century of life and knew that even with everything he had written down into his own book, almost a biography of his life that detailed every technique and approach to how he lived that it was unlikely that whoever eventually took his life would ever read his book choosing to burn it and cast the ash to the seven winds
He knew through experience that he would never have anyone to pass his knowledge to and it was his greed that told him even if it wasn't for his benefit it would be a terrible waste for everything he had learnt to simply... disappear
He was relatively surprised when walking into one of the many clearings surrounding Konoha that he came upon the sight of a boy ten maybe eleven at most lying on his side, a kunai sticking all the way through his body and buried up past the hilt and through the handle to the ring pommel that was so common among Kunai nowadays
letting his invisibility drop Kakuzu calmly walked forward kneeling at the boy's side and looking at him 'Young' he thought, blond locks stained with his own blood and mixed with mud hung tightly to his face with bright blue eyes dead to the world and his skin so pale in was clear to a blind man that he had been dead for a long time
"Che what a waste, can't even use the heart" muttered Kakuzu as he stood back up and turned to move away
Feeling a small tug on his trench coat Kakuzu turned back to the boy and for the first time in so very long his artificial green eyes widened in surprise before returning to their normal size, the boy's hand had snagged the hem of his coat in rigor-mortis and gently tugged at his coat in an attempt to dislodge the article of clothing from the dead child's grip whose grip tightened over the fabric
Sighing in annoyance Kakuzu knelt back down to remove his clothing from the child's grip himself but when his hand reached down to pry the fingers loose the boys others hand gripped his wrist weakly and he found himself face to face with the pleading face of the child who had been so sure was long since dead
"He...lp...me"
Kakuzu was quite shocked at the child's life so much so that he was finding it impossible for himself to respond to the child
"He...lp...me...Pl...ea...se"
The child looked quite pathetic his hair drooping down with blood continuing to flow from both his mouth and nose making a truly disgusting sight which made Kakuzu wonder if how desperately he clung to life if he'd look so similar when at deaths door
The single though made him blink in surprise, this child showed as much will to live as he ever did, maybe just maybe he had found someone to pass his wealth of knowledge to so he could secure immortality even if he himself didn't live forever
"Brat, you wish to live"
"Ye...Yes...I...ca...n't...die...no...no...t...he...re...not...ye...t"
"Then are you prepared to change, to accept a new life without looking back at what once might have been"
"I...yes...YES...I...MUST...LIVE...I...need...to...survive...to find...a...Pur...pose"
Smirking Kakuzu knelt to Naruto's eye level and gripped him by the hair and replied "Then prepare yourself for when you awaken you will have a new purpose, to survive and thrive"
And in a single action Naruto's entire world blossomed into a world of pain once again"
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End chapter
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Preview
Naruto awoke to the bright sunlight of Konoha hospital, the world slightly out of focus as was common to those who had just woken up
Memories assaulted his mind of his death and how he had been saved by that creepy man, lifting his arm to rub sleep out of his eyes he was brought face to face with something he had never expected