First Naruto Fanfiction so some characters may be out of character and this is obviously going to be a slightly Alternate Universe story. No pairings as of yet, feel free to give suggestions. I've not gotten all the way through the eipsodes nor the manga so if it isn't perfectly concise don't bite off my head.

I do not own Naruto

Chapter One

Naruto sat back and stared at the moon, it was the night before the festival that was held every year on the day the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi. It was also the night before Naruto's birthday. It had been five years since the day of his birth. Five years since he'd become an orphan. He wasn't dumb, as everyone thought he was. He may have been young, but he developed faster than he let on. He had the intelligence of someone years older than him. That was why he was able to think of things better than those his own age. Like wondering why the entire village hated him and looked at him with such cold glares. Like a blizzard in the middle of the coldest winter. He didn't understand why they hated and sometimes even feared him. It was mainly the adults, but their children were picking up the hints and sometimes complete disdain for the blond. So Naruto didn't have a single friend his age. It was a rather lonely existance he led.

The young child sighed sadly and his gaze travelled to the town below him, he knew he wasn't supposed to be on the Hokage monument, but this was the best place to be alone. The second safest place for him in Kohona. The first safest was in the Hokage's office. The Sandiame always made sure to keep Naruto safe when he was in there. That was why he was up here thinking, at the moment. He'd been curious about his parents and had known that he might find the answers in the Hokage's office. After all it was only right that the top ninja would have be able to get informtation on the parents of a small child. Of course Naruto could read, he was self taught but pretended not to know how since that meant people underestimated him. He knew it was better people think less of him, the elemant of surprise had saved him more than once.

He'd gone looking for anything that could tell him who his parents were, maybe they were still alive? But if they were, why would they leave him all alone? Naruto had been thinking about his parents for a long time, since the day he'd learned that he was an orphan and what that meant. Maybe his parents were super-cool ninjas on a secret mission? That had gotten him excited. Naruto wanted to be a ninja. It was one of his dreams, he wanted to be the best. To be Hokage one day, so people would finally FINALLY acknowledge him and respect him. Of course he hadn't in his wildest dreams thought he'd learn that his mother was the last of a clan of SealMasters, and his father, his father had been the Fourth Hokage. He, Naruto Uzumaki, was the only son of the Yondaime Hokage; Minato Namikaze. The boy had quickly returned the papers before Old Man Hokage got back from a meeting and waited for the man to get back. He'd said his usual goodbye of "See ya Old man!" And left the Hokage's office.

Then he'd spent the rest of the afternoon sitting ontop of the Fourth's head of the Hokage Monument. "My daddy was the best ninja ever. So I'm gonna be the best too" He said as he clenched his little fists in determination. His eyes burning with an inner fire that spread throughout his body. Starting tomorrow he would begin training as a ninja. He may have been young, but he was smarter than people knew. He just needed to get the items needed to learn. He still had money left over from what the Hokage gave him since he lived on his own. He'd been kicked out of the orphanage, and none of the others in Konoha would take him. So the Hokage had gotten the small boy his own apartment and gave him money monthly for food and anything else he needed. LIke clothes, bandages, and other neccesities.

The blond stood and said a silent goodnight to the face of his father, It was hard to hate the man for leaving him. His daddy was a Hero, and had died protecting the village he loved and his family. Of course he knew he couldn't let on he knew who his parents were, now that he thought about it. Naruto did have to wonder what had happened to his mother though, what had happened to her? Was she still alive somewhere, or was she dead too? Shaking those thoughts from his head Naruto went home, unlocking the door and entering his small apartment. He shut and locked the locks of his door. Locks, as in more than one. There was the lock on the doorknob, a lock near the bottom of the door, and using a tall chair he locked the two at the top of the door. Naruto had learned to take his safety seriously during the time of the fesitval. Several times during the celebrations of the village he'd been attacked rather viciously.

The child jumped from the chair and moved it back, then went over to his dresser, grabbing some clean pajamas and underwear. He would take a shower then go to sleep. Or try, his mind was still abuzz with questions. Once his shower was done he yawned, feeling more relaxed and tired after his shower. Naruto climbed into bed, putting on his oversized sleeping cap and curled up under the blankets.

A loud crash woke the sleeping boy up, causing him to bolt from the bed and look around. He noticed one of his windows had a hole in it and there was a rock on the floor. Naruto sighed and looked at the clock, it was barely nine in the morning. With another sigh Naruto got up, went to get clothes for the day, and changed. He was in a pair of orange shorts with cargo pockets, a black short sleeved shirt with a red swirl on the front, an an orange vest with a black material sewn on the inside. He would leave through the window, since it wasn't safe to leave his locks undone. So without a second thought he grabbed his shoes and opened the window. Luckily there was a tree with limbs just thick enough for his weight. Though should anyone bigger than him try to get in that way the branches would snap. Naruto got closer to the trunk and pulled on his shoes then climbed to the ground. On the lookout for villagers. They seemed to have moved on, for which the blond was grateful.

Now the only question was, how was he going to get the things he needed to train to be a ninja when he was pretty sure that the store owners would try to chase him away? Naruto didn't want to resort to stealing, sure he'd pull pranks sometimes, but he'd never do anything criminal. He wouldn't give the people a reason to hate him more than they already did. Maybe he could go to Old Man Hokage's office and when the man wasn't paying attention he could read a few of the scrolls he had laying around. He was sure that the Sadniame would have some kind of ninja scrolls around. Even Hokage's had to keep their skills up right? So the small blond made his way to Hokage Tower, careful to avoid the villagers and their celebrations. Once he managed to get to the tower he was intercepted by a few jonin intent on stopping the 'demon' from entering. But being so small the child was able to dodge between their legs and ran as fast as he could inside. Barreling into the Hokage's office with the jonin on his heels. "Old Man!" He cried and hid behind the Hokage. Who looked from the blond to the jonin that had been following him. "What's the meaning of this?" He asked as he looked at the ninjas. One stepped up and said "He shouldn't be here Hokage-sama. Especially on this day." the others nodded silently in agreement. Which caused the Sandaime to narrow his eyes at them. "Naruto is allowed to be here, so you may leave." he said as he blew some smoke as he smoked his pipe. They looked like they wanted to protest, but knew it was pointless.

Once they were gone Naruto came from behind the old man. He smiled at the man who returned it and said "I can guess why you're here, the villagers giving you trouble, Naruto?" He asked, mentally cursing at his percieved failure to the last wishes of one of his dear friends. The Yondaime wanted Naruto to be seen as a Hero, not a Monster. Naruto nodded and said "Yea, but they only broke a window so far. Old Man, can I stay here today?" He asked as his blue eyes looked pleadingly at Sarutobi. How was he supposed to refuse, knowing what the villagers did to the child before him? "Of Course Naruto. I have some paper and crayons left over from yesterday you may use." He said as he pulled them out and Naruto smiled "Awesome!" He took the offered distraction and moved over to the couch with a table before it. Naruto began to color and doodle just passing time till he knew the Hokage would need to leave the office to handle the meetings he always had with the council. He wasn't sure why the Old Man listened to them, they were abunch of no-fun sticks in the mud as far as Naruto was concerned.

During the morning many people came and went, some ignored the boy completely, some glared at him from the corner of their eyes, and only one or two actually smiled and waved at the boy. Naruto got his chance to look for some scroll or other when the Hokage had to go give some big speech for the fesitval, leaving Naruto alone in the office. Not even an ANBU was left behind. The blond child looked around for anything he could use and eventually found some huge scroll hidden behind a tapestry. Making sure he had time Naruto opened it and began to read it. Copying down what he could on a sheet of paper he'd saved. He knew he'd have to be quick and wouldn't be able to practice anything today. But atleast he'd have a starting point. Checking the time he quickly put the scroll back the way he found it and sat down with the paper he'd copied notes on in his pocket. Just intime too as the Hokage came in at that moment. "Naruto I had lunch brought for us, Ichikraku Ramen." Said Sarutbi as he smiled and watched the boy bounce excitedly with a bright smile on his face. "You're the best, Old Man!" He said happily and moved over to the Hokage. The two sat at the Hokage's desk, Naruto on the old man's lap as they ate.

By the time the day began to end Sarutobi had left the office three more times which gave Naruto time to copy more from that scroll and a few others he'd found laying around. He wasn't sure of some of the bigger words, but he could always go buy a dictionary and some more ninja scrolls to learn from. Since it was getting dark Sarutobi had a jonin escort Naruto home. Naruto was unaware of them of course and so long as no one attacked the boy no one else would know about it either. The blond made his way home, he climbed the tree outside his window and entered his apartment. Well what was left of his window. More rocks litered the floor and Naruto already knew there would be grafiti and possibly some dead animals and hate letters outside his door. The Jonin who was watching felt a frown pull at his lips. Who would do this kind of stuff to a kid? And why was a five year old living alone? He sighed and knew that his old mentor wouldn't be happy if he had been alive now.

The Jonin made sure no one was around and made a shadow clone which he sent off to ask the Hokage about the boy. He already knew of the child's parents. A crushing feeling of guilt settled over him. This was his mentor and father figure's son. He shouldn't be alone. And Kakashi knew he should have tried to do more for the boy. If this was how he was living. Moving to the front of the apartment and seeing what was left on the boy's doorstep horror, anger, regret, and most of all a feeling of wanting to get vengance swept through him. His one visible eye narrowed. He knew he couldn't do anything though, well atleast he couldn't let himself be caught.

After the clone reported to the Hokage and spoke with him for a while on the subject of one Naruto Uzumaki. The Hokage knew from what he was told he would need to have the boy's windows replaced again and have the mess cleaned up. The clone poofed out of existance and gave it's memories to the original. Who wasn't pleased with what he'd learned. He kept watch the rest of the night, stopping several attempts to vandalize the boy's home further and one attempt by two drunk civilians to set fire to the boy's apartment. These two were tied up and arrested, being brought to the Hokage Tower by two clones who reported the attempted attack to the Sandiame.

Meanwhile Naruto was cleaning up the rocks and broken glass. He would have to ask Old Man Hokage about getting his window fixed. When things like this happened usually the boy just had to inform Sarutobi and it was fixed the next day. Once everything was orderly, or as orderly as it got in the room of a five year old, Naruto took out the papers from earlier and put them away in the drawer of the dresser next to his bed. He already knew he'd have to get a dictionary and beginner scrolls for ninjas tomorrow. He didn't know what alot of the words meant. He yawned and decided to get ready for bed, changing into pajamas he made some instant ramen in a cup and had dinner. Once that was done he climbed under the covers on his bed and began to doze off.

The next week passed by with very few things of interest happening. the vandalism was cleaned up and painted over, the windows had been fixed and Naruto had used what money was left over to buy not only a dictionary and a few beginner scrolls on Taijutsu, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. He also bought two scrolls on Seals. He figured he might aswell start learning them to honor his mother and the Uzumaki Clan. Even if he was the only one he knew of from that clan that was alive. Naruto had read the scrolls and carried them as well as the notes he'd written in the Hokage's office in a bag to an abandonded part of the forest to train. No one noticed the boy missing in the village. Sarutobi knew he'd not seen as much of the boy as normal but knew he wasn't in danger as there were reports of sightings of him from around the village. Since the boy wasn't hurt or in danger the Sandiame didn't feel the need to worry.

Naruto pushed himself to learn all he could, what he'd learned so far only made him want to learn more. He'd learned to harness his chakra and could even perform a transformation jutsu. He had tried the clone jutsu mentioned on one of the scrolls but it came out sickly and pathetic, no matter how much he tried he couldn't get it right. He read the scroll but couldn't find what he'd done wrong. But he couldn't figure it out, it was so frustrating for the blond boy. Currently the boy was walking back towards his apartment, his pack still on his back. He ignored the glares and whispers from people he passed, His mind was far to focused on his trainin and all the things he'd read in the scrolls. He wanted to get better, he wanted everyone to ackowledge him and respect him like they did his father. Naruto was stopped as someone crossed his path pushing a cart. Looking up he saw the man leading it glare at him as if daring him to try and steal anything. The boy just looked at him with a bored look in his blue eyes. Once the man passed Naruto continued on his way.

Making it to his apartment he removed his pack and stashed it under his bed, then went to freshen up and made some instant ramen in a cup for dinner. He ate then changed into his pajamas. He wouldn't sleep yet, instead he pulled out his pack and reached inside. He pulled out a sealing scroll and read over it. until it became very late. He put it up and knew he'd have to get some blank scroll to practice his seals. after he'd put the pack back under the bed he curled up under his blankets and then the child went to sleep. Being plagued by nightmares of a giant nine-tailed fox that was destroying Konoha and piercing red eyes glaring at him from a darkened cage.