"An' don't come back in 'ere again ya fuckin' demon brat!"

A large round vegetable followed by several rotten apples came hurtling in a blonde boy's direction as it hit the ground with a loud thud sound where the said boy was standing just moments earlier. The pedestrians merely walking by looked on at the scene with their lips curled in contempt, not at the behavior of the owner of that fruit stand, but at the unfortunate blonde boy dodging those flying vegetables. They jeered loudly and cold laughs passed through their lips, which were twisted in hostile sneers that did their already unattractive faces no justice.

"Looking at that vile thing gives me chills"

"Yeah, I hope it gets pegged to death"

A particularly large orange the young boy couldn't dodge in time caught him on the side of his head and the juice splattered over his face.

"Hahahha, serves that demon right!"

The blonde boy sidestepped another rotten fruit as it came whirling towards him, unable to identify it as he was forced to run quickly to avoid another two coming from behind.

"Damn, I missed that one! That demon brat won't get so lucky this time!"

The young blonde, who couldn't have been more than 11 or 12 years old, continued running away from the riled up crowd currently chasing him and throwing any object at him that they could get their hands on. He turned into a side street, cut across an alley he knew all too well when running in these situations, and hid behind some beat up old trash cans. He sat deathly still and listened until the sound of the angry crowd began to get dimmer and further away. Then he let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding, stood up and stretched, and began to trudge home wearily.

The day so far had been long and hard on him, and his stomach viciously growled in discontent. He hadn't been able to buy anything no matter what shop he showed up in; all the owners seemed to hate him. The nicest one, the only one willing to accept his money, gave him a stale loaf of plain bread that had some suspicious furry white and green spots dotting the outside.

When he arrived home he pushed open the graffiti covered front door with the rusty old hinges, threw the stale loaf of bread on his dining table and ignored the precarious wobbling as it creaked under the weight of the stale loaf, and continued on to the small bathroom. He flipped the switch and waited as the lights flickered on and off undecidedly in the bathroom before finally staying on. Then he turned on the faucet labeled 'Cold' and washed the dripping orange juice off his face, flinching once on the contact with freezing water. He turned on the faucet labeled 'Hot' to compensate, but no matter how long he waited the water came out just as freezing, if not worse than the one labeled 'Cold'.

Naruto led a dreary life, but he was used to it. At his age he didn't understand why the villagers acted the way they did towards him, he couldn't remember ever doing anyone harm. Sure he got a kick out of playing childish pranks on people every once in a while, but his pranks didn't merit such hatred. Were all the people in this hidden village always so cruel? Well, at least not all of them. There was always Iruka-sensei, who had treated Naruto like the son he never had. If it wasn't for him, Naruto was sure he would have been forgotten and buried six feet under in some faraway obscure little town because surely, the villagers would have gotten to him by now and given him a slow, painful death at their first chance.

Naruto sighed. If only he lived in another hidden village, a place where none of the villagers were unjustly cruel to him, a haven where he would be accepted and loved like he was one of their own. And if he got the chance he would bring Iruka-sensei along as well. Then they could live together happily in a proper home with real food and warm beds, and most importantly they'd be just like a real family. It was too bad that no haven like that existed anywhere, not one that Naruto knew of at least. The only hidden village he ever knew and had the misfortune of being a part of was Konoha, the hidden leaf village.

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How's the story so far? ;o