Synopsis: Naruto never asked for this... creature. He never asked to be marked as the vessel of a genocidal beast. What he definitely didn't ask for was to be tormented for a large part of his childhood for something that even he wasn't responsible for. That's why he snapped.

To become a hokage? That's merely a part of his plan. What he plans is to rid his village of the human filth that tormented him for so long. A reform, where blood shall be plenty, and deaths common.


Disclaimer: Honestly, even if I didn't put this disclaimer on, would I still get sued for making a fanfiction about Naruto? I don't even receive money, nearly all characters in this fic are the intellectual property of Kishi, and hell, the quality is even lower! Saying that I don't own Naruto is like a crippled, eighty-year-old paralyzed saying that he's not competing for gold in long distance running, scratch that, long distance anything.

Prologue

A cold evening sun sets on an even colder land, inhabited

by even colder people, committing the coldest deeds

"...Seek nothing outside of yourself"

-Miyamoto Mushashi, Ronin-turned-author

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The blond boy sat perched on top of the fourth hokage's face sculpted on the mountain. It was no surprise. This was his favorite place to be, during his favorite time of the day.

Dusk.

Watching the sun set, turning the village increasingly dark as homeowners and people who drive businesses turn on their kerosene lamps was extremely mesmerizing to the boy. It was almost therapeutic. One of the only things that the boy could enjoy without anyone ogling him as though he was a degenerate. At any rate, the boy was tranquil. He was peaceful, and his mind was at peace. He knew, of course, that it wouldn't last.


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The boy didn't know when it started. All he knew was that the village hated him. He had done nothing to deserve such treatment, that much he knew. It didn't matter for any of the village's citizens. He would be treated equally bad to all of them, except the third hokage, Hiruzen Saurtobi. The only living being to ever have shown him even an iota of kindness.

For every foul deed the boy was a victim of, every misfortune that comes his way, and every insult thrown at him, he felt a darkness fill his heart. It continued on for years, well before he was even old enough to join the academy.

Scars filled his body from top to bottom, scars from whenever anyone felt the need to assault the boy. It wasn't that often, but it happened at least once a month. Despite all this harm that keeps coming to him, his childlike innocent waned only by inches.

That was until he killed a man.

Four men, drunk after a day of hard labor, found the boy on a stroll and decided that they'd have some fun with him. Three of them rushed him, picking him up with relative ease. They restrained the boy, who was hardly six years old. The fourth man took a swig from his sake bottle before bashing it over the boy's head. The blond screamed in pain, but none had heard him. Blood covered the boy's face as he could hardly see. The man threw the broken bottle down and proceeded to punch the boy in the gut, and afterwards, tearing his shirt off, exposing his stomach, and as a result, the spiralled seal that held the nine-tails.

"Lookey-herey, boys! I reckon we stab this kid to death, that cursed fox'll kick the bucket with 'im, huh?!" he slurred between hiccups. The man pulled out a short pocket knife and held it with both hands. The blond caught a glimpse of the knife before panicking.

The man pushed downwards, but as the knife grew ever-closer to the boy's stomach, it went slower and slower, until it was at a standstill. It wasn't only the knife that froze. Everything froze. Suddenly, the boy's vision went black, and he lost consciousness.


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The boy woke up on a floor board. He stood up and looked around at the humongous room he was in. It was dark but was lit up dimly by torches hanging on the impossibly large walls. Ahead of him were bars that were ridiculously huge, as the blond could as well just walk right between them. He approached the bars, but as the darkness that was beyond cleared little by little, he spotted an orange wall. As he continued onwards, the wall took on a more definite shape.

His observation was cut short as the wall suddenly moved and obscured its original pattern, causing the boy to jump. As he closed in on the bars, the orange shape took on a more definite shape. The boy now knew that that was no wall.

It was a gigantic fox with more tails than he could count.

The fox, sensing the boy's arrival, opened its eyes. The fox was shocked, however, and turned to look at the boy with pure rage in its eyes.

"What is the meaning of this? What have you come here for?!" it bellowed, shocking the boy to no end, not knowing that the creature could even talk.

"I-I don't know! Some men... they attacked me! One was about to stab me... but... I fainted, I think... where am I?" asked the boy, shivering in fear. The fox was very much thankful for this opportunity. He needed to break loose as quickly as possible. His Jinchuriki was extremely young and immature, not to mention ignorant. He could take advantage of this and have the boy free him, himself. He calmed down again and took on a more formal approach.

"Greetings, son of Minato. I expect that what you seek from me is power?" he asked, attempting a kinder approach. The boy was even more puzzled. Son of Minato? He knew nothing of what the fox was spouting and expressed himself as such.

"Whu-who is Minato? Who are you? And... I never asked anything of you..." he added the last part on reflex. He grew up in a childhood where trusting and receiving help from strangers turned out to be a punishment in itself. The fox sighed, but tried to explain.

"You are the son of the fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Before his death, he sealed me into you. In your time of need, you can draw strength from me if you release me," he then said, but paradoxically, he raised more questions than answers. The boy could hardly swallow everything. "Tell me, though. What is your name, and what is disturbing you?" he asked, attempting his damnedest not to sound intimidating.

"My name is N-Naruto Uzumaki. Like I said... some thugs attacked me, and one tried to kill me, look," he said, trying to point at his wounds, but quickly realising that they weren't there, as though they never were, to begin with.

"Naruto, huh? I will help you get rid of your assailants, but afterwards, you'll have to release me. Utter these words: "I hereby release the nine-tailed fox" as you channel chakra to your seal on your stomach," he then explained. Naruto was even more puzzled at this for he had not learned how to do such a thing yet. He had barely begun learning in the academy, and chakra control wasn't until far later. The fox, sensing the boy's ignorance, sighed once again, asking the boy to come close to him. The boy approached the bars, warily, before one of the beast's tails burst out of the bars. The tip of the tail touched the boy's forehead, thus transferring the required knowledge to the boy.

He breathed heavily, trying to digest the moment. He had just learned years worth of chakra control in the span of a second, and it was too disorienting for him. It took him a minute before he could properly stand. The boy then nodded in understanding.

"Naruto, my boy. Do you swear that you will release me if I help you?" he asked. The boy nodded, to which the fox roared in glee.

"Focus your energy on your mind and rouse yourself awake. I will aid you, so do not worry," the said the beast. Naruto sat down on a half lotus and began to focus. He then lost consciousness once again and awoke right where he left off, face bloodied and about to die.

Right before a red shroud of a gaseous substance began emitting from the boy's skin. Upon the knife's contact with the boy's belly, the blade shattered.

The boy shook his restrainers off of him, throwing them far away, breaking their bones in the process. The man in front of Naruto was shivering, a pool of liquid forming below his belt area. Naruto growled before appearing in front of the man in a split second, his hand digging straight through the man's chest. The boy pulled his hand out as he gripped a chunk of meat. What became more and more apparent was the fact that the chunk of meat was actually the man's heart. The now possessed boy threw the heart at its owner, who had already fallen from shock, and eventually died.

Naruto was stumbling. The chakra infused in every inch of his body was becoming irritating. Almost... corrosive. What he did know was that it wasn't a good feeling, and he was bent on getting rid of it. He focused his chakra and meditated once again, trying to expel the excess chakra as peacefully as possible.

"F-f...fox... make it... stop," he whimpered, squinting his eyes in pain. What he didn't expect was a reply, sounding from his head. Naruto, however, was relieved of all of the excess chakra energies once the fox stopped supplying him.

"Uzumaki. Release me," it requested. Almost as a shock came the request. He had almost forgotten that he made a deal with the creature. Although he did make a deal with the creature, he couldn't just release it. With this beast living within him, Naruto felt special. He felt powerful. He felt like this could turn the tide. He could prove useful to his village and they'd accept him. They'd stop bullying him. They'd stop hurting him and making him cry. He couldn't pass off this opportunity.

"No, I'm sorry, I just can't," he replied, simply and shortly. It took courage, but he did so. He wanted to harness the beast's power and become a hokage that way, and it certainly couldn't end here.

There was silence. The silence continued on in an almost disconcerting manner. For minutes on end, the fox refused to reply. Then, a grumble led to a howl which grew in intensity until Naruto could no longer concentrate.

"NARUTO UZUMAKI, YOU ARE A LIAR! I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS!" it yelled. On an on and on, it continued, scaring the blond nearly half to death. He had still sat there, in the same place where a dead man lay, and three other men who were too injured to even move. Naruto crawled into a ball and cried. He cried even after the ANBU arrived, together with Lord Third.

The fire shadow spat some orders to the ANBU, evidently to get rid of the dead man's corpse, and to send the injured to the hospital. He approached the crestfallen Naruto and patted his head.

"Now now, son, I'll take you to my office and we'll have some tea. While we're doing that, tell me what happened," he then said, carrying Naruto as though he was an infant, and then proceeded to jump off, towards his office.


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"Now... tell me everything which had transpired earlier," asked Lord Third, in that ever-eloquent grandfatherly manner of his, as he filled his pipe with tobacco, and then lit it.

Naruto calmed down when the hokage had placed a calming seal on him, effectively shutting up the lamentations of the chakra beast within him.

"Lord hokage... I was... I was just taking a stroll... when a group of men saw me. They were drunk when they saw me. I didn't see them, but three of them just... picked me up. They held my arms and legs and-and I couldn't move. The fourth guy pulled a knife but just before he stabbed me..." the boy had stopped there, trying to brace himself for the next part of the story. "I was in this room... with a giant orange fox..." he continued, telling him the hokage the things he had heard, concerning the fourth hokage and his alleged lineage. After summarizing everything, the boy concluded.

"When I woke up, I could hardly control myself. I felt... strong... yet... so weak, like my limbs weren't even mine. The man who stabbed me... is he alright?" the boy asked. He hadn't been in his senses when he took the man's life, and because of this, had no knowledge of the man's demise, ultimately caused by himself. Lord Third simply sighed before replying.

"I'm afraid he is no longer with us..." he said.

Naruto could hardly believe what he heard. All sorts of things ran through his mind, but he couldn't deny it. It was true. He started to remember the sensation of blood and muscle wrapping around his arm. He was clean, though, as the nine-tailed chakra served to repel the blood.

"Do not fret, my boy. It wasn't you. You cannot be held accountable for the doings of that beast. Take it from me, you-" his speech was cut short by Naruto as his curiosity got the better of him.

"Is this why the village hates me? Is this why I get beaten up every now and then? Because of this thing?" he asked, the tone of his voice shaking with unbearable grief. The hokage was speechless, unable to reply adequately. He did make an attempt, nevertheless.

"Do people... harm you?" he asked, a scowl forming between his eyes, as thick and as solid as though a stonemason had chiseled it. Naruto picked up the hokage's chakra signature with his newly learnt chakra control, gathering that the man was currently all but composed of rage. Naruto took the opportunity and stood up, removing his shirt, exposing his scars and former wounds. That was the final straw for the old man, whose ire couldn't intensify any harder.

The Lord Third crushed the pipe he held, pulverizing it within his palms. He hammered down on his desk with his fist, completely demolishing it. Naruto was caught off-guard by his sudden outburst. The Lord Third was completely shocked. How could he have let such a thing occur within his village? He summoned all his might such that he could once again retain his normal level-headedness.

"How long has this been a common occurrence," he asked, attempting to contain the ire in his voice, but failing miserably. Naruto thought for a moment before replying.

"I guess it started when I was... 5," he concluded. Naruto wasn't impressed by the rage the Lord Third was showing. He was, to no end, simply disappointed.

"Lord third... where have you been all this time?" he asked. There was no sadness or anger in his voice. Just disappointment. All this time Naruto has been expected to make due in the local orphanage. At the age of six, he requested to live in his own apartment, but the government could only afford a shabby one-roomer in the slums. Whatever the case, the hokage had always been too busy for the young blond.

The hokage was unresponsive. He had lost so much face at the moment, and he could hardly bear the guilt. Here was a boy that he once took charge of, standing shirtless exposing countless scars that only soldiers were expected to have. He was thinking of ways to amend himself, but few were outside the scope of a possible self-immolation.

"Come on, gramps," prompted Naruto almost silently. He was completely devoid of feelings at the moment. All he wanted were answers. "Come on gramps," he asked again, this time, more audibly.

"Come on, gramps, come on!" he yelled, the outburst having no effect on the old man's concentration. After a minute of silence, the man looks up, yelling animal names.

"Tiger, bear, bird!" he yelled, and in the blink of an eye, three masked men appeared, carrying masks appropriate to their names.

"From now on, your full-time jobs will be watching over Naruto. Anyone that dares lay a hand on him will be punished by me, personally," he ordered. Naruto only observed wordlessly.

"Naruto, no one will ever lay a hand on you again, now. Don't you worry, child," he offered, but Naruto wasn't giving an inch.

"Gramps... you think it'll be okay now? After everything, I've gone through?" asked the blond, his voice breaking with sadness. The hokage was unable to respond to that.

"I'll ask one last time. Where have you been all this time?" he asked once again. The hokage spoke up, his voice muffled with shame.

"I wasn't aware of your plight," he said. In all honesty, he wasn't aware that Naruto was being bothered this much. Naruto wasn't satisfied, though. As though the old man read the child's mind, he continued. "All this time, I've been immersed in international affairs. I've been doing all I could to ensure that a fourth shinobi war won't break out. I know you probably can't forgive me for..." he paused before saying the aching word. "neglecting you. I know that, son. I can never forgive myself for that, either," he paused one last time.

"I'll try from now on. You're like a grandson to me," he concluded. Naruto, despite the display of emotion, was still distraught. And now with all of the revelations that occurred, he was more so. He had been tormented ever since his birth, and for something that he wasn't responsible for.

Something he wasn't responsible for at all.

Something even he suffers from.

All this time, he's been tormented for something he wasn't even responsible for at all. The more it played inside his head, the more he realized, the more the knew, how twisted everything was. How corrupt his village was.

A tear ran down his cheek at the thought of it. A tear was joined by plenty more as his face couldn't hide his emotions. He wasn't just sad. He was grief-stricken. He was disgusted. He was angry. He was confused. It pained the Lord Third even more at the sight of seeing his ward this distraught.

"Naruto..." he stopped himself before telling the blond to calm himself.

The faces of everyone that had ever looked at him with disgust. Called him names. The people who've called him a monster. The people who have kicked him out of their shops for simply being inside there. The people who've beaten the child up. Their faces kept on swirling inside of Naruto's mind.

It was the million dollar question, truly. Why is everyone so mean to me? To get an answer like that. It devastated the boy to no ends. After the bout of crying that lasted for five minutes, he had requested to be taken home, to which one ANBU appeared and carried him to his apartment. There, he ate his ramen supper. However, in the middle of eating it, he had another outburst. He threw the bowl on the floor, shattering it and spilling noodles and soup all over the floorboard.

He was shaking with anger. He now had a dream. An ambition. A plan. To become the hokage, and eventually, cleanse this disgusting cesspool of a village.

He swore upon himself. He would purge this village of filth.

The plan was simple. Become strong, pass through the academy with flying colors, gain traction as a genin and pass the chunin exam. From there on, it was a quick leap to jonin before he could get elected as a Hokage due to his superior strength.

Nothing was stopping him. His solution felt sound. It was, after all, in his own eyes, the lesser evil, other than allowing such filth to proliferate.