Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto

Talking : "Blah"

Thinking - 'Blah'

As Sarutobi looks over the partially ruined village of Konoha, he thinks back to the sacrifice that his predecessor made to stop all the mindless destruction and killing of shinobi and landscape alike that the Kyuubi had caused. Thinking about the Kyuubi cause the Hokage to look towards the crib sitting on the far side of the room where the sounds of light breathing could be heard and a little chubby face with a tuff of blond hair on top wrapped in a blue baby blanket was sleeping peacefully. He knew that with all of the hatred and anger towards the Kyuubi running rampant out there that this child would never be seen as the hero that the Yondaime wanted him to be but instead as a scapegoat for all the pain and suffering the villagers have suffered. Sarutobi knew what he had to do, he must send young Naruto off to a safe location until he was able to protect himself from harm and there was no better place then with the Fire Daimyo.

The Hokage scribbled out a quick note before going over to his vault and removing one of his many priceless treasures to include in the scroll as a way of saying thanks for taking Naruto in. As soon as Sarutobi was done he summoned one of his most loyal ANBU guards to undertake this mission and within seconds a man with a bear mask appeared in the office

"I need you to escort this child to the home of the Fire Daimyo as fast as you can and of course this will be considered a class-A mission with pay to match"

"Pardon me for asking Hokage sir but what makes this child so special, there are many other civilian orphans after the attack but you do not grant them the same treatment as this child?"

"This child is called Naruto and he is special because he holds the Kyuubi No Kitsune inside of his stomach"

Sarutobi could not see it but behind the bear mask the ANBU face twisted itself into a scowl as his eyes became fixed on the little blond child lying in the crib and his arm began to reach for a kunai. He quickly snapped back to his senses and knew that he could not harm the child in front of the Hokage but as soon as he was out of the city it was all fair game and he would make the Kyuubi pay for all the comrades he lost in the battle. He watched as the Hokage made the final preparations for the child's trip and after everything had been sealed into a scroll with a final goodbye to Naruto the ANBU was off headed towards the gate.

After a quick nod to the guards at the gate, the ANBU was out of Konoha and headed into the dense forest that surrounds it looking for the perfect spot to end the wretched beast's life once and for all. Once he was far enough away from the village, he landed on the side of a rarely used wagon path and placed Naruto on the ground as he unfurled the scroll that the Hokage had given him for the child. As the ANBU searched through the scroll, he finally found what he had been looking for, the Hokage's treasure which turned out to be a solid gold kunai which was meant for decorative purposes only but it would be a twisted irony if the Hokage's treasure ended Naruto's life.

Just as the ANBU was about to bring the kunai down onto Naruto's head, a rustle came from behind him and with the swiftness that years of training had granted him, he dashed up into the tree tops. Just a few seconds after, the rustling noise got louder and soon after a pudgy man with graying hair handling a horse drawn buggy came into view and the shinobi internally cursed his bad luck. The old man saw his horse come to a stop so he slid off the wagon to investigate and saw Naruto laying in the middle of the road still asleep. The old man looked around and after not seeing anyone bent down to pick up Naruto

"Hello there little one, my name is Takaige, do you know how to speak yet?"

Naruto just looked up into Takaige's green eyes and continued to giggle and babble as Takaige bent over to pick up the scroll lying beside the child and it read

This is Naruto, he is a very precious person to me and if you could find it in your heart to look after him, I would be happy, I will thank you now for we may never meet face to face and I hope he grows up brave strong and loyal.

Takaige finished reading the scroll and wrapping it back before looking down at the half open eyes of Naruto who let out a yawn as his eyes fully closed and he fell asleep in the old man's arms. Takaige smiled as he laid Naruto back into the basket and placed the basket into the back of the wagon and with a crack of the reins he was off to his next location.

The ANBU knew that he had two options, he could go after the fat, old man driving the wagon and kill him along with Naruto or he could let the old man go off and he would lose his chance of ever getting his revenge. The ANBU stashed away the golden kunai and pulled a normal one from his pouch that he then aimed and threw at the slowly disappearing merchant. Just as the kunai was to make contact, the old man leaned down to pick up his dropped reins causing the weapon to skim right over harmlessly and sunk into a tree. The ANBU cursed his luck once more as the merchant disappeared completely around the bend so the ANBU headed back to Konoha before realizing that he still had five more days on his mission. He knew that the Hokage would ask questions if he returned now so the shinobi decided just to camp out and try to find a place to hock the golden kunai.

The old man and Naruto grew closer as the days passed on the way to the next destination on his list and the supplies in the scroll took care of everything that Takaige could have ever needed to look after Naruto. On one of the merchant trips that Takaige went on, he picked up a stuffed fox from another merchant and Naruto had seemed to warm up to the plush toy immediately never letting it out of his sight.

As they continued to travel, a sad thought crossed Takaige's mind, after the supplies in the scroll run out then it will be very hard to support both himself and Naruto on a measly merchant's salary. When he looked over the supplied left in the scroll, it looked like that he would have enough to finish his sales trip and make it back to the village hidden in the grass where he lived. When they would arrive home Takaige would think of what to do with Naruto but until then he decided to just enjoy the young boy's company and all the happiness he brought with it.

As the gates to the hidden village in the grass came into sight, Takaige let out a sigh of happiness as he was finally home from such a long trip and as the gates closed behind him, he turned his cart towards the middle of the city where the orphanage was located. With a heavy heart, he walked up to the matron who was watching over the other children playing in the yard and motioned for her to come over so that they could proceed to make up the paperwork for Naruto. As the paperwork was almost completed, Takaige picked up the pen to sign the last page making it official but then looked down at Naruto's deep blue eyes and smiled before placing the pen back on the desk. The matron stared up at him with a confused look on her face until she saw the smile on the old man's face and began to throw out the contract. Takaige walked out of the orphanage with Naruto on his shoulders holding onto his head by grabbing his hair as they got back into the wagon and headed for Takaige's house. Takaige knew that by making the choice to keep Naruto that he would never be material wealthy but he would always be emotionally wealthy with Naruto in his life.

As the years rolled by, Naruto began to grow and Takaige was there for every minute of the young boy's life through his first steps to his first words which ironically was sell from hearing the old man say it so many times. The two of them continued to travel around the elemental countries selling their wares at every village no matter if it was small or large because Takaige believed that you could turn a profit anywhere. When Naruto was about six, he had met a shinobi for the first time traveling through one of the hidden villages and became instantly enthralled by them and the dangerous lifestyle that they lead. Since then, Naruto had begun to ask, beg & plead for Takaige to send him to the ninja academy back in the village hidden in the grass but every time the old man shot him down saying it was to expensive. After seeing the downtrodden look on his adopted son's face, he stopped at a local market in the next town they visited and he picked up a used sword from a weapons dealer and surprised Naruto with it on the way back from their trip. Naruto pulled the sword out of it's sheath and began to inspect every inch of it and ran his finger along the edge of the blade to test it's sharpness before disappearing into the back to begin to polish it.

Over the next few weeks, Naruto began to train himself to use the sword but not having any prior training with weapons whatsoever caused him to not even realize that he may be doing it incorrectly. As they approached another town, lady luck was smiling on them for as soon as they set up shop, an injured shinobi approached them asking for medical supplies to heal himself with. After hearing that the shinobi had no money on him, Takaige refused the sale but then the shinobi's eyes settled on Naruto in the back still practicing with his sword. The shinobi told Takaige that he would train his son in the ways of the sword while he healed and Takaige looked back at Naruto then quickly agreed and handed over the med kit. As the shinobi began to heal, he showed Naruto the different training katas that are the basic steps to swordsmanship and told him to him to practice every chance he got until he could do at least a hundred of each without tiring. When Naruto asked about getting the shinobi to teach him a style, the shinobi got a serious look on his face and replied that every style is unique to the swordsman so there is no point in teaching a style for what may work for one will not work for another. Soon after, the shinobi was healed enough to make it back to his village to receive proper treatment from a medic-nin and Naruto continued to follow the training the shinobi had given him.

After about six months of going through the training katas, Naruto had become proficient enough to do a hundred of each consecutively without tiring so he began to think of what would be the best type of sword style for him. He knew that he had lots of stamina and was very flexible so he would base his moves around that trying to make himself flow like a river always bending and moving but never stopping. Naruto slowly began to work trying to figure out what stance he felt comfortable in and which he could add to part of his style all the while still helping out Takaige selling his wares.

When Naruto was seven, his entire life changed around him and it started with a simple routine market trip to the Village hidden in the Mist to unload some more of Takaige's products. Takaige was happy at the end of the day for they had completely sold out of all of their stuff and made enough money to cover the bills and expenses along with having a little bit left over. They had just left the village and began on their trek back to the Village hidden in the Grass and when they were about half a days travel away from Rain, bandits led by a missing-nin ambushed them.

Takaige was overcome quickly and Naruto saw him vainly try to protect himself from the missing-nin while Naruto dealt with the bandits and saw the missing-nin's sword impale Takaige's chest and come out the other side. Naruto stopped fighting the bandits and ran over to where Takaige lay in a pool of his own blood and did not even sense the missing-nin approach him from behind and stab him through the chest while the bandits took the money from the wagon. The last sight that Naruto saw before the darkness consumed him was a Konoha headband with a long scratch going right through the symbol.

As Naruto awoke, his body ached and he was covered in blood before remembering what happened and looked down to meet the clouded eyes of his father Takaige staring back up at him dead to the world. He cried over the lost of his father, friend and mentor and slowly picked himself up with his body protesting all the way and began to slowly limp back to Rain dragging his sword behind him. Only one thought crossed his mind the entire trip back

'I will have my revenge Konoha'

(A/N) :

- This is the start of my second story and I hope that everyone likes it as much as my first and as always, critism is always welcome but haters are not.