Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto—if I did, I wouldn't be writing this—I'd be living somewhere in a consistently warm climate in a moderately higher quality lifestyle…
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Once upon a time, there was a loud idiot named Uzumaki Naruto. He was young—very young, silly, and playful. But then one day, he got the shit kicked out of him. Nah, it wasn't by villagers on a drunken unruly rampage, it was by their children on a daily basis.
The moment the civilian parents realized their children might be in danger, they pulled away their children, hoping to distance any potential influence the over-exuberant demon child might have over their precious offspring.
The children however, took this as a cue to increase their alienation. Unfortunately, no action was taken because let's face it—a school teacher telling a group of kids to play nice with the one kid that nobody's parents liked was like sticking a 'kick me' sign on his back.
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"My mom told me to stay away from that kid."
"Weird—my parents told me the same thing. Do you know why?"
"Nah, but he's kinda dirty looking."
"Yeah—does he not know how to take a shower?"
The hurtful banter continued daily and grew into bullying in early academy education to the point that it became a game to chase Naruto around, throwing rocks at him and hurting wherever and however possible, maintaining a tame front in the midst of their parents and teachers, who turned a blind eye after noting Naruto's lack of retaliation.
Naruto's cheerful demeanor had dulled after the first year. By the third year, no one had seen him smile in two years. A year after, on his ninth birthday, he had lost all hints of laughter in of voice.
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The bullying had gone way too long, finally cracking Naruto's patience. It had been four years and his life at school was a personal hell. He had tried to befriend them, he had tried to ignore them, and finally he had tried to avoid them. Things had only escalated with increased violence as more experienced kids from different age groups all joined in on the daily free-for-all. They didn't want to be friends, that was fine—but they had to actively torment him everyday for the rest of his life? That wasn't fine.
He didn't know why but for some reason, he felt ready. Today was it.
Today, they would learn what they were really dealing with. They would learn why their parents told them to stay away.
"Hey Naruto!" A group of kids of different ages all under ten stood near the lot in the back of an academy school building, slowly fanning out to surround Naruto as he walked out of his classroom.
Naruto stiffened as he walked out, his eyes narrowed as he glaring at his tormentors. He gritted his teeth and tensed his muscles as he prepared to bolt. His eyes darted behind the assembly of kids to the streets leading through the village as he mentally drew out a route to lose them in.
"Get him!" A boy yelled, throwing a rock. Naruto tilted into a dodge as he launched himself forward towards the blockade. The children, caught off-guard, slowly converged on Naruto as he closed the gap in the lot.
Naruto jumped high, and crashed into a kids face with a flying sidekick as he began his retaliatory assault. Landing and quickly pivoting on his heel, Naruto sent a jarring elbow strike to the sternum of his next victim. Felling a few more kids around him with vicious kicks and punches, Naruto breathed for a moment as the adrenaline rushed, the other kids suddenly very wary of what Naruto was capable of.
He had never fought back before and no one had ever really seen him fight like this in the first place, but this time their friends were on the ground clutching their very real injuries.
Naruto roared as he bolted forward once more, this time clotheslining another kid, sending him into the ground with a concussion. He quickly ran down through the village, cutting sharp lefts and rights every few blocks, his eyes darting every way, wary of any potential surprises.
His mind secure about his lead, Naruto ducked into a dark alleyway and stopped, making sure no one had followed him. Taking a deep breath, he swiftly began running up the side of the building until he had reached the roof. Grasping the roof tile, he hoisted himself onto the rooftop.
He peered over the edge to see the group of battered kids assemble, yelling at each other about where Naruto had gone and who had lost him. The group quickly split into two groups of ten who then began their searches separately.
Naruto took another deep breath and steeled himself as one group wandered down a narrow alleyway, nearing his position. Time for round two. He ran down the side of the building as they ran through and bashed a boy in the side of the head with his foot as he completed his final running step to the ground.
A girl aimed a punch only for him to parry and smash her wrist into the wall. Another girl swung her leg wildly at Naruto in a hastily formed roundhouse only to have him duck and have her toes smash into the wall behind him. Grabbing her ankle, he held it up as he swept out her other leg and let her crash to the ground.
A boy attempted to sidekick Naruto's head, only to be driven into a takedown, as Naruto tackled him from under his leg. Smashing him to the floor, Naruto grabbed the boy's knee and rammed it against the wall, ignoring the shrieking cry of pain.
Within moments, the group of ten children was completely laid out, stunned and battered in defeat. A boy who was on his knees, about to get back to his feet was brutally kicked in the ribs, knocking the air out of him.
Naruto squatted and wiped off the blood on his hands on one of the kids shirts and stood up. Taking one last spiteful look at the pile of children at his feet, Naruto ran back up the building wall with nothing but cold ruthlessness on his face, having long lost the hope to have friends his age.
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The other group of kids were scattered along a loose path in a park that bordered nin training grounds, reason for its lack of occupancy. There were dense patches of trees throughout the area with a small stream that cut off the park from the village.
As the group approached a bridge that led to back to the village, one of the boys held up his hand.
"Do you guys hear that?"
The other kids paused for a moment to hear the 'tmp-tmp-tmp' of people running.
"The other group's probably chasing him that way!" A girl yelled pointing back into a densely treed portion of the park. The other children quickly gave chase back towards the trees.
Naruto stopped pounding the ground with his fists as he heard the return stampede of the other half of his aggressors. He quickly ran up the side of a tree without a sound and waited as they slowed their run through the park path. Fishing out a small palm-sized rock from his ammunition-laden pocket, Naruto pitched the rock at a straggler in the group, the rock smacking the kid in the neck. He quickly scaled the tree and jumped to the next one.
The group halted uncertainly and attempted to assess where Naruto might be as one of their own fell, clutching his neck in pain.
"He threw it from over there!" A boy hollered, pointing at the tree Naruto had been in, only to have a rock lobbed at his chest from a tree in the opposite direction. Two down.
"No, he's over there!" A girl screeched as the boy fell from the rock. The group hesitantly moved deeper into the park when two rocks shot through their formation, claiming two more members. Immediately switching their course towards the tree the rocks had come from, they ran deeper into the park.
With only six kids left, Naruto ran down the tree to meet them head on. The world seemed to slow for him as he skidded to a stop as to prolong his head on contact with the first boy, only to duck and slam his elbow precisely at the boy's diaphragm. Not a moment of hesitation, he swept his foot out to catch the shin of a girl on the bridge of his foot, to have her crash on her face in front of him.
Quickly standing up, Naruto made short work of the rest of the group who still believed they had the numbers advantage. This time, Naruto walked away with a grin on his face—the first in almost three years.
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The sun began to droop when Naruto finally made his way home cheerfully, fully prepared to celebrate his little victory back at his dingy apartment, with some takeout from Ichiraku's since he didn't want to risk getting jumped there and disturbing the business. In his delight over beginning his favorite meal, Naruto almost failed to recognize an intruder in his apartment.
The Hokage sat at Naruto's dining table, sipping a cup of tea with his hat on the table.
"Those were some interesting moves you pulled today. You sent nine of them to the hospital."
"It's not like they had serious injuries. And they deserved it. That was four years coming and it had to end sometime. It's not like it was gonna get easier once we all became full ninja."
Sarutobi stroked his goatee as he set his teacup down.
"Well those actions haven't come without a few repercussions. Many of the parents of the kids you attacked would like to see you banned from becoming a shinobi."
Naruto's eyes bulged in incredulity.
"However, I believe I've seen enough today to make my own decision in regards to the events. First though, who taught you to tree walk and water walk?"
Naruto snorted as he began unpacking his ramen container on the dining table.
"I learned that by myself last year. I can do a lot more than that since I learned how to use chakra."
"Like what?"
"Basic academy techniques, strength boosting, speed boosting, footprint wipes, stop sound with chakra, I can loosen dirt, compact dirt, hold air bubbles underwater and stuff like that."
Sarutobi's eyes widened in surprise. Yeah Naruto might've been showing off a little bit, but there was no doubt that Minato and Kushina's on-the-fly genius had transferred exponentially into their son.
"It shouldn't surprise you old man—I had to run away from those kids every single day. It's not like I wanted to run for an hour every single day." Naruto's eyes were pointed firmly at the foam takeout bowl of ramen that he had slowly begun feeding himself.
"Anyways, why are you here again?" Naruto asked impatiently, slowly untying the wrapping for his to-go ramen container.
"Well I have a proposition for you, one that may circumvent the disciplinary action that the parents of the children you injured might take."
A pregnant pause settled over them as the potential repercussions of today's events finally hit Naruto. Well, he got stuck on the word 'circumvent' but 'parents', discipline, and 'injured' were more than enough to make sense.
"I want you to join my personal ANBU guard. It is a five-man team that is handpicked personally by the Hokage. My ANBU guard squad leader is planning on retiring and I have found myself in need of someone to take the vacant position.
"You would be pulled from the nin academy and would be trained by the squad leader for your two remaining academy years or until you are deemed field ready, in which you will join the five man squad and be prepped in team maneuvers and daily Hokage ANBU responsibilities."
"Why me old man? Why not the Uchiha or something?" Naruto couldn't figure out why he had been deemed so special.
"You have shown incredible proficiency in nin techniques far beyond your years as well as a natural genius within battle strategy. After all, today wasn't even a planned event was it?"
Naruto shook his head. While his grades and his on-paper records were abysmal, Naruto had a monstrous amount of raw talent and willpower based on his unaccompanied self-improvements.
Naruto's dead last reputation was a sham and was like the elephant in the classroom everyday. The teachers didn't care enough to accurately grade him, let alone motivate him and he had long since lost hope for acceptance through his academic performance. No one liked him, so no one gave him the time of day—but nearly everyone knew that he was a cut above the rest.
"There were a lot more kids after school today than usual. I had to do something to end it."
"Precisely. The fact that you were able to dispatch all twenty-five of your on-par peers without civilian witnesses within a two-hour time frame speaks for itself. They were all supposedly at or beyond your skill level and you were able to take on every single one of them."
Sarutobi said this with a feeling of satisfaction, being able to let Naruto know that what he did was mostly justified. He regretted not being able to take further disciplinary action on the children since they were still civilians and had no connection to revealing the secret.
"You have till the end of the week to think this over. If at any time before then that you have decided, you can meet me at my office at 8am at any time this week."
The Hokage leaned forward out of his chair slowly, groaning when his hips popped and his back cracked as he stood up. Taking his hat from the table, he added one more thing.
"You'll want to think about this. Every Hokage except the first has been a member of this ANBU guard." Naruto's eyes widened.
in spite of of all the emotional and physical agony he had been through the past six years, he had somehow managed to hold onto his dream of becoming Hokage, of gaining the favor and respect of the entire village.
As Sarutobi walked out the door, he donned his hat and tipped it to Naruto. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the same look on that face that he had seen on Minato's face all those years ago, the look of a pure soul willing to change the world.
A small smile passed over his face as he walked out into the apartment complex hallway. A blood red cloaked and hooded ANBU wearing a falcon mask blurred into view, falling into step with the Hokage without missing a beat.
"Will he come?" An older, grainier voice growled from behind the mask. The small smile returned to Sarutobi's face.
"He'll come. He knows already anyways."
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Well… that's it… Yay?
I've had a timeline of events written for a while and I just felt like sitting down and putting this out… so four days later, here's my first attempt at a Naruto fanfiction.
Btw, I tried to pace the fighting like the fight scenes in Crows Zero [directed by Takashi Miike—CHA!]
So... here it is... don't hate too hard?
