Rain, pouring rain.

A loner walked down a dirty ally on a wet afternoon. The figure was thoroughly soaked by the water, and he was VERY hungry.

I have eaten for three freaking days… the boy thought bitterly as his stomach grumbled.

As he walked down the alleyway, he systematically stopped and checked every garbage can he came across for something to eat, something he could use, or something he could wear.

Its like someone deliberately took everything useful out of the trash, Naruto thought angrily when he came across the last garbage can. The eight year old boy felt like sitting down and crying, but he learned rather quickly that crying attracted people and attracting people usually resulted in pain.

As he walked down the alleyway, he had one thought in his mind: I hate Konoha…

All his early life had been full of pain, from the time he was in the orphanage, he had been bullied mercilessly without punishment for his oppressors. When he had been kicked out, it grew even worse, he'd had several attempts on his life despite his early age, he couldn't shop in any of the stores in Konoha. When one of the Hokage's secretaries learned how much Naruto's stipend was, she eagerly spread it to any one who would listen, and as a result, once Naruto had finished paying the rent on his crappy apartment, he barely had a full ten ryo to feed and clothe himself with for the rest of the month.

Why me?

I don't bother nobody…

What did I do?

He was so distracted by his thoughts, that he almost walked into the next alleyway without checking to see if anyone was there.

Calm down! he mentally kicked himself.

He had been kicked out of the orphanage when he was four, some BS about bothering the other kids…

When he was younger, he used to cry when all of the other kids were adopted, but not him. He lived in the orphanage for the first four years of his life and no one even bothered to give him a second glance. It was also during this time that Naruto stopped sleeping.

One night when he was four, he had a terrible dream. In it, he saw scores of people visciously slaughtered without second thought, even though he'd had that dream a few years ago, the agonizing scream of the people sill haunted him.

When he woke up the next morning, he was terrified to find himself in one of the other orphans rooms with his hands around their neck. Because of the lack of sleep, the outside around his eyes were black. He a terrified to think of what would have happened if he stayed asleep a few minutes longer, and as a result, he gave up sleeping.

After he was kicked out of the orphanage, Naruto was forced to live on the streets.

It worked out well at first, he got hand out's from newer citizens in the village that took pity on the young boy. But when villagers that had bothered him before found out about the hand outs, they boycotted the newer villagers businesses, and threatened their families. Things took a downward spiral from there.

Whenever he would go to a homeless shelter, Naruto was kicked out. He nearly starved when he was five, and on several occasions, he nearly froze to death during the winter. He had started to adapt to his situation rather well, he had learned the art of pick pocketing, it didn't help him much because most people wouldn't sell him anything anyway, but he also started rummaging through the trash.

When he had turned six, the Hokage gave him his own apartment in the slums of town. The little boy was overjoyed when he first walked inside his new place, sure it was messy and needed to be cleaned, but it was his apartment, and no one would bother him while he was in there.

Problem was, people still bothered him while he was in his home. The first night after he moved in, someone threw a Molotov cocktail through a window, severely burning him, and damaging the apartment.

Another problem he had now was that villagers had started incinerating their trash instead of throwing it out. Now he was ravenously hungry, angry, lonely and growing increasingly desperate.

He crouched behind a crate as he listened for any voices. The little boy heard some voices down in the alleyway.

..they were too far away to make out any distinct words.

Naruto reached his hand into the pocket of is tattered black jeans, and drew out a sharp shard of glass. He found the glass a couple days ago when he was looking for something to eat, but he hadn't used it to defend himself yet. Knowing his luck, the men would see him, and try to beat him up.

I'll kill those bastards if they touch me.

Although he didn't realize it, Naruto was becoming more and more unstable. Often times when villagers were mean to him violent, dark thoughts erupted in his head. He would also get intense feelings of bloodlust. And other times, he just felt like lying down, curse the world, and kill himself.

He stealthily exited his cover an swiftly darted down the alley. He peered around the corner to one of the buildings , and to his dismay, saw three man, clearly drunk, blocking the exit.

What should I do? I cant go back the other way, that leads to a main street, and I cant get on top of any of the buildings…I'll have to go past them.

Naruto hid the shank of glass, and exited his hiding spot. He casually walked down the alleyway till the men noticed him.

Naruto figured that they would be more hostile to him if they caught him sneaking around.

"Well look what we got here Ryoma," a particularly fat man said sinisterly.

The man named Ryoma stared down at Naruto, and his whole complexion changed.

"You, you killed my wife!" Ryoma yelled at Naruto while he pointed a finger at Naruto.

"I didn't kill nobody," Naruto yelled back at the man named Ryoma.

"Shut Up!" Ryoma yelled, as he seized Naruto by the collar and lifted him up into the air.

"Let me go bastard!" Naruto yelled as he feebly kicked his legs.

"Quit kicking," Ryoma said sinisterly.

Naruto just spat in his face in response.

"You little bastard!" Ryoma yelled as he started punching Naruto in the face. The drunk man hit the poor boy again,

and again,

and again,

and again,

till Naruto was barely hanging on to consciousness. His face was bleeding badly, and his shirt was stained with his blood.

"What should we do to him?" a seedy looking shorter man asked.

"We should kill him," Ryoma said resolutely as he tightened his grip on the boy's collar.

"Ryoma, you cant be serious, you know the Hokage likes the demon," the fat man said.

"Oh I'm dead serious," Ryoma began, "think of all the harm that this demon had done, we'd be heroes! It wouldn't be all that hard, no one would realize it was gone, and no one would miss him until he had been dead for a long time."

"So how are you going to do it?" the seedy man asked already agreeing with the idea.

"I think we should drown him."

Naruto was in a daze since Ryoma had slugged him in the face, but he promptly regained awareness when he heard the word 'DROWN'. All his life he had an abnormal fear of water, and he'd be damned if he let these bastards drown him. Ryoma took one of his hands from Naruto's tattered collar, and slipped it around his neck and started to squeeze.

Do it now!

As if on reflex, Naruto grabbed his shank, and drove it into Ryoma's neck lacerating his jugular vein, and puncturing the man's pulmonary artery.

"ARRRGHHHH!" the drunk man screamed as his blood gushed from the wound, he dropped Naruto and tried to quell the bleeding, but it was in vain.

Naruto watched in sick fascination as the man bleed out in the alleyway. The blood was splashing onto Naruto and the man's accomplices, the fat man and the shorter man attempted in vain to quell the bleeding.

Naruto snapped out of his stupor at the sight of all the blood, and realized it was a perfect time to escape. He attempted to stand up and run away, but he slipped in the puddle of blood, and fell to the ground smacking his already broken nose on the pavement, worsening the injury.

The eight year old boy nearly burst out in tears from the intense pain of his broken nose, but he controlled his emotions so well that he would have made a seasoned shinobi proud. He stumbled to his feet, and took off down the alley way. He heard yelling behind him as he ran past people in the streets, but he didn't stop. He ran past the street where his apartment was, he ran past the Uchiha compound, He ran past the ramen shop that smelled so good.

He ran till the front gates of Konoha came into sight.

I'm leaving this hellhole, if I stay they'll kill me!

The boy was starting to get light headed from the bleeding in his nose. He stumbled as he neared the front gate, but he regained his footing and drove on. Some of Ryoma's blood that had spilled onto him, dripped from his fore head into his left eye. Naruto closed both of his eyes on reflex, but the damage was done, he failed to see the ninja walking towards the gate.

Kakashi Hatake had just been given an S-rank mission of the utmost importance. It was to infiltrate the Rain and report on the progress of the civil war. He was reading his beloved Icha Icha book, when he heard some commotion behind him. The scarecrow didn't turn around, because it wasn't any of his business, but his interest peaked when he smelled the familiar scent of blood.

Lots of blood.

He was about to turn around when something, or someone collided with his back. Whatever hit him didn't have enough force to knock him over, but it did make him stumble.

"Hey!" Kakashi said as he started to turn around and see who hit him, "Why don't you…"

He stopped mid sentence when he saw what hit him. Naruto Uzumaki was weakly picking himself up off of the ground, the two things that struck Kakashi was, all of the blood that was on Naruto. The kid was literally covered head to toe in blood, but the other thing that struck him was how thin he was. The blood caused his "shirt" to stick to his torso, and if you looked closely with an untrained eye, you could clearly make out all of Naruto's ribs.

What the hell? look at how thin he is…

Naruto realized who he had bumped into, and he did the first thing that came to his mind: he ran.

Kakashi just stood in the street as Naruto ran away. The boy had tears in his eye, and looked like a strong breeze would blow him over.

I should tell Hokage-sama about this.

No, its not my responsibility, the ANBU that watch him will take care of it.

I want to leave

I've got to leave

I NEED to leave- Naruto thought desperately.

Naruto kept telling himself that over and over again as he ran through the streets. He didn't stop at the guardhouse when the gate keepers told him to halt. He just ran, and ran and ran.

He didn't know where he was, but he knew to things. One, if it was even possible, he was even hungrier than before, two, he needed a place to sleep. It was now nighttime, and Naruto was getting desperate. He hadn't eaten in 3 days, and the only water he had drank in Konoha was water from puddles that he boiled. He saw the lights of a small town about a mile ahead of him.

I can make it, Naruto assured himself.

He walked down the path, rather slowly. The boy was tired, and ravenous. He didn't have to find his way in the dark, the moon was out shining brightly.

Naruto still had the bloodied glass shank in his hand and he clenched it very hard whenever he heard a noise. His nose had already healed, but that didn't take away from the blood that soaked his clothes; the blood was still rather wet, and all of the blood caused him to be very cold.

When he reached the outskirts of town, Naruto immediately looked for an alley. While he walked through the streets, he noticed all the weird looks everyone was giving him.

Must be the blood.

Naruto mingled with a large crowd, and as he looked around at the stalls one thing became painfully clear.

I need money.

Most people gave Naruto a rather wide berth in the crowd, the blood was not a pretty sight, and he looked like a wild person. His unruly blonde hair was blood soaked, and hanging wherever it felt like hanging. His clothes were tattered, ripped, and patched. He didn't have any shoes, and his face was bruised.

I need to get cleaned up somewhere…

Naruto darted into a back alley, and looked for some sort of pipe on the back of a building. Living on the streets had taught him many things, above all else, he had learned to be observant.

One day he had watched some plumbers do some work on a house, and had learned how to access the water that flowed into the houses. He often used this when he was really desperate for water, or he needed to get cleaned up. He found a rather large building, and located the plumbing behind it. He climbed on top of some boxes to get to where the water could be accessed.

He didn't have any tools or anything of the sort, but he had rocks. The little boy took a rather large one, and hit the rusty pipe with it repeatedly till water started to come out.

One more hit.

Naruto gathered his failing strength, and hit the pipe with a purpose. The water gushed out of the broken pipe, splashing onto the boy, and washing away most of the blood and dirt that had accumulated over the day. He also took a few big gulps of the water, but he had to move before the owner of the building came out and checked what happened to the water pressure .

Naruto exited the alleyway feeling rejuvenated, and ready for some action. People didn't give him a second glance as he walked through the streets now.

Time to get some money!

Naruto steered towards a particularly crowded part of the street, because he was so short he disappeared into the throng of people. He spotted his first target: an over weight middle aged women who seemed rather tipsy from a long night of drinking. The women was talking animatedly to a group of people right in the middle of the street.

Perfect!

Naruto stood behind the women, out of her line of sight, and waited for the perfect opportunity, it came when one of the men in the group told a particularly vulgar and crude joke which caused everyone to burst out laughing. In the blink of an eye Naruto reached for her coin purse in her pocket, grabbed it, and melted back into the crowd.

That was too easy! Naruto thought cockily.

I could make some serious dough doing this!

Naruto spent a half hour pick pocketing people blind. He would walk past a group of people walking in the streets, and rob all of them in a matter of seconds.

This is too good! I can get a warm meal and some new clothes!

Naruto kept his poker face up, and went on one last straight line trip. He must have robbed somebody rich, because when he looked at the loot, he nearly passed out when he saw 10,000 ryo.

I better get out of here before my luck runs out.

The little boy left the main streets before people started realizing they had been robbed. He went to the nearest inn, and entered the building. Naruto confidently walked up to the inn keeper at the service counter.

"How much is it for a room?" Naruto asked proudly.

The inn keeper looked at him with a raised eye brow, "we ain't got no empty rooms, all the people from the festival have most of the other inns also filled."

"Do you know of any place that might have an empty room?"

"You should try the Daimyo's Lounge, but I doubt you have the money to get in there."

"Thanks!" Naruto said with a wave of his hand as he ran from the inn.

Don't think I have the money- pfft; I got the damn money believe it!

It didn't take Naruto long to find the Kings Palace, the hotel was one of the tallest buildings in the whole little village. The tower was sixty stories tall. It was one of those modern-tall buildings that most people were rather weary of. All it took was one glance at the place to tell that it wasn't cheap at all.

Crap! I hope I have the money…

Naruto walked into the lavish lobby of the building, and confidently made his way to the receptions desk. He was aware of the weird looks people gave him as he walked through the building, but he didn't care, he'd been stared at his whole life. When he arrived at the front desk, because of his lack of height, Naruto had to stand on his tip-toes to see over the desk.

"I'd like to rent a room," Naruto said confidently.

The receptionist behind the desk didn't seem to have heard him at first, but when Naruto repeated his message a little louder, the recetionist peered over the desk to see who was talking to him.

"You want to rent a room?" the recetionist asked sarcastically.

"Yup! How much does a room cost?"

"It costs more than you have, I can guarantee that," the receptionist replied.

"I have all this money," Naruto said as he waved around a couple thousand ryos in his hand, "Does a room cost more than this?"

He's only a little kid, wearing rags, and looks as if he's half starved, yet he's waving 15,000 ryos in his hand, must be some sort of pick pocket…

Not my problem though…

"A room cost 7, 500 ryo each night, but there is a 2,500 processing fee for each room booked," the receptionist lied.

Naruto didn't really have much of a business sense. He never had any money, so the concept of demand and value was foreign to him. He paid the 10,000 ryo without batting an eyelash.

"Your room is 318, have a nice stay!"

"Thanks," Naruto said as he ran to find his room, he went to the third floor, first hallway, eight door down. When he entered the room, a big smile adorned his face. Their was a king sized bed in a corner, the soft accent color walls slowly started to relax him. Their was a wardrobe filled with bathrobes, and formal kimonos, and a large plasma screen tv opposite the king size bed. He looked down at all of the little boxes attached to the tv.

What are these?- Naruto thought as he started examining them.

X-Box 360, Playstation 3, Wii, what the heck are these?

Naruto had probably watched tv only once in his entire life. It was a crappy old black and white one, so he had never heard of game consoles or Ipods, or any other entertainment devices.

I'll have to check these out after I get something to eat, and some new clothes…- Naruto thought as he exited his room in search of food.

As he exited the hotel, Naruto felt his stomach grumble.

Maybe I can get some ramen!

The little boy followed his nose to a cheap ramen stand.

"Whatllya have?" the cook behind the counter asked as Naruto climbed up onto the tall stool.

"I want some ramen!" Naruto said excitedly.

"What type of ramen?" the man behind the counter asked.

"What do you mean 'what type of ramen?" Naruto asked obliviously.

"We have six different types of ramen…"

Naruto had basically stopped listening when he heard six different types, they have different types of ramen!

"I'll have two types of everything on the menu!"

The cook did a double take, "everything on the menu, are you sure you're going to eat all of that?"

"Yup," the little boy said with an excited face.

"Comin right up," the cook muttered as he got to work.

It was about an hour later when Naruto left the stand, he bought more ramen than had been sold the whole day before he came.

That was so good, Naruto thought sleepily. He gave a strong yawn and glanced down at his watch with a contented smile, its eleven o'clock, I should still be able to get a new set of clothes before I go back to the hotel, maybe I can pickpocket more people while I'm at it.

Naruto walked back to the main part of town, and was glad to see that the crowd of people had not dispursed. He steered towards a particularly rich looking group of people. All he had to do was simply walk by while sticking out his hand. By the time he had walked by, he was 20,000 ryo richer.

Jackpot! Now to get some clothes.

Naruto looked around for a department store that was still open at this late hour. It wasn't all that hard to find a store, many were still open at the late hour. Naruto confidently strode into one of the stores, and walked out a thirty minutes later fully decked out in new attire. He was wearing an orange short sleeved T-shirt, black jeans that fit him perfectly, and a pair of size 12 kids, high top Converse shoes.

Boy, I feel good, maybe I can rob a few more people and stick around town for a couple days before deciding what to do.

Naruto walked down a another crowded street in search of one more victims. It wasn't long before Naruto spied his next victim. His quarry was a tall man with straight red hair, he was wearing a long black cloak, and wore sunglasses even though it was 11:00 p.m.

Pfft, he probably thinks he's something with his stupid sunglasses, this should be easy- Naruto thought confidently as he made his way towards his new target.

Nagato was having a rough time. He had always hated crowds, and almost everyone in the town was either drunk, high, or extremely rowdy. He was sent by Yahiko to meet a contact, and discuss an arms deal that would give the resistance some much needed supplies. He wore sunglasses to cover his rinnengan, and gave off an aura of superiorty, which, combined with some small killer intent, made most people wary of him. His aura didn't stop a few brave people from trying to rob or pickpoket him, but he was a highly trained ninja, and those that tried to rob him would be lucky if they were able to eat anything without a straw for the rest of their lives.

He was walking through the crowd on the way to the rendezvous point, which was the Kings Palace. as he walked he was constantly being jostled around by the crowd. He saw little children darting in between the taller people, he also saw shop owners closing up their shops because of the late hour.

He glanced down at his watch and noticed the time- 11:37, the meeting starts at 12:00.

While he continued to wade through the crowd, he felt his right pocket, get ever-so-slightly lighter than it was a second ago.

They've got some balls- was the first thing that came to Nagato's mind when he turned around to see who robbed him. He got a glance of a shock of blonde hair as it melted back into the crowd.

That's got to be him, he's trying too hard to blend into the crowd…

It was about fifteen minutes till the meeting, and he wanted to get the little bit of money that had been stolen. Funds were extremely low for the resistance in Ame, and every little bit of money would be beneficial to their cause. As he trailed thee little boy, he picked up a strange aura coming off of him.

It was pure evil.

It worked out well enough for Nagato, the little boy walked back towards the Daimyo's Lounge. He trailed the kid all the way up to room 318.

The boy looked innocent enough, Nagato used his rinnengan to see through the wall and watch what the boy was doing.

He emptied his pockets of all of the gold that he had accumulated on his final run, while he sat on the bed. Nagato saw him trying to read the note that had been had been stolen from his person. While Nagato really didn't care about ten ryo, it was going to pay for his fare back to Ame, and would considerably faster than even running through the trees.

What he was rather concerned about was the kid blabbing to somebody important about the meeting so close to Konoha. Nagato had personally dispatched several Leaf Anbu that had tried to infiltrate Ame for recon. The last thing the resistance needed was the Leaf poking their noses in the resistance's business. Add on the fact that after the war, Hanzo had turned a new leaf (no pun intended) and had started new "humanitarian" efforts to help the people. The resistance now basically had no friends internationally.

This new front had gained Hanzo a lot of supporters internationally, but the denizens inside Ame knew it was a sham. No one was allowed to leave the country, so word never got out about what really went on inside the Rain. The years after the war had been brutal for the civilians of Ame, anyone suspected of having ties to the resistance was made a public spectacle, and executed publicly.

Nagato made his decision, and knocked on the door.

Naruto entered his room, and jumped onto the bed, and emptied out his pockets to see what he had picked up on his last run. He was disappointed to find out that the only thing that was on the red haired guy was a note, and 10 ryo.

"Wonder what the note says?" Naruto mused out loud. He could barely read, he could barely write. Most of it had been self taught, and as a result. He couldn't spell to save his life, nor could he read swiftly at all.

"M-e-e-t-i-n-g a-t D-a-I-m-y-o-s L-o-u-n-g-e, 416,12:00," Naruto spelled out.

He didn't understand the word 'meeting' but Naruto was no fool. He understood what 12:00 meant, and he was naturally well aware of the fact that he was currently staying at the Daimyo's Lounge.

Why would a guy have a note for a time that had already passed?

He tossed the note on the ground, and looked through some other stuff that he had picked up. Eight year old was examining a ring he had picked up, when he heard a knock at the door.

Knock

Knock

Knock

Who would be knocking on my door, at 11:50?

Naruto cautiously ambled his way towards the door, and pulled out his shiny knew knife that he had bought. He held it behind his back, so the person at the door wouldn't see it. He reached his hand out to grab the door knob, and gave a small turn. The luxurious door, clicked open, and Naruto knew he had made a big mistake when he saw Nagato's red hair.

"Go away!" Naruto yelled as he tried to slam the door in Nagato's face. Nagato merely put his foot in to stop it from closing.

Naruto didn't know what the man was doing here, but he didn't want to find out. He pushed all of his weight against the door, and stabbed down at the mans foot. Nagato merely pulled his foot back, and slipped his arm in to stop the door from closing.

"Security!" Naruto yelled as he tried to break Nagato's arm in the door.

"Hey, kid! Settle down," Nagato said anxiously as Naruto continued to scream and yell.

"Security!"

"Ok, that's enough," Nagato said firmly when he heard some commotion on from downstairs. The red head forced the door open, grabbed Naruto by the collar, and threw him on the bed.

"Will you shut up!" Nagato said tersely as he pinned Naaruto on the bed.

"Security!" Naruto yelled as he tried to get free of Nagato's hold.

Nagato heard some commotion outside of the door, and decided to take further action. He cast a one-handed silence jutsu on the room. He noticed that Naruto had stopped struggling when he saw the jutsu.

Nagato released Naruto from the hold and looked at him. The little boy's eyes were wide with fear and the rings around them only made them look bigger. He was trembling, and had seemingly forgotten to breathe. Nagato looked him over with the rinengan, and noticed the lack of muscle mass or any sort of body mass whatsoever. He glanced around the room, and noticed that Naruto didn't seem to have anything that he owned except what he was currently wearing.

"Where are your parents?" Nagato asked quietly.

Naruto knew there was no point in lying to a ninja so he told him the truth.

"I ain't got any."

"How did you pay for this room?" Nagato asked even though he already had a pretty good idea of how.

"I stole money from the people in the market," Naruto said quietly.

Nagato sighed and ran his hand through his hair, he glanced at his watch and noticed the time.

11:55 I can't leave this kid here, he'll just continue to steal, and if he gets caught, then what? But I could take him back to Ame, and train him to help us out, we could use any help we could get… he also has that strange aura, I can sense he does have huge potential and his chakra levels are off the charts…

"Whats your name?" Nagato asked calmly.

"My name is Naruto, what's your name?"

"My name is Nagato, do you live here?" Nagato asked.

"I used to live in Konoha, but I ran away," Naruto said as he looked down at the bed.

"Why did you run away?

"Because they were mean to me, and they tried to kill me," Naruto said nonchalantly.

"Why would they try to kill you?" Nagato asked, not understanding the reasoning behind the attacks.

Nagato knew he hit a sore spot because of Naruto's reaction.

"I don't know!" Naruto lashed out at him, "they kept calling me 'demon,' but I'm just a kid!" Naruto said with a confused tone. "I don't know why they were mean to me, I swear, I never did anything wrong!" Naruto yelled out as a couple tears streamed down his eyes. "All I ever wanted was for someone to give me a chance," Naruto choked out as he cried.

Nagato shifted so that he was sitting down next to the distress child. He put a comforting hand on his shoulder and said, "I could give you a chance to come and train to be a ninja."

"You would train me to be a ninja?" Naruto asked skeptically as he wiped his nose in his sleeve.

"Yes, but you'd have to come to Ame with me, and you'll really have to train hard," Nagato stated.

"What makes you think i'd be any good at being a ninja," Naruto asked dejectedly.

"Well, I can tell that you've already been through a lot even though you're so young; that shows that you are tough and can persevere. You also have an extremely large chakra supply for someone so young. Its because of those reasons, I think you'd make a great ninja.

Naruto didn't know what chakra was, but by the way that Nagato addressed it, he guessed it wasn't a bad thing.

Nagato looked down at the little boy while he mulled over the offer, he really needed to get going however so he decided to wrap up this impromptu meeting.

"Listen, I need to get going, but if you decide to come with me I'll be in room 416," Nagato said as he rose from sitting and exited the room.

Naruto stared at the door that the red head had exited through, while he pondered his options.

He only had one thought on his mind: Who else is going to give me a chance?