Hello readers out there. This is my first chapter of my first Fanfic. This is a story about Naruto's life had he met the sand siblings, especially Gaara, earlier in life. Many choices in the series will be left to reader's comments.

I renamed this story, as it used to be "The Sandaime's Decision: Naruto's Red Haired Friend".

*I do not own Naruto or any of the Characters of the series*

Chapter One:

The Sandaime's Decision

The Sandaime released a sigh, before placing the completed document in the stack of finished paperwork, which never seemed to compare to the size that he still needed to have done. He stood up and walked over to the couch in the far left corner of his office to look at the six-year-old child resting from his last escapade with some villagers, who saw it as their duty to "finish with the fourth started ". The child had several cuts along his arms and under his tattered shirt, caused by knives, rusty kunai, and broken bottles. Most of the cuts were healing quickly, due to the Kyuubi's influence, and had been far worse not long ago. He was very fortunate that a certain silver haired ANBU captain stopped the conflict before it became worse.

The Sandaime wished that he could do more for Naruto, but the damned civilian council had his hands tied. After the Yondaime's death, they usurped power that was meant for the Hokage for themselves, and used it to target the newborn baby. They blamed the child for the thousands of deaths that happened the day the Kyuubi attacked, and were set making the baby's life as terrible as possible. Many of the veteran ninja who were designated as clan heads understood how the sealing worked and harbored no hatred towards Naruto, only what he held within him. The Sandaime, along with several of the other clan heads, had tried to adopt Naruto into their families, but were stopped by the civilian council, as well as Uchiha Fugaku, Danzo, and his advisers. The civilian council cut the clan heads off at every point, even going against the wishes of the Yondaime, who wanted Naruto to be seen as a hero for his sacrifice. They blamed an innocent orphan for the Kyuubi attack that had taken so many lives.

He had been forced to put the newborn Naruto into an orphanage, where he knew the caretakers would only treat him with animosity. He attempted to get a retired ninja to take care of Naruto, but the civilian council found out, and stopped the aged Hokage before he could complete the order, as the orphanage was under their jurisdiction. While he did not like the situation, he made the best of his position. He assigned several ANBU members to watch over Naruto during his infancy, but even then, the situation was not satisfactory. Several of the ANBU members harbored hated towards the newborn and would skip their shifts or even outright refuse to watch over the supposed "demon brat".

The situation only became worse when the orphanage kicked him out a year and a half ago, forcing the poor four and half year old boy onto the streets. The little blond had nothing but the clothes on his back, if you consider an over-sized shirt with holes in it and old shorts made from a rag to be clothes.
Many villagers took advantage of Naruto's vulnerability, and glared, verbally lashed out, or even physically attacked Naruto when he looked for food or walked by.

"Fools" The Sandaime thought to himself, "The fact that they blamed a newborn child for the death of thousands, and did nothing to respect the wishes of the Yondaime is disgusting. Had council not released the information about Naruto tenant, and not taken power during the absence of the Hokage, then maybe Naruto could have had a normal childhood." He thought sadly.

The attacks had escalated over the past year, after the Sandaime found Naruto digging in a trash can for a meal. The whiskered blond looked extremely malnourished and terrified when he first saw the Hokage. He carefully had a silver haired ANBU take Naruto to his office and get him some food. After Kakashi and Naruto left, he released a humongous amount of killing intent out of anger, knocking out dozens of villagers nearby, including a council member, who proceeded to soil himself in his expensive silk robes.

He knew the orphanage was not a good place for Naruto, so he rented an apartment for the boy. He made sure it was away from prying eyes, hoping that Naruto could be safer, but sadly that was not the case.

When word got out that Naruto now had his own living space, several villagers paid off an ANBU (ex- ANBU after the Sandaime found out) who watched Naruto and found out where he lived. Every now and then they attacked the building, usually by throwing bricks through the windows, knocking down the door, or breaking in and destroying anything of value. No matter what the Sandaime thought of to help Naruto, either the villagers found a way around it or the civilian council denied it.

The Sandaime was happy only about one thing in the situation. Naruto remained pure and determined. He still had a boisterous attitude, much like his mother (of course he knows who his parents are.), but the villagers partially dulled it, making Naruto somewhat timid, especially when talking to others he did not know. He had a lot of trouble making friends with other children, due to the fact that parents would take their children away from him, or yell at him for trying to corrupt their kids. Coupled with his poor clothing ( Which the Sandaime tried to fix by buying him new clothes, only for them to be ruined by villagers.), Naruto had no friends, and it seemed to be the one thing that he wished for the most.

The Sandaime wondered what he could do with the six-year-old blonde. He wanted Naruto to be able to defend himself from other people, mainly villagers and enemy ninja. The blond would most likely be hindered at the academy, as it was, not by his choice, run by the civilian council, who would sabotage him through any means they saw fit. Then an idea struck him.

Train Him.

Naruto already had a large amount of chakra due to the Kyuubi expanding his coils, and had the potential to be a great fighter like his parents. The Uzumaki and Namikaze lines were both powerhouses and together could lead to Naruto becoming the greatest shinobi ever. But he wondered how he could complete such a task. He would need it to be secret, so the civilian council, or worse, Danzo, would have no way to get involved.

And he needed a teacher.

Most ninja may not hate Naruto but he doubted they would want to train him

He couldn't do it, as he had no time and the civilian council would hound at him over favoritism.

Jiraiya was out, as he would only turn Naruto into his father, which was not a terrible thing. Naruto is not his father though, and still has many of his mother's traits, so it would only hurt the blond. Or worse, Jiraiya turned Naruto into a pervert. The Sandaime may like Jiraiya's books, but he would not let him corrupt the boy.

Tsunade was out, as she does not have patience for training, and is still away grieving over the death of her brother and fiancé, along with Naruto never being able to use her techniques due to his high amount of chakra, which can never be tamed enough to do medical styles.

Kakashi was also out, as he would also try to shape Naruto into Minato or not train him at all, as his only focus seems to be going to the memorial stone, or reading porn in public. He may be an excellent shinobi who protects Naruto, but his teaching style leaves little to the imagination. He would have to look back on his plan later, as it would take a large amount of planning.

Right now, he had to focus on the diplomatic relations between Suna and Konoha. He had gotten a letter earlier that day, telling him that there was a meeting requested between himself and the Kazekage to straighten out trade and border conflict. He needed to leave in two days, but he did not want to leave Naruto alone with the villagers without protection. Kakashi had left on a mission after saving Naruto, so the one ANBU he could count on was gone. Perhaps he can take an him with him, and get the boy away from the Konoha and see some new sights, and perhaps make some friends. He just hoped that his actions would make a difference

Little did he know that this choice would change everything.

(((End Chapter One)))

What do you think of my first story, leave a comment and tell me what you think I should do. I will update this story whenever i can, which is most likely going to be frequent. Please tell me of any grammatical errors or plot holes to fix.