Naruto was running. It felt like all he could remember was running. His life had never been easy, but on today, on his birthday, it had taken a horrible turn. He had been running for hours, fearing what he knew they would do if they could catch him. They had never caught him before, but Naruto would not take his chances on what they would do if they did catch him.

Seeing a chance to catch his breath, Naruto dove around the corner, into an alleyway, diving into a dumpster before they could see him, and holding his breath, he peaked through a gap between the lid of the dumpster, and the dumpster itself.

Even as the dumpster lid stopped moving, a crowd of nearly a dozen, to twenty people came storming around the corner. They were all normal people, merchants, stall-vendors, construction workers, fathers and mothers. Yet to Naruto, they were evil. Stinking of alcohol, they would chase him every year, on the day of his birthday, but Naruto had never let them catch him.

For the four years prior to this, whenever these same people tried to catch him, Naruto would run inside the orphanage where he lived, and they would protect him, and keep the bad people out. But two days before today, a new man had purchased the orphanage, and his first order of business, was to throw Naruto out.

As the crowd moved on, and their angry voices faded away until he could no longer hear them, Naruto cautiously poked his head out of the dumpster, and with some trepidation, he climbed out of the dumpster, landing lightly on his feet.

Naruto knew that the only place he could go to get help now, was the Hokage tower, right in the middle of the village. The only problem was, was that Naruto was more than ten minutes away from the Hokage tower, and there was a dozen angry, drunk adults hunting him between here, and there.

Naruto looked around quickly for any means to climb up onto the rooftops, it was there that he could travel the easiest, for whatever reason, no one ever seemed to look up for him. Seeing a drain pipe going up the side of a building, Naruto moved swiftly, and with grace unusual for that of an eight year old boy, climbed up the drain pipe, and began running through the rooftops.

It should have been simple enough, use the roof tops, and the thick cables connecting many of the buildings to move to the tower, and it would have been, if Naruto hadn't stepped on a loose piece of shingle, and ended up slipping and rolling in a tumble down off of the roof to the ground.

With an "off" of pain, Naruto stood up, looking around for a second, only to see that one of the woman who had chased him had observed his fall. Even from as far away as he was, Naruto could hear her yell, "Kusen! I found the brat!" Her voice was heavily slurred from the effects of alcohol.

Looking quickly, Naruto could see that there was no chance for him to reach the Hokage tower before the quickly reappearing crowd would get to him, so taking a quick look for an escape route, Naruto saw that he could jump from a dumpster and catch a ledge leading back up to the roof.

Even as Naruto's plan formulated itself in his mind, he was not fast enough as the man, Kusen, grabbed him by the back of his shirt, and hauled him kicking and screaming farther down the alley. As Naruto was thrown to the ground, he hit his head hard and he couldn't react as the crowd around him grew.

In total, there was eight people who stood in a circle around Naruto, normal civilians who's need to grieve over the loved ones they had lost, all placed the blame on Naruto. In the back of their heads, they knew Naruto couldn't possibly be the Kyuubi, but with more than a fair share of alcohol, and a few drunken words, they couldn't care.

Kusen takes action first, the middle aged butcher grabbing Naruto's hair roughly; pulling Naruto painfully to his feet, only hit Naruto as hard as he could in the nose. The blow knocked Naruto over, leaving him clutching his nose in pain as he can see all of the blood pouring from the wound.

As Naruto was laying there clutching at his broken and bleeding nose, there was a sudden shift in the overall mood of the group, as Kusen's action brazened the rest of them. With moments, Naruto was curled up into a tight ball as a barrage of fists and kicks hit him, seeming to hit his whole body, the pain never ending.

As this goes on, Naruto catches bits and pieces of the curses and obscenities that they were yelling at him, and yet they all had a central theme. 'They are doing this because I am some kind of demon, the Kyuubi?'

"How does it feel Demon? This is for the thousands of people you killed when you got here. Were going to kill you nice and slow, and make you suffer while you are defenseless in your human form that Yondaime-sama trapped you in. After all the trouble that the Sandaime went through to try and make you seem human, the Sandaime even went so far as to give you a name. Ha! Despicable!"

Naruto couldn't do anything but tuck his head to his chest as the beating intensified, and as Naruto's eyes started to close, and he started to black out, the blows stopped coming. He heard a series of thuds, and he heard the voice of Kusen cry out, and then everything was quiet.

Looking up from his fetal position, Naruto watched as the group of half a dozen men was thrown randomly around the alleyway, a green and blue blur being all that Naruto could see. And suddenly it was over, and standing with his back to Naruto was a man, in the typical Konoha jounin outfit, but Naruto could see a tie keeping a mask over his face.

He turned around, and Naruto could see that the man's face was covered by a white Anbu mask, and Naruto couldn't tell anything about him, other than his brown hair. Naruto was shocked, this man went out of his way to help him?

He said not a word as Naruto just stared at him, the pain was too extreme, and any movement he tried to make was met with an increased level of pain. He reached down to Naruto, and with extreme care, lifted him up into his arms, leaving his head to rest against his shoulder.

Naruto closed his eyes, knowing it was over, and immediately he was unconscious.

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, and the first thing that he could see, were white ceiling tiles. He pulled himself up, so that he could look around, and he can see that he was in a bed with white sheets, and that he was in a very plain room, with only a chair next to his bed and a single window. 'Oh great, I'm in the hospital, but what happened?'

Even as he began to start looking around, he watched as a nurse into the room, a pleasant smile on her face at seeing Naruto awake. "Oh, you're awake already. That is surprising, it has only been 3 days, and I thought it would take weeks to recover from what those men did to you. You were a bloody mess when the Anbu brought you in. Oh, I will go get Hokage-sama immediately. He requested to be brought to you as soon as you woke up."

I just stared at her in a daze as she walked out of the room. My body felt absolutely fine, but I was stuck on 3 days.' I was in the hospital for 3 DAYS!' He had never so much as been in the hospital before, whenever he got hurt, all he had to do was rest and it would heal right up.

He laid there on the bed for about three minutes before he began to get bored, so he lifted up the covers, swung his feet onto the floor, and stood up. Feeling as if he should wait for the Hokage, Naruto suppressed the thought, feeling the need to get up and move.

The door to Naruto's room was at the far end of a hallway, so after looking around for a brief moment, Naruto stepped out into the hallway and slid the door shut behind him. Walking to the other end of the hallway, Naruto found himself in the reception room for the hospital, and as the receptionist turned to look at Naruto, she gasped.

Naruto was standing there in nothing more than the loose hospital garb, and looking down, Naruto became privy to that fact, as his face became bright red and he ran back to his room in shame at neglecting to notice such a thing.

Naruto sat at the edge of his bed, moving the sheets to cover up as much as he could. he didn't have to wait long before Sarutobi knocked on the door, and pushed it open as he walked in. as he walked in, Naruto knew that the receptionist had told him what had happened.

He walked in with a grin on his face, and said "So you are in such a hurry to leave, you don't want to at least have clothes on before you go outside?"

Naruto blushed like a ripe tomato and replied "I didn't notice I didn't have clothes on until the lady stared at me when I was trying to leave."

"Regardless Naruto-kun, you cannot leave yet, it's a miracle that you can even walk yet. You shouldn't even be awake yet, the damage done to your body should have kept you unconscious for weeks, not only three days out of one week. "

"But I'm okay Ji-Ji. Honestly. I feel perfectly fine. I can walk, and nothing hurts at all." At this point, Naruto swung himself back out of the bed, and ran in place to show Sarutobi that he was fine.

"Haha, I guess you are fine after all. I am just very surprised, the doctor told me that you had seven broken ribs, various internal bruising, and a broken arm." 'Hmmm, it must have something to do with the Kyuubi's chakra in his body. Advanced healing maybe? This will prompt further investigation.'

"So if I am all fine now, can I leave Ji-Ji? Please?" Naruto wanted nothing to do with the hospital, he had never had to go to it before, and he did not want to make a habit out of it.

Seeming to give in, Sarutobi conceded, "Alright fine Naruto, you can go now if you want."

"Yeah!" Naruto raced from the room, dashed down the hallway, and ran right out of the door. Sarutobi smiles as Naruto leaves. 'I wonder when he will notice…'

Only then did Naruto realize that he was still in his boxers. A bright red blush appeared on Naruto's face when he noticed that everyone in the street was staring at him, and in an effort to save his dignity, he ran back into the building.

Sarutobi was sitting on the bed when he ran back into the room, and he was smiling brightly, but Naruto could easily tell that he was only just containing his laughter.

Naruto looked down in embarrassment as he tried to hide his blush, "Hey, ugh Ji-Ji, where are my clothes?"

"Well Naruto, they were not in very good shape when you were brought here after what had happened, so I sent my personal assistant out to buy you something to wear when you are ready to leave."

"Okay Ji-Ji. But where will I go when I can leave? I kind of forgot that I was kicked out of the orphanage."

This greatly surprised Sarutobi, he personally knew the older couple who owned and ran the orphanage, and he had absolute faith they would protect Naruto, they always had before. "Naruto why would they do that, I know they are very nice people."

Naruto seemed ashamed for a second, "Well a young man bought the orphanage from Tsukune-san and Akina-san, and he made me leave, saying I wasn't worth the effort to take care of." As if he was the one to blame, Naruto ducked his head in shame, as tears welled in his eyes.

'I am going to have to find out who it was that bought the orphanage, and I will charge him with criminal negligence of a child.' Realizing that Naruto needed some comfort, Sarutobi spoke up, "Alright then Naruto, I will arrange for you to be given an apartment as soon as I get to the office."

"Oh really Ji-Ji, I get to live by myself? I can be just like an adult!" Seeming very excited, it was a clear contrast as Naruto stopped and looked suddenly depressed, "But umm Ji-Ji, I have a question that I have to ask, am I a demon?"

AN: Okay WOW! I sat down to FINALLY get this done maybe 5 days ago, but it took me forever to rewrite and entire two thousand word document from first person point of view to the usual third person perspective that I prefer to write in. So yeah! A Good Life, first chapter is all redone and edited, and I am working on the rest of them now, I should have them out every few days until I have to start writing new chapters before I am done rewriting first.

With the complete flops that the two new stories I posted were, I wasn't really excited about posting another new story, as I know that the majority of my readers just want me to finish what I already have started, and I should. But I feel that A Good Life deserves a chance, because it has twice as many hits as all of my other stories COMBINED!