When Naru was six, she realized something that changed everything.

She realized this when she sat in the corners of the playground, swinging in the swings that no one really liked to play with. As she watched the kids play with their friends, smiling and laughing without a care in the world, Naru realized she was alone in the world. She didn't have anyone to talk to, didn't have anyone who she could always count to take her side of the story or had anyone who wanted to play with her. No, she had no one who could she consider a friend.

Naru didn't know why it took so long for her to realize this but she knew the emptiness she felt was growing deeper and deeper each day. The emptiness grew worse whenever she was forced to watch the kids play ninja or watch them as their mother and father hugged them. Was it because she had no parents she felt this way? No, it couldn't be because her fellow orphans would feel the same way and from what she saw in the orphanage...no one had that emptiness.

Keeping a smile on her face, Naru stared at the smiling kids, feeling a bitter pang as the kids giggled and laughed as they chased after each other. The pang got worse when she saw the smiling faces of their parents, looking so painfully happy at the sight in front of them. Though not all the parents were staring at their kids, a couple of parents stared at her too. Those parents were the worse ones, if you ask Naru, those parents were the ones who made her want to curl into a ball and hide.

Those parents always glared at her, giving her looks that made her feel like she was a monster from the stories the caretaker in the orphanage used to give.

She smiled even wider, hoping the smile would be enough for them to look away and ignore her but of course she was never that lucky. Her smiles didn't make them want to look away, if anything her smile was making them glare even harder at her.

Could this get any worse? She thought to herself, looking away from the glaring parents. Why did she want to go to the park? She asked herself, keeping her eyes fixed on the towering Hokage Mountain. There was no one who wanted to play with her or even talk to her. Coming here always bring her pain. The park always reminded her she was a no-name orphan, who was hated by almost every adult in this village.

"Why does she always come here? Doesn't she know she's unwanted?" One of the mothers sneered, drawing her attention to the woman. "Why didn't the Hokage-"

"Not here! You can't say anything about it unless you want to die!" The other mother warned, flickering her eyes at her. Naru kept the smile plastered on her face and only removed it when the woman looked away from her. "The Hokage will chop our heads off if you even think of talking about it."

Fear shone through the woman's eye, making Naru wonder why the Hokage would chop their heads off if they talked about it, whatever it meant. She shook her head and smiled widely. This wasn't any of her business. If the Hokage hadn't told her then it might not be important for her or any of the other kids to know.

"You have to admit the child is strange," the mother whispered but if the woman thought Naru wouldn't hear her then she was wrong because Naru had excellent hearing. "That child's smile is so strange, so unreal and those whisker marks...well how can we be certain she isn't…"

"We can't be certain but we have no choice but to watch," the other mother whispered bitterly, gazing at her with such hatred that Naru was surprised she hadn't crumbled from her gaze. "We just have to hope the monster won't hurt them."

Naru clenched her hands into a fist at the woman's words. Monster? Were they talking about her? She asked herself, bitting her lips. Was she a monster? Naru touched her whisker marks, the marks she was so proud of because it showed she was different from them. Did they hate her because of her whisker marks? She gulped. Would they like her if she got rid of it? But how was she going to get rid of it? It was a part of her.

"She's going to hurt them," The other mother whispered, her tone so harsh and cold that Naru was surprised she hadn't been killed by her voice. "The brat was a survivor of that incident."

"You think she caused it?"

Why did they always want to blame her? Why couldn't they think it was someone else fault for that incident? She had been four when it happened. Everyone knew from the Hokage to the orphans in the orphanage, it hadn't been her fault it happened. Why would they think she did it? Why didn't they want to consider it was another person's fault? Not even her fellow orphans blamed her. If she had caused the incident then they would have blamed her but none of them blamed her for it.

"You think she caused the incident?"

You don't know a damn thing, Naru thought bitterly, glaring at the woman.

"She isn't human."

Why do you keep saying I'm not human? She asked herself, bitting her lips to the point she could feel the blood pouring out of her lips. She had ten fingers and ten toes just like them. She had everything that defined a person as human; so why wouldn't they think she was human? Was it because of her whisker marks? if they wanted her to get rid of it then she would gladly do it but that would mean taking away the one thing she was proud of.

No, maybe it would get better, she told herself, gazing at the happy kids. One day, those adults were going to accept her and be sorry for thinking so badly of her. Besides, maybe not all adults were like that. Hopefully when she started the Academy, her teachers wouldn't be as bad as those women.

If they were as bad as those two women then Naru was going to have to find some way to cope with her school life.

For as long as Naru could remember, she had always wanted to go to the Academy. She always wanted to be a ninja. She didn't want to be a ninja because they could do cool jutsu, though that had perks, or because she wanted to save people and become a hero, which was also another bonus. No, Naru wanted to become a ninja because it was the one job, which would allow herself to prove to all the adults she was a good person. It also didn't help ninja also made some good money and if there was one thing Naru needed, it was more money.

Now the question was, would the teachers in the Academy be nice to her? Would the kids in the Academy try to make friends with her? Naru hoped so but if they didn't treat her nicely then she wasn't surprise. In her short life, only the Hokage and the ramen stand people treated her nicely. Everyone else just looked her like she was a monster in the stories their parents would tell them to go to sleep.

Shrugging her shoulder, Naru gazed at the rows and rows of seats, where students were already sitting together and chatting as if they were long lost friends. She blinked her eyes when she caught sight of an empty seat beside a blind-looking girl with short dark-blue hair. Considering the fact everyone was talking to each other and had already buddy up, Naru decided to take a seat beside the girl.

Slidding to take a seat beside the girl, Naru placed her school bag down on the ground and gazed at her fellow students. Most of them were too busy talking to notice she was staring at them and the people who did notice her staring, glared at her. Now if that wasn't a sign she was an outcast then she didn't know what was. Keeping a fixed smile on her face, Naru gazed at their teacher, who stood in front of the blackboard.

Just like her fellow students, her teacher looked just as excited and upbeat. He kept smiling as he wrote down his name in the blackboard before turning around to introduce himself to them. Their teacher had brown-hair tied into a ponytail, dark eyes that radiated with warmth but the most interesting thing about him was his scar. The man had a scar which ran across to the bridge of his nose.

"Hello, my name is Umino Iruka and I'll be your sensei for the next six years in the Academy," Their teacher Iruka said, giving them a smile. "Now for the next six years, I'll be giving you lessons on…"

The teacher barely started his speech and already Naru had to hold herself back from yawning at the man. Why couldn't the man try to make it sound more fun or exciteable? She couldn't help but ask herself as she listened to their teacher talked about how he was going to teach them ninjutsu as well as history and every other subject that the Academy offered to them.

She must resist the urge to close her eyes.

"...I would like everyone here to introduce themself to not only me but to everyone else in the class," Iruka said, drawing her attention back to him. He smiled at them. "We're going to do this in alphabetical order," he pulled up a list from the drawer, "When I call your name, I want you to stand up and tell me about your likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams."

Everyone in the class groaned when they heard this but their groans soon died down when their teacher glared at them. As they waited for their teacher to call out the names, the students whispered to each other about how boring this was going to be and how they thought they were going to learn jutsu first. Naru just nodded her head in agreement with her classmates, after all none of them came here to be introduce to everyone else.

Their teacher first started with Abume Shino, who told them about his clan dealt with bugs, which creeped a hell out of lot girls but interested Naru since she never heard of a clan who used bugs before. It made her wonder how his clan used bugs in their missions. He also made her wonder what he was hiding because the boy was wearing clothes that covered his whole body.

This continued on and on but Naru didn't really listened to any of them, except for the girl beside her, who she learnt was called Hyuga Hinata. She caught her attention because the girl stuttered and flushed as everyone stared at her, waiting for her to tell them about her likes, dislikes and everything else their sensei wanted her to talk about. Naru felt pity for the girl after all, it wasn't easy to talk in front of strangers.

"Uzumaki Naru," Her sensei called out. Barely the first day of school and he doesn't even like me, I'm never going to meet a nice adult who isn't the Hokage, Naru thought to herself, noticing how her sensei didn't exactly smile at her like he did with the other students.

That was fine with her because she was going to make him regret treating her differently.

"My name is Uzumaki Naru," Naru said, smiling brightly. "I like to read, draw, cook and I also like eating ramen. I don't like liars, cheaters, people who don't how to take a joke and of course people who judge other people without getting to know them. My dream…" she felt her voice faltered as the memories of that day came rushing through her mind. She couldn't say anything now, not until those memories fade.

"Your dream is…" Iruka prompted, trying to get her to continue on with her introduction.

"My dream is to be the best kunoichi this village has ever seen, no, I want to become Hokage!" She declared, smiling widely at him. He just stared at her with such emotionless eyes that it hurt because why was she the only one being treated differently? Who care what he thought? This was her dream and she was going to make it come true even if she had to spent sleepless nights doing training.

There was no way in hell she could let that incident happen again.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard someone snickering behind her back. Twisting her body around, Naru gazed at her fellow classmates, who kept snickering at her. Her dream wasn't funny. One day, she was going to be the best kunoichi this village had ever seen and then she would be the one laughing at them. One day, she would be Hokage and they would be the ones to take orders from her.

When that day happened, they were going to regret the day they laughed at her.

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.