A/N: Dear readers, a few words before you begin. I do not own Naruto. However, this is a work of fanfiction. The Naruto you will read about here is definitely mine, just as the other characters will be, as well as the universe. This means I will NOT consider any comments about OOCness and AUness in regard to Canon. I will do this disclaimer once and once only, and if you intend to post a comment about those two points, you better be logged, because I WILL suppress them. You're free to critic my work otherwise.

Outside, the day was bright and the sky perfectly clear. Lifeless blue eyes looked back at him as Naruto observed himself in the mirror. It was the beginning of November, but the weather was still warm; the autumn in Fire Country was longer than anywhere else after all. The boy tried to smile at his reflection but only managed a grimace of a sort. Birds sang in the trees, which were still donning a robe of gold, copper, and blood. The strange whiskers that marred his cheeks seemed like they were falling, like those of one unhappy cat. Naruto sighed heavily as he passed a hand through his all too bright blond hair. Today was a school day, and the young boy wanted nothing more than hole up in his apartment. The perspective to attend the Academy was all but appealing to him. But if he chose to play hooky, then it would go up the ladder and before the end of the day, he would end up chased by masked ninja and brought before the Hokage himself.

It was not an honor for Naruto to be confronted with the highest authority of Konoha village. It simply meant he had no one at home the teachers could complain to. The boy was an orphan, and no matter how sweet the Hokage was with him, even letting Naruto call him grandpa, it was not a substitution.

The blond gazed yet again at his reflection in his crackled mirror and tried to summon as much strength and willingness he had inside of him. He sighed again, a second after before he turned his back to the polished piece of glass and walked away to his entrance. His patched satchel was waiting for him. He had already prepared it yesterday, more out of a now ingrained habit rather than anticipation. Inside was a few pens and his lunchbox, prepared by his caretaker. There was nothing else, as the teachers had refused to lend him the few necessary books after the incident, as they all called it. Naruto had simply been attacked by a few classmates but had failed to convince even the Hokage he wasn't responsible. So now; all his books were waiting for him at the Academy. Except when the teachers deemed he didn't need it, which was more often than not the case.

Naruto slung his bag around his shoulder and exited his flat. He found himself on the external gangway of a two-story building made the traditional way. The apartment complex was made nearly entirely out of wood and was also completely deserted. Naruto was the only living human there. The blond took a deep breath of the crisp but not yet cold, air, but it failed to raise his spirits. Slowly, the boy took the staircase, ignoring carefully the messages painted, some engraved in the wood even, wishing him many unhealthy predicaments. They were old and the paint had dried long ago, and washing it away would consume time, resources, and energy Naruto knew he did not have.

It was relatively early but the streets of Konoha were already bustling with activity. People were going to and fro, running about their business. Naruto darted around, taking small alleyway, cutting through shortcuts, keen on neither seeing nor being seen by people. But the few who noticed him, and how could they not when his only garments were of the worst sort of neon orange, scowled as he passed them. Their heated glare burning the back of his head and their poisoned whispers cutting his ears, Naruto made his way to Konoha Central.

The buildings here were modern and traded traditional wood for concreted efficiency and coldness. They were nothing else than a badly healed scar dating from roughly six years back. Naruto hated this part of the city. It was lifeless, grey, and rough. It smelled of sweat, steel, and blood. The blond much preferred the old wards of the city, where it smelled of wood, spice, of the ochre extracted from the Monument, where the narrow streets and forgotten alley were numerous and allowed him to hide. Here in Central, everything was wide and large and illuminated and put in plain view. Naruto ran, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. The Academy was not far from here and maybe today he would make it without accidents. Suddenly his feet met with an obstacle and the blond boy fell. His hands kept him from hurting his face but they scraped painfully against the asphalted road, along with his knee. For a second, the boy stayed on all fours, waiting for a helping hand he knew wouldn't come. The snickers and barely held laughs stabbed at his heart as the boy stood up. Naruto swallowed the hard lump he had that clogged his throat and felt the prickling behind his eyes but refused to cry. It was a satisfaction he had decided not to give them any more. Wiping the blood and little gravel stuck to his hands on his pants, the boy resumed his way toward the Academy, this time at a brisk walk but not in a run; he wanted to avoid falling victim to another accident.

The remaining distance was unusually safely covered and Naruto entered the Academy's ground. They were still deserted at this hour, but they wouldn't be for long. Naruto made his way in the empty buildings, trying not to think about the mothers and the fathers who would soon accompany their children to this very place. After five minutes of navigating the maze that was the Academy, the blond reached his classroom. Naruto glanced for a second at the room he had no lost love for, before seating at his place at the back of the class, far removed from the blackboard. It was good he had perfect eyesight. Minutes drained like droplets of water falling from a leaking faucet, and the room slowly filled in with children of Naruto's age. No one gave him any greeting and the blond did not try to initiate any; he knew it was useless. The clock above the blackboard was showing five to eight when the teacher entered the classroom. It was courtesy for a ninja to arrive a bit earlier than what was asked. All children rose from their seat.

"Hello class." The man greeted with enthusiasm.

"Hello Kenji-sensei." The class answered as one, in a perfect show of discipline.

The teacher smiled. "Sit. Now everyone, you better all pay attention today because we're gonna talk about something complex but absolutely fundamental: chakra."

Whispers of anticipation fused from the now agitated group of children. Naruto watched dispassionately and waited for the teacher to establish a semblance of order.

"Now, now, quiet, quiet or you won't hear everything." The man chastised firmly, silencing the class. "Now, Uchiha-san please, help me distribute the flyers to everyone on the left side while I take care of the right."

Naruto grimaced. As per usual, he wouldn't get the flyer like everyone else. He already knew that even if he asked, the teacher would ignore him, or give him some sort of excuse even he could tell was false. The boy sighed. It was why he did not like school: whether he went or not, it would have the same effect on his knowledge. Teachers refused to teach him anything. Soon, everyone had a piece of paper with detailed information on it, save himself, as per his prediction. The blond felt his shoulders sag. He didn't feel like taking notes. The teacher would go fast. Slow enough that the other students with the flyer could follow, but too fast for him to write anything down.

"Alright, everyone!" The man began with the same enthusiasm he always seemed to have. "Who can tell me what chakra is?"

A few hands rose, without surprise belonging to clan-born children mostly.

"Yes, Yamanaka-san?"

"Chakra is the energy everyone has in them. Ninja developed techniques to use it to fight!" A blonde girl exclaimed, pride obvious in her voice, as she rose from her seat.

"Very good, Yamanaka-san. Now, does someone else knows what makes chakra?"

Again, hands belonging to children born in ninja clans shot in the air. Naruto wondered, not for the first time, why they were even there.

"Yes, Aburame-san?"

"Chakra is a mixture of our yin and yang energies, originating respectively from our mind and body." A boy, covered from head to toes in a big cloak and wearing sunglasses, answered in a monotone. Naruto silently asked himself, not for the first time, why the boy was wearing shades inside. And why the teacher was so accepting of it. The blond recalled the day Kiba Inuzuka had tried to come with glasses on, they had been confiscated faster than the boy's companion could say "woof".

"Correct Aburame-san. Chakra is indeed a mix of our body's strength and our mind's will. As such, everyone's chakra has the qualities of both the body and the mind; yin and yang, as Aburame-san said. Now on your flyer, you have a schematic of the human body: it details the place where chakra is produced, stored, and the chakra circulatory system. It works much like blood vessels with blood."

Naruto sighed again. He would have liked to see the drawing. He was sure it would something the teacher would test them on. And because he would never access it, he would again fail to have a good mark. The blond felt like his mouth was suddenly full of ashes. Why was he even here?

Naruto sat with his lunchbox on his lap, against the trunk of a big oak that had pierced the asphalted ground of a remote corner of the schoolyard. The blond could have gone inside, in the refectory like everyone else. He could have. He would never. The boy peered at the opened box. It was full of rice, various vegetables, and some meat. His caretaker did not like him, but apparently, she had decided against poisoning him with horrid lunch. He was grateful for that, whatever the reason was, as he dug in his plate.

He had since long finished when kids of various age started to trickle in the schoolyard. The lunch break was generously long, and the children were allowed to play various games, from cuju to chess. Naruto shrunk on himself and in the shadow of the tree. With enough luck, he would be left alone today. Minutes after minutes, children kept entering the schoolyard, and Naruto could hear the rumors of the cuju teams forming and of the people setting the pieces of strategy board games. Soon, the dull sound of a ball being hit in all direction and the cries and shouts typical of a team sport invaded the yard. Naruto refrained his curiosity at seeing the game; he knew he would not be welcomed among the spectators, so the blond settled on reading the book he had brought with him. From inside his satchel, the boy fished a rather big work of literature and immediately began to read.

His eyes trailing and devouring the countless printed words on the pages did not see the group of ten boys nearing him before his book was snatched from his hands.

"What ya readin' minezumi?" One boy, taller and older than the blond, spat mockingly.

"Tales of the Kingdoms of Guang- Guangbai and Mohuhei?" Another one sputtered before slamming the book against the ground and stepping on it. "The heck is that shit?"

Naruto winced at the sight of his book being damaged but did not respond. They would leave like they always did. He just had to be patient and endure.

"Neh, rat, how is it to not have parents?" A third boy, this one Naruto's age, asked with a tone that made the blond sick.

"Ah ah! Yeah, who would want to be his parents anyway?! He's so ugly." A random voice shot from the circle now surrounding Naruto.

"My mom's says he's a demon! I bet that's why he don't have parents!" Another one whipped.

"I'm- I'm not a demon."

The whisper stopped the group in their tracks of insults.

"What did ya say?" The first boy stared hard at the blond boy. When Naruto refused to meet his eyes, the older boy took a fistful of blond hair and lifted Naruto's head, eliciting a cry from the boy. "I asked what did ya say?"

"I'm- I'm no- not a demon," Naruto said, his voice quivering.

"Hey guys, ya heard that?" The boy whipped his head back to look at his accomplices who all nodded. "What ya say we learn him a lesson about what he is?"

Naruto shuddered at the grin he could only hear but knew was there, on the face of the bully. His eyes darted, left and right, pleadingly, silently asking for some of the boys to help him. His hopes were quickly dashed, as every boy surrounding him had the same twisted smile. The blond felt his heart skip a beat, then heard the strangely out of place sound of a pen's cap opening. Blue eyes widened as he heard the older boy talk once more.

"I say we write what he is on his face, so he don't forget!"

Before Naruto could shout, the boys dogpiled him, seizing his arms and legs, sitting on his body and turning his head straight. He felt tears fall and roll on his cheeks.

"Disgusting whiskers! I bet his mum was an animal!"

"Yeah, he is like a fox!"

"His mom was a fox!"

"A fox whore!"

"His mom was a fox! His mom was a fox!"

The pungent odor of a permanent marker invaded Naruto's nose, and as the chemical smell permeated his brain, making him dizzy, another sensation crackled to life inside his chest. Naruto felt the wet sensation of the marker on his left cheek, the ink being deposited on his skin, and the feeling grew from some amber to a fire. As the boys kept singing their improvised jingle, the fire roared. And suddenly, the blond saw the world red.

His legs kicked and spasmed, so brusquely and so brutally the one sitting on him was thrown off. His left arm tore off from the grip maintaining it on the ground and shot towards the head of the one boy writing on his face. With a brutal yank, his head was free of the hand holding his hair and with a snap, his jaw closed on the one holding the pen. His felt his teeth sink in flesh and tasted copper. His left hand found something squishy, and with a push, pierced it. A scream vibrated his eardrums but he ignored it. His free legs kept kicking and kicking, impacting body parts. His right now somehow released too, he pushed, with all his force and whipped his head in the opposite direction. There were a satisfying red sound and another wet cry. And suddenly, he felt weightless for an instant.

"What is happening here?!"

The red shroud hazing his vision tore to shreds and Naruto recognized the voice of a teacher.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was smoking his pipe when a ninja in the official teaching garb barged in his office, manhandling without mercy a young, blond boy the Hokage immediately recognized.

"Oy!" The old man thundered. "Be a little careful with Naruto here."

It was an order and the man immediately eased his grip on the boy's shoulder. Hiruzen nodded with satisfaction before he had to hold a gasp at Naruto's appearance. The boy was bruised and battered. His clothes had tears in them, his hands showed clear signs of corporal punishment, he had one eye nearly closed, and he had the word demon half-inscribed on his face in black. It took the old man his full willpower to not pulverize the furnace of his pipe.

"Report, now."

The ninja deposited a sheet of paper on the mahogany desk and stood ramrod straight.

"All is consigned in this report Hokage-sama. The… Boy, here, attacked his comrades during lunch-break without provocation. He hurt a few of them and severely harmed-"

"That's not true!"

The roar was so powerful, despite the juvenile voice bellowing it, that the ninja started and the Hokage felt his eyes widen minutely despite himself.

"Silence Uzumaki!"

"No! I won't shut up! You're a liar! You're lying! I-"

"Silence in front of the Hokage!" The man screamed as his hand rose for a powerful slap.

Before the man could register what was happening, Hiruzen blasted him with killer intent so potent the ninja fell on his back, like struck by lightning, his face deathly white.

"What is your name chunin?" The old man asked, his voice barely a whisper.

The man whined. "Ide- Idetake Shusei, l- Lord Hokage."

"ANBU. Take chunin Idetake for a tour of the TI department. I've heard Anko needs to relieve some stress."

The floored man paled more, a feat no one in the room would have thought possible, and sputtered something before two shadows disappeared with him. In the dead silent office, one flabbergasted Naruto Uzumaki and one visibly weary Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at each other.

"Do you want to sit down, Naruto-kun?" The Hokage broke the golden atmosphere first, startling the blond boy.

"No."

The Hokage sighed imperceptibly at the bite there was in the voice and took the paper the chunin had left on his desk, his eyes rapidly scanning the document. The old man shook the paper and threw a questioning glance at Naruto.

"Is it-"

"They started first! They attacked me!" The boy stated bluntly before Hiruzen could say anything, his eyes not leaving the Hokage's.

"Was that reason enough to hit them?" The old man tried to reason.

"They hit me! They wrote demon all over my face!" The boy was swelling like some sort of angry cane toad. "They called my mother a fox!" The blond hurled, all restraint forgotten, gunning a hateful glare at the Hiruzen.

The Hokage felt a painful pang in his chest and almost face-palmed. He looked hard at the young Naruto in front of him but could see no lie in the blue orbs that stared balefully back. For a second, the Hokage felt his heart miss a beat. The resemblance was striking and those eyes had definitely the same power to see through people. Or in Naruto's case, they at least gave the feeling. The old man swallowed his discomfort discretely and sighed more audibly. It seemed the Academy teacher had given a very truncated and partial version of the events. It was hard to believe a ninja would lie to him, the supreme commander, regarding such a matter, listening to personal feelings rather than following the discipline that was required of them.

It had been a month since the new school year had started and Naruto had enrolled in the Academy. Reports of all kind had made their way up to his office; in barely a month, the boy had been accused of all the turpitudes imaginable and then some. He had asked the boy about nearly all of them, but Naruto had been silent every single time, just accepting the situation. Today was the first time the boy had snapped as he had. Hiruzen took a second to ask himself if all the previous reports had been falsified.

"Naruto-kun." He saw the boy start and bite his tongue at his call. "Naruto-kun,' the Hokage began, with his most soothing voice. "I want to hear your version of the facts." The blond boy kept glaring daggers and murder at him but refused to speak.

"Naruto-kun, please, it's important."

"Why?" The acid in the boy's voice startled Hiruzen. "You're not gonna do anything about it." The boy's chest inflated again with anger and heat. "You're like the rest." The tone came out like gravel grinding against each other. "You hate me!" The blond screamed, tears drowning his blue eyes.

"Naru-"

"You hate me like everyone else! You think I'm a demon, don't you!"

"Naruto, listen to m-"

"No! I hate you! I hate all of you! I wanna die!" The boy's voice cracked like glass shattering on steel. "I wann-," a sob racked his body and tears flowed. "I wanna die."

Hiruzen engulfed the crying boy in his robes, silently cursing bloody murder at the world, at the village he was sworn to protect, at his own shortcomings and ineptitude, and took him in a hug, his own heart falling to shred and the back of his own eyes prickling.

"No Naruto, no. I don't. You're Naruto Uzumaki, and you're my grandson before my grandson. You're not a demon, you're not a fox, you're Naruto Uzumaki." Slowly, the logorrhea assuaged the blond child's cries and after minutes Hiruzen could swear lasted longer than hours, the boy was calm. The Hokage nearly cried himself when he saw the vacuous eyes gazing at the void.

"Naruto." At his call, the boy threw him a lifeless glance. "I want to hear what happened. I want to hear what happened in the Academy for a month. I want you to tell me everything."

Hiruzen made a conscious effort not to grind his teeth to dust and to reign in his anger while vowing the superstitious idiots under his rule as well as his own incompetency to public obloquy. The Hokage could pride himself in rarely committing mistakes, but the one he did make had always far-reaching consequences. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, Hiruzen cursed his position. He had made several mistakes concerning Naruto, the first and worst being to trust the village so completely. To believe the people would mourn their dead and let them pass on, and be reasonable enough not to buy into the ridiculous whispers about Naruto and see him as the child he was. Then, Hiruzen's second mistake had been to let the rumors go wild and haywire, simply because he had no idea such rumors were even circulating. When he had eventually publicly addressed the problem, the harm was done.

Hiruzen sighed as he considered his option. He couldn't have the entirety of the teaching body executed, despite his burning desire to see the fools lose their life. It would solve nothing. Plus, no one had broken any law nor do anything that deserved the capital punishment. He could not fire them either: Konoha had competent ninja in drove, but it took something more to be a competent teacher. He would need to remind them of their role and position and give them clear orders. But he could not go much further. The population hated the boy, and too much done for Naruto could go as far as civil unrest; the wounds inflicted today by the boy to his assailants would already cause a headache. Yet the Hokage couldn't tell him to lie down and take it. First, because he did not deserve what was done to him, and second because he was training to be a ninja. What kind of ninja extended the left cheek when he was slapped, unjustly at that, on the right one?

For a second, the Hokage considered dispatching one ANBU team to the school but immediately squashed the idea. Konoha was very powerful but had not that much manpower she could spare an ANBU for such a task. And above all other consideration, it was unbecoming to punish children for the idiocy and mistakes of their parents. No, protection would stay as it was now. Hiruzen let self-loathing wash over himself as he hated his powerlessness at helping Naruto, before he stifled the feeling, keeping it from spiraling down further. The old man breathed in deeply, eyes closed. He had to trust Naruto would come out stronger, and not broken, from the ordeal. And the ordeal would be quite long. Hiruzen looked at the boy seated in the way too big guest chair and searched the blue eyes with his own brown ones. What he saw in the ocean of azure made his heart bleed but he steeled himself. He would have to ask so much of the kid. Shame overwhelmed him and his gaze shifted away from the boy he had sworn to protect. His eyes lost themselves for a moment in the flock of curly blond hair the child sported, before he looked at Naruto once more, peering again into the blue orbs. Anger and betrayal were swirling in them, as well as pain and weariness. Yet there also was something else. In the corner of the cerulean eyes, in the folds of the scowl, Hiruzen saw a plea.

"Naruto," the Hokage sighed, much to his dismay. "I must ask you-"

"No." The boy interrupted in a scathing voice, not letting any time to finish. "If they hit me I will hit them back." He snarled, and Hiruzen started imperceptibly at the animalistic feel the boy's voice held, as well as at the grimace of anger his face was contorted into. The old man sighed. Now the boy was angry at him again. "Do you wish to tell me anything else, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen paled; the boy had never called him that. He was losing him just like he had lost so much. The old man felt his heart ache before his eyes hardened. No more. "Naruto-kun, I want you to hear me out!" He said in a tone that froze the boy, who nodded, glued to his seat by the intensity of his voice. "I want you to never incite conflict and to avoid confrontation as much as possible. I want you to endure." Before the blond could protest the man raised a placating hand. "But if they are looking for it Naruto," the Hokage smiled grimly. He knew it was another mistake, but at least the boy wouldn't endure alone. "Hit them back with as much as you have. I'll handle the fallout."

Naruto took a minute to wrap his mind around what the Hokage had just told him before a smile bloomed on his lips as he felt the scalding anger boiling his blood leave him like air escaping a balloon. "You- You mean it, Jijie?"

"I trust you Naruto. As long as you are not the one starting the fight, you're free to end it."

Naruto shuddered at the way the old man he called his grandfather had spat the word "end". The blond slowly nodded.

"But you must promise me to be absolutely, always, beyond and above reproach. And to never go too far."

The boy stared at the Hokage for five full, intense seconds, peering into the man's brown eyes to look for deception and lies. Naruto found nothing and relaxed his gaze, noticing a weight seemed to lift from the Hokage's shoulder as he did so.

"I-" Naruto frowned before steadying his quivering voice. "I swear. I will endure. But I won't let them step on me."

"Good." The Hokage nodded with a smile Naruto could only describe as satisfied, apparently appreciating the firmness of his tone. A golden minute passed before the blond started to fidget in the couch he was seated on. "Anything else you want to tell me, Jijie?" The boy asked, his previous anger all but forgotten.

"Why, don't you enjoy my company Naruto-kun?"

The blond sputtered for a moment, red flushing his face, before he threw an accusatory glare at the old man. "Jijie!"

The Hokage laughed, sonorously, before focusing his attention on the young boy again. "What has you captivated this time?"

"Well, there is this book…" Naruto began before he paled whiter than a ghost. "Jijie, I'm so sorry." The boy whispered, dipping his head down.

"What happened my boy?"

"My book, the book you gave me, during the fight…" Naruto found his voice was betraying him as he recalled the fate of the paper construct. The boy swallowed hard and threw a shy glance at the elder.

"It is alright Naruto. It is not your fault." The Hokage stated firmly, gripping Naruto's shoulder with a reassuring hand.

The boy nodded. "I hope it's not lost."

"Even if it is, I'll give you another version." The old man said with a smile. "Now Naruto, why don't you go home for today. I will warn," the Hokage almost spat the word, "your teachers you will not be here this afternoon. You can go back to the Academy tomorrow."

Naruto opened his mouth but closed it almost immediately. "Hmm!" The boy gave the elder a nod and a smile. "Jijie?"

"What is it Naruto?"

"Thanks. I love you," said the boy, gluing himself to the Hokage for a hug.

He was hated. It was the conclusion Naruto reached in front of the mirror of his small washroom. After his discussion with the Hokage had ended, he had been accompanied home by one of the masked ninja serving the old man. The ninja had lost no time with him and Naruto had immediately gone to the bathroom. He looked like shit. It was when his reflection had looked back at him he had had this strange, unwanted epiphany.

The signs had always been here, yet it had not been something easy to understand. At first, he had been too young and lacked a point of comparison. His caretaker, the only person he frequented on a daily basis, was an ageless woman who barely ever talked to him and never expressed anything in his presence. She was content with cooking for him, doing his laundry, and cleaning the little flat he lived in. However, he vaguely understood his village groomed soldiers, and soldiers had to be like weapons: sharp. In his understanding, it was only natural for someone not as equally sharp to cut themselves. But he had later come to know that not everyone in the village was a soldier. He was older by then and had also observed how people acted not only around him but around others. There was no doubt that something about him was different, for people used a special kind of voice and a special kind of eyes to scream and glare at him. Their words never sounded sweet and their looks were never soft.

But Naruto had reserved his judgment, because the old Hokage, the one he called his grandfather, had assured that he was imagining things. And Naruto had chosen to believe the old man. It had been a few months before his enrollment in the Academy, where, Naruto had been told, he would learn with people his age, and would be around people who would speak less harshly and look at him less heatedly.

But after a month of blatantly unfair treatment at the Academy and the afternoon events, the boy could not deny the truth anymore. Wherever he went, people would be the same: they would despise him. Empty blue eyes, the left one almost closed, gazed back as Naruto looked at his reflection, and he noted distractedly that some tears were rolling again on his whiskered cheeks. He had a black smudge on the right one, where his "comrades" had scribbled the word demon with a black pen earlier. The taste of copper flooded his mouth, and the scream of the boy he had bitten echoed in his ears, but vengeance had a bitter flavor, Naruto realized.

The undeniable reality of his situation did not make it any easier to accept. It was maybe a weird thought, but Naruto did not want to be hated. It was painful. It hurt him way deeper than the superficial cut, scratches, and hematoma did, as those healed quickly. It was rending his heart, constricting his lungs, twisting his intestines, tying his stomach in a knot. It was even more hurtful as he had hoped the Academy would be a change. He had trusted the old Kage, who was the only who spoke to him in a gentle voice and looked his way with a warm gaze.

He had not received what he had bargained for, and way more than he had ever received before. Adults were cruel, yet children his own age were crueler. A sob racked through his body and finally, Naruto cried the last of his tears. Swallowing the lump in his throat, the boy wiped his face with his sleeve, wincing a bit when he touched the tender, violet flesh around his left eyes. A question swirled amok in his head, simple in appearance yet one he could not, for the life of him, figure out. Why was he hated so much?

The boy suddenly bared his teeth, covered in blood belonging both to him and to the boy he had bitten, and snarled as heat overtook him. He had done nothing! Nothing that warranted to be treated the way he was. Whatever he did, anyhow he behaved, no matter right or wrong, people hated him, simply because he was him.

His lips closed and twitched downward and he felt his eyes prickle again. Simply because he was him. As incredible as this answer was, it was the only one he could reach. People hated him for him. Because he was there, among them. Because he existed. The very fact he was alive was offensive to the village like nothing else was.

Naruto looked at his hands. They were bruised from both the scuffle he had with the other children and the punishment the teacher had administered. The man had hit him with a wooden ruler, hard. Hard enough that he had broken the ruler. He would show them.

The boy clenched his hands into fists, and pain immediately shot through both his arms as blood seeped from torn skin. The heat left him as fast as it had come, to be replaced by a weight that settled on his shoulders. The boy offered himself a derisive smile. Now he was making empty promises. Show them. Show them what? He was nothing in their eyes, he wouldn't ever be anything. They wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't even give him a chance. Tears he had thought dried off at the very source fell anew on his cheeks.

It was unfair. So unfair. He was the only one they treated like that. The only one. How could they? How dare they? He was breathing, like anyone of them. He was thinking like anyone of them. He was hurting, like anyone of them. Heat invaded his core once again and he brusquely wiped the tears with a growl. Every last one of them. They would see. If his existence was such a disgusting thing to them, he would change his existence. He would become someone so powerful and important that they couldn't, wouldn't dare to look at him the way they glared, nor speak to him the way they barked. The boy thought back to the words the Hokage had told him. He would endure. But he would not bow to them. The mirror returned his ice cold, blue glare, and Naruto snarled again, his whiskers trembling like those of a hungry wolf. Outside, the day was turning to an orange twilight. They would crawl and tremble. Every last one of them. They would see.

"I will become Hokage. I swear it."

A/N: How about a chapter that shows how and why Naruto's dream was born?