The village hidden in the leaves was considered the strongest shinobi village in all of the Elemental Nations; nothing had breached it's impenetrable walls; many had tried - all had failed, countless shinobi had lost their lives defending the great walls but today was different.

It wasn't a battle; this was a massacre, the leaf shinobi stood no chance - what they faced before them wasn't an army of invading shinobi, it wasn't even an army of Samurai that had come to destroy the prosperous lands.. no, what attacked the walls of Konoha was nothing other than a demon; the Kyuubi no Yoko - the Nine-tailed Demon fox, with a single swipe of it's tails it was said to crush mountains and cause tidal waves to crash against the shores.

The rumour s of it's strength seemed true as wave after wave of leaf shinobi were batted away like insects, their technique's seemingly having no effect on the demon in front of them except to make it more enraged.

"Hold the attack and wait for the Fourth Hokage!" Shouted one of the Jounin ninja, their morale was low and their numbers were diminishing rapidly,
but the fourth would know what to do - he had defeated an army by himself with his legendary Hiraishin, he was the strongest ninja to have graced the land in the past hundred years but while he was strong he was also smart, some would say that he was a genius while other's would already lay dead at his feet before the thought even crossed their minds.

"Don't let it near the village!" came the desperate shouts of another wounded shinobi, but there was little they could do, the Demon was decimating their forces, they were tiring and the Demon was inching ever closer to the village, nothing seemed to harm the beast - Kunai and Shuriken seemed to bounce off from it's skin, Jutsu just seemed to annoy it while getting close enough to use Taijutsu was suicide.

Stomp. Stomp.

Two loud crashes were heard throughout the battlefield before the ninja finally saw their relief and retreated, he was here.. The Fourth Hokage, he stood on top of the Boss summon of the toads wearing his regular combat outfit, ANBU pants, a chuunin flak jacket and his cloak; a pure white colour with the Kanji for 'The Fourth.' which wrapped comfortably around his frame..

"Bunta, keep him busy!" ordered the Fourth Hokage, the boss summon; Gamabunta would have a hard time keeping the fox busy as he fired water bullet after water bullet, he lashed out with strike after strike before gaining a swipe across the eye.. it was hard for Summons s to scar, but the Kyuubi's demonic chakra disrupted the healing process, the Yoki was toxic and deadly to any that weren't introduced to it at a young age.

Snake, Boar, Ram, Rabbit, Dog, Rat, Bird, Horse, Snake.

"Shiki Fuujin!"

The world grew cold, darkness enveloped the world as a spectral form appeared in front of him, The Kyuubi and Gamabunta stopped fighting immediately, but the Fourth Hokage had no such privilege, he had to finish the two extra seals to place on his son, the Kyuubi would be able to influence him if it was left like it was.

"Shishou Fuuin."

This seal would make it so that Naruto could use the Kyuubi's chakra when he felt heightened emotions such as rage, anger, sadness... but the main thing was that with this, the Kyuubi wouldn't be able to influence him when he did use it's chakra, but there was still one more seal to go..
The most important seal of all, it would silence the Kyuubi so that it wouldn't be able to even talk to the boy..

"Hakke no Fuui.."

But the fourth's hand froze as he went to plant the seal on his son, the Shinigami floating in mid-air had stopped his movements; it didn't seem to be impressed with his ignoring of the most powerful being in existence; infact it seemed to be irritated.

"Who is to be sealed ningen?" The Shinigami's voice was like a knife scraping across solid rock, it was as chilling as when his teachers in the academy had raked their nails across the blackboard to make that screechy sound.. it was chilling, it finally hit him.. he was going to die..

But at least his son would live.. and his wife, little did he know that his wife had died during her childbirth, there had been complications and she simply couldn't stop bleeding; even with her leftover regeneration factor.

"Myself and... The Kyuubi.. Sir." Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, Konoha's Yellow Flash and the inventor of the Hiraishin was having trouble speaking to the death god, it's very presence chilled him to the bone, the cold hand of fear which gripped his heart.. or maybe that was the Shinigami taking his body and soul..

With a desperation move the Fourth took out a scroll from his jacket before placing it in the small boy's hands.. he could only hope now.. He could only hope the small boy was seen as a hero, that he would be able to resist the Kyuubi's demonic whisperings since he couldn't put the last seal on..

But he believed in his son, he believed in Konoha..

The Nine-tailed fox, Gamabunta, The Shinigami and the Fourth Hokage disappeared in front of the villages eyes.. The civilians cheered and partied in the streets along with the Ninja while a select few wept behind closed doors.. They had lost everything; or close to.

Kakashi - The student of the Fourth had finally lost the last piece of his family, even his sensei's son wasn't in Konoha.. he must have died along with his dad.. Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze.. He would be remembered by the copy cat ninja.

The Sandaime Hokage was once again behind the Hokage's desk, his aging body weakened as he was wracked by grief, Minato was dead.. his son was nowhere to be found and the Ninja were once again causing havoc throughout Konoha..

If they had simply looked, they would have found a small child crawling away towards the forest, a scroll in his hands while his eyes glowed an ethereal slitted red.

Naruto Uzumaki had left Konoha, crawling at under a day old under the Kyuubi's influence not to be seen again for another eleven years.

Somewhere in a forest a small five year old boy sat, the boy had wild blonde hair, his eyes weren't visible but they were a beautiful shade of sapphire blue, he dressed in simple civilian wear, a black sleeveless top and equally black shorts, his legs were crossed while his hands were focused in the ram seal, he was learning to control his chakra, his sensei lay inside his body; it communicated with him through thought. The boys sensei was none other than the great Kyuubi no Yoko, with it's eyes it had memorised thousands of jutsu in it's centuries of living, it had created bloodlines, destroyed clans and wiped out entire villages.

But for now; it was a teacher.

"Try it now child." came the demonic voice of the Kyuubi, it was inside his head but it seemed to come from all around him, with a slight nod Naruto stood with a determined look in his eyes, he moved his hands into a different seal, his fingers forming a cross while he gathered chakra throughout his entire body before calling the name of his now almost perfected technique.

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

Three puffs of smoke and there were three clones of himself standing around him in a sort of circle, he had done it.. he had performed his first jutsu, a small grin lit his face as fire burned in his eyes before he swayed dangerously from chakra depletion, thankfully the Kyuubi had already begun to restore his reserves as he ordered Naruto to get the clones to attempt to tree walk, the principle was easy enough; but in practice the technique was difficult, especially if you had large chakra reserves; Naruto's own were already well on the way to mid-chuunin level chakra reserves.

"You three! Tree walking!" Naruto's voice was over excited, no matter how much it had tried the Kyuubi simply couldn't stop the ninja from behind hyperactive, he simply had too much energy, sometimes it was a good thing but sometimes it wasn't.

It was a good thing for physical training, he could run countless laps around the small field he found himself in.
But for things like stealth it was bad.. terrible in fact, the first time Naruto had been told to avoid detection for the entire day he had failed utterly being detected at every turn.. and that was by civilians who gave him strange looks for being dressed in leaves!

A few weeks along the line however and Naruto had learnt to at least know when to be serious and collected, so he had under Kyuubi's guidance broken into a civilian clothes store at night and stole a few sets of clothes in his size.. at least now he could walk through towns without getting strange looks..

Naruto's head shot up from his once again meditative position, one of his clones had dispelled.. he had used too much chakra and had blown himself far away from the tree before colliding with a rock. The still surviving clones had thankfully learned from the mistake of the previous clone and were now using less and less chakra every single time, reaching further and further up the tree with every attempt.. soon he would be able to control his chakra decently for his age; and the Kyuubi said it would teach him an actual jutsu.. The henge.

'Sensei? Could you lend me some chakra?'

Naruto had never liked to ask for chakra from the Kyuubi, it felt good when he used it but.. he wanted to be known through his own strength one day, not the borrowed strength of the Kyuubi, but this would make him stronger that much faster..

His insides flooded with strength, the whisker marks on his cheeks became more feral while the blonde locks of his hair looked wilder than usual as his usually sapphire blue eyes turned red.

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

While Naruto with his own chakra couldn't make many clones due to his age, the Kyuubi's chakra was much more potent, it was stronger than regular chakra and it was proven by the massive cloud of smoke that kicked up before he was surrounded by three hundred clones before the Kyuubi issued them orders, some would work on Taijutsu stances, some on hand seal speed and some on chakra control.

While Naruto.. Naruto would be doing laps while the Kyuubi added resistance to his body so that it felt like he was wading through water, it was tough training, but in the end Naruto would be that much stronger because of it.

It was a few hours later before Naruto stumbled through the town looking for food, he would normally hunt an animal before skinning and cooking it..
but today.. he felt like eating something fatty, something with a lot of calories for his body to gain mass, so he found himself at a Ramen stand,
he had only ever eaten Ramen once before, it was a strange change from what he usually ate.

"One bowl of Miso please."

"Coming right up!" The girls voice was overly exuberant, as she danced around the kitchen humming lightly, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the scene only for his cheeks to slightly tint red with embarrassment as the girl gave him a small smile.

"Here you go." the girl smiled again, before placing the bowl down in front of him, the stand wasn't very crowded at the moment, in fact Naruto was the only one inside as he slowly dug into his noodles and relished the taste as the broth slowly trickled down his throat.

"So, what's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, and yours?" Thankfully the Kyuubi had drilled manners into his head, it was the first thing he had been taught as the demon didn't want it's container to be seen as a slob because it would reflect badly on itself.

"Hitomi." she replied, her eyes sparkling slightly in the light, she looked young, about 12 years old dressed in her apron with a pink undershirt.

"So how old are you Naruto-kun?" Hitomi asked, to her he looked about seven or eight, his arms were layered with thick muscle, but not so much that one would think that he was a body builder, but more that he had been training to perform in the Olympics for his entire life.

"I'm five!" replied Naruto, before grinning at the shocked look on the girls face.. it was true that he did look a lot older than he was; it was mainly because of the Kyuubi, it trimmed away body fat and layered it into muscle, even though fat and muscle was made of different compounds the Kyuubi had messed around with the two at a molecular level to transfer it into a different substance.

It was getting dark outside as the two still chatted aimlessly, it looked to be the beginning of a great friendship, the Ramen chef and the Demon container.. strange..

"Best you be getting home Naruto-kun." Hitomi's voice was slightly sad, it was always sad when someone made a new friend and they had to go before you could get to know them properly..

"I.. guess.. Hey Hitomi.. would it be okay if I came back.. Tomorrow maybe?" blushed Naruto, he had never even so much as spoke to a human before, but they seemed nice enough if they were all like the girl in front of him.

"Sure Naruto-kun! What time should I expect you?" it was like a date.. but surely he was too young to date, he had probably never even heard of the term, he was five for goodness sake!

"Umm.. about Twelveish?" he replied, strangely enough he was actually looking forward to it - Kyuubi had said that most human's were despicable,
lying, deceitful, plotting morons that deserved to die.. but here he was, talking with a human that seemed nice enough..

But technically he was still a human, well.. a Halfling as Kyuubi called him, all Jinchuuriki that contained the seven tails and up were Halflings as their coils simply couldn't hold the amount of chakra that would travel through them so early on in their lives the demon's muddled with their DNA and made them half demon..

Naruto found himself back in the field where he had been living for the past week, the tree he had been climbing held a makeshift bed at the top which protected him from the poisonous things on the surface below, there weren't many in these parts.. but there were plenty elsewhere and it was easy enough to make this sort of shelter.. easier than making one on the floor anyway..

The two were in an alley.. Naruto had offered to walk Hitomi home after the latest ramen-fest, she had said the alley was a shortcut but inside were some very shady looking characters, they didn't look as if they were nice people, but he had only ever talked to one human before and she was frozen alongside him now.

"Well well.. look what we got 'ere boys! Some.. fun.." leered what seemed to be the leader as the others started to close in on the pair of children, now.. while Naruto may have been strong for his age he was still no match for three gangsters as the held him back before the leader started to advance on Hitomi who was by now crying and pleading for mercy.. it sickened him..

Kyuubi was right.. MOST humans were disgusting creatures.. yet he could do nothing but watch as Hitomi was slapped viciously to the ground for talking to loudly, the leader had started to peel off her clothes; his intentions were obvious but once again he pulled a knife on the girl and plunged it straight into her stomach, Hitomi dropped to the floor in a pool of blood..

Was she dead?

Had Naruto just witnessed the death of his friend.. his only friend?

She wasn't moving..

A sudden stinging struck his eyes as he began to claw at his eyes in pain, the gangsters around him began to back away in fright.. what was happening to the kid? Whatever it was it wasn't anything they couldn't deal with.. right?

Naruto looked up, his eyes had changed slightly, tracks had made it's way down his cheeks, he was crying.. but the tears were red, he was crying blood as his eyes had changed; they were now grey with rings around them..

It had started to rain, the heavens themselves began to weep as somewhere a kindly god began to cry at the fact that the world had once again become so corrupt that the Rinnegan had once again been awakened..

NEXT CHAPTER.

Naruto returns to the leaf village? or would you like me to move on slowly?