Youth...

Your childhood is supposed to be the best time of your life...

but for some its not...

Me: We all know it wasn't the best time of his life for Naruto. But just how bad was it? This story is told from Naruto's point of view, please R&R. Rated T for violence and mild language. DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or any other character.

Naruto age 7

Today was much like any other day. Some one changed the time on my alarm clock so I'd wake up late. When I got to breakfast it was cold and there was very little left. I began to eat when the most annoying voice filled my ears.

"Hey, whisker-face!"

Him...

"What do you want want, Daiki?" That name, I loathed to hear it. I loathed to speak it. I loathed to think it.

"I just wanted to say hi and sit next to you." Daiki sat right next to me. I looked at his body. From his short, brown hair, to his stubby legs. His chubby body jiggled as he sat down. His squinty eyes, his sharp nose, his small mouth, always in a deceivingly friendly smile, I hated all these things about him. The only thing we had in common was that we both had been here the longest.

"Yeah right." I whispered under my breath. Even if I hate him, he could beat me up in a second.

He sat there for a minute or so before he took my food and ate it himself.

"Hey! That was mine!" I began to clench my teeth.

"Sorry, I thought you were finished." Finally he began to walk away.

My stomach began to growl. My body was thin, almost malnourished because other people took my food too much. I looked beside me. She was sitting next to me. She was the nicest, prettiest girl at the orphanage. Out of everyone, She was the only one was ever nice to me. She had the most beautiful name too, Miyu. She had told me before it meant 'beautiful bind'.

"Hello Miyu." I could feel myself blushing.

"Hi Naruto, here have some of my breakfast." Miyu's smile wasn't a huge one. It wasn't a forced one. It was just her smile, it was here own, no one else had a smile like it.

"Thank you." I smiled, embarrassed. I didn't know why, maybe it was because I liked her, and I knew she didn't like me back.

As I began to eat I stared at her long, dark brown hair. It was pushed behind her shoulders, as usual. She was 8 years old, a year older than me, but had only been here for half as long. I've been here as long as I can remember, they said my mother died giving birth, and my father died fighting the nine-tailed fox. Every time I heard those words, nine-tailed fox, it sent a shiver down my spine. Not like when I hear Daiki, more like when someone calls your name, and you don't know who it is. I didn't know why, it just did that.

"Naruto, wake up!" My eyes opened, to see Miyu still sitting beside me.

"When did I fall asleep?" I was still a little tired.

"I guess about five minutes ago."

I looked around, everyone had gone outside. Me and Miyu did as well. There was always several groups of kids playing 'Ninja'. I think the rules were like hide n' seek. One team hid, the other team tried to find them. After they had found them the 'ninja' team needed to throw a cardboard shuriken at them and hit them for the hider to be out. If the game went on for more than an hour, the hiding team won. I wasn't sure if that was really how the rules went, no one ever let me play.

"We need one more person." I heard Gaius's voice. He was just as old as me. He enjoyed organizing huge games of ninja. He wouldn't start until they had a certain amount of people.

"There is no one else, they're all playing other games!" Budi, a short kid about 6 years old, was known for pointing out the obvious.

"What about Naruto?" Gaius pointed at me.

"Him?" Budi said what everyone was thinking.

"Sure why not." Gaius shrugged his shoulders. He had only been here a few weeks so he didn't know exactly how much people disliked Naruto.

"He sucks!" I heard another kid, whom I didn't know, protest.

"How would you know, you never let him play." Gaius, using his authority, shot down all protest and began walking toward me. "Hey, Naruto, do you wanna play?"

"Sure." I began to walk toward the group of kids.

"Do you know the rules?" Gaius's voice had leadership in it.

"I think so, but refresh my memory." Gaius then told me everything I needed to know.

"...Normally it's only one hour, but with this many people we usually keep going for two hours." Gaius finished.

"Okay, Naruto's on the hiding team. Now we'll count to 100." Gaius and his team shut their eyes. "1...2...3..."

I began to search around the playground for a place to hide. I eventually hid in the bushes, I saw Budi hide in a trash can, and the other kid who protested hid in a tree.

"...95...96...97...98...99...100! Ready or not, we're coming." Gaius and his team began searching around the playground.

Both teams had around 11 kids. An hour passed, I still hadn't been found, but several others from my team had. Budi was one of them. I figured the reason no one had found me was because the space in between the bushes and the orphanage was small, only I could fit in it. Another 30 minutes passed, I was the only one left.

"Come out Naruto, you can't win." Gaius looked around the playground trying to spot me.

I held my breath as someone walked near the bushes. They walked away again, I kept myself from sighing though, so I wouldn't give myself away. Now there was only 1 minute left.

"60...59...58..." My team began counting the seconds before they won.

Gaius's team was searching around frantically.

"He might actually be good." Gaius was standing right in front of me.

"10...9...8...7..."

"Hurry up and find him!" Gaius couldn't stand to lose.

"4...3...2..."

"There he is, get him!" They found me.

I began to run as fast as I could.

"1..."

I looked behind me, a cardboard shuriken was flying at me.

"0..." Cheers came out from my team, we'd won!

Right then the shuriken hit me, if they'd thrown it one second later I would've been hit. Now it was time to go in, Mrs. Knushi (pronounced Nushi) had said she had a special surprise for us during lunch.

Thank you for reading, please review.