Naruto

I'm Alone, I'm Alright

Prologue

With crimson flames licking away at the proud village of Konohagakure, and the sounds of screams coming from all directions, an aged Hokage could only stare on in agony as his home burned all around him.

It had started out as a normal night, if not for the soon to be coming birth of his successors first child. His wife, had gone off with but a quick kiss and a rush of swaying cloth, as she ran out the door to go to Minato's cabin within the forest when the news was first heard.

They had been back in his old office, within the Hokage's tower reminiscing about his own children's births with Minato, his successor. A man blessed with wild golden hair, eyes of sapphire, and a mind of a genius. He was perhaps Konoha's shinning knight, a man who could and had turned armies of men and women into simple memories. But most importantly, Minato was a man with a soul and heart perhaps as large as the mountains that protected the back of Konoha.

Yet despite all of this, the man had been having a near panic attack at just the thought of becoming a father in a few days, before he had disappeared in but a flash and only a paper fluttering back down to his desk saying it was time.

Biwako had run out right after, leaving behind a half-finished project of hers that she had been knitting for the upcoming baby boys birth.

Now however, as he looked to the east with squinted eyes through the haze of ash, past the burning wreckage of the Hokage's tower that they had all been in just a scant hour ago, he could see the beast of nature. The walking cataclysm that had caused his home so much, was bound at last. The Kyuubi no Yoko was being held by golden chains digging deep into the beasts' flesh and surrounded by a pale pink barrier keeping it away from the rest of the natural world. The night had turned into anything but a normal night within Konoha's walls.

The sight brought a sigh of relief out of the aged man. Seeing the Kyuubi bound by chains gave Hiruzen the hope that the current Hokage and apparently his wife was still alive and taking control of the beast. What had happened in the between he was hoping to find out yet…

"Lord Third!"

As the sound of his title, one Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to look at a subordinate running up to him. He frowned seeing the body laid upon the poor soul's arms. The thought of how many could be dead from this event pained him greatly, as every living soul within this village was like family to him. It is a mindset that he had adopted since his early days under the tutelage of the 1st and seconds hokages.

Yet, as he looked closer at the body, his heart clenched, far more than it ever had in the sum 50 long years of his life.

"No!"

"I'm sorry my lord, b-."

"It couldn't be! Not her! Raged in his mind." But his eyes, of which had never deceived him before showed him a body all too familiar to him. Her brown hair even out of its usual ponytail could never be lost to his eyes, not even in a sea of bodies, those clothes, that NECKLACE! His ears failed him, as the voices around him spiraled away, and his emotions spiked and rampaged within him.

It wasn't that he was unaccustomed to death, no he embraced it like a sleeve, but for it to happen to his own loved one, the one he had devoted his life to…he wallowed in despair and his chakra did as well bringing those around them to their knees.

Alone, despite those on the ground around him, and standing in the cold night air. He let go!

Hiruzen screamed. Letting all his pain and anguish out that he had bottled up till this point from years of being unable to just let go and with his one outlet now gone from this world!

Turning as his chakra exploded around him, his adamantine staff expanding he looked at where the Kyuubi was last. But it was gone! And withits disappearance the mountainous barrier fell, and a great gasp of wind rushed toward the Village of Konoha, swaying even the mightiest trees in its wake and knocking over those with roots barely submerged into the ground.

Hiruzen with narrowed eyes, rushed straight into the mighty gust with a snarl, whatever had made the Kyuubi disappear from this world once again would need to be investigated,

Just as the living barrier of wind was about to hit him, Hiruzen dove forward thrusting his trusted staff forward and twisted himself around and around again. Turning himself into a living tornado parallel to the earth, piercing visible wall of wind with a mighty boom! and continuing toward a barren plain scorched down that had once been a thriving forest just minutes ago.

With rage rushing through his veins, and the sound of his own blood pumping in his ears, Hiruzen landed, ready to roar into battle, yet instead to take a step back.

For in front of him was a terrible nightmare, as two bodies laid on the cold hard ground pooled in their own blood both reaching out towards a small hastily made alter with what was likely their own newborn crying his lungs out.

As he hastily walked up to the boy, his eyes narrowed seeing a pulsating seal on the boy's stomach and whiskered marks on his cheeks.

Anger pulsed back to life in his veins and as he laid his eyes on those of the boys he felt hate take him over. To think that the Kyuubi could be sealed into a being so small! For how else could such a mighty cataclysm of nature just disappear once more from this world? The seal only confirmed his thoughts, seeing that dark ink pulsing a blood red, he could practically feel the hatred, the killing intent radiating from the damnable thing!

"I could end it all right now, never again to see such a monster walk this earth again" Hiruzen thought, reaching for the boys' head. "All it would take is a small squeeze compared to the hundreds of lives lost just to fail in stopping this monster…"

It was but a weapon of mass destruction, unable to bring anything good to the world. It could only cause pain and suffering, and others would try to use it again. Just like Madara had, just like all the other nations had done with their own beasts.

NO.

Hiruzen stared at his hand resting on the crying newborns head. NO. He would not defile his successors own sacrifice go in vain. He would NOT let his own anger and sorrow overtake him. The sins of one would not be placed on a newborn child of all things. Only a fool would place the blame on a newborn.

The sounds of footsteps jolted the Hokage back into awareness of his surroundings. Seeing a few Jonin walking towards him asking what had happened." Where was the Kyuubi? Who is the boy? How did the Fourth die? Who is the woman? The seal, the Kyuubi was sealed into the baby wasn't it?"

NO.

He saw the hatred in their eyes, zooming in on the boy. He had seen what hatred could do to a man, do to a nation. He had even just felt it. No, he would not let this happen. He would at the very least protect this boy. He felt hatred, not for the boy anymore, nor for the Kyuubi even, but for the men and women circling him.

Which is why, no one would ever see those few that had first found that damned clearing again. Nor would they ever hear of a child being found in that clearing. For he made them all disappear with his own hands.

Konoha would simply have to do without any Jinchuriki.

10 years passed.

An entire decade of life had gone and passed. An entire decade of being cold. Alone. Of cold nights where he cried himself asleep, with no one to tuck him in, or say it would be alright. No surname, no clan or family to back him. No education, just himself. A son of no one.

An orphan.

Sapphire eyes stared back at him and tangled blonde hair caked with mud and blood covered much of his face, hiding most of his features. The image disappeared as he thrust his hands into the cold water that shone like a molten mirror, he felt it caressing his outstretched fingers ever so smoothly before he lifted his hands back to his face.

Washing himself off, he could feel the heat of the summer sun beating on his back, blocked by just an old cotton shirt crusted with his adventures into the wild forests that attempted to swallow the village whole. For as much as Konoha was his home, the forests were his true home as it was here, were he felt free.

It was here, were he gained the nutrients needed to sustain himself, the food that allowed him to live. And it was here, were he most oft made his residence for the cold nights, but most importantly it was here, were he could most feel in tune with what was within him. Once upon a time it had scared him…

Terrified him even, yet now he could feel it flowing through him, and all around him. Encompassing him like a loving mother dotting on their child. But whenever he went back to the village, the mother turned her back on him, and an abusive father took her place, with anger and hatred brewing.

Getting up he turned away from the clear pond, water dripping from his now wet hair to look at the forest at his back. He stared up into the faces of giants, that called this place home, with eyes squinted due to the sun glaring back through the holes within the canopy.

It was still early in the day, considering the location of the sun, and as the giants swayed with creaking branches, he took off back into the forest in a runner's sprint, before jumping into the branches much like the many ninja he had seen do before him.

He was an orphaned son of Konoha, a village full of ninja and hundreds of other orphans. He was a nobody, just a random boy going by the name of Naruto, living in the forests surrounding Konoha most nights.

But that was all going to change. He had a vision, he had purpose. Or at least that is what he told himself. That is what the aged man had told him. A man who felt pure in his intentions, and if there was one thing Naruto never doubted. It was his instincts. They had never failed him before.

He had felt it when startling blue eyes met brown, that this was someone he could trust.

It gave him hope.

Laughing, he thrust his hand out to the right, and a smile stretched his whiskered cheeks as a smack resonated throughout the forest, and as the rough bark scratched as the palm of his hand. Looking down he saw the branch he had called out to, as he ran among the forests canopy before jumping down into a clearing, putting both hands on the rough bark and swinging it down as he went.

As a crater branched out from his landing, Naruto took off again without a care in the world, swinging his newly found weapon around in wide arcs, smile still adorning his whiskered cheeks.

As his left hand swept out, and as another branch found itself in his hands, the whiskered child went on in his fantasy, defeating enemy after enemy, with wild swings propelling him into even wilder jumps, allowing himself to be encompassed in his entirety into the fantasy to notice the shadow watching him within the depths of the mighty forest.

Authors note:

A story such as this has always been on the tips of my fingers. Just finding a suitable way to introduce it has been killing me. I've always had the key notes down, just not the in-between. Hopefully you all will come on and enjoy the ride with me in hashing this baby out.

It is a mini- Naruto/star-wars crossover. But in reality it is Naruto just with a few elements of star wars flexed in.

Read, review, and constructive criticism wanted.