A/N: My first Naruto fanfic! Credit to my beta, GuiltyBird! Check out his stories by going to his profile ( u/1733848/)

My personal favourite is Tale of the Setting Sun ( s/8963527/1/Tale-of-the-Setting-Sun) so go take a look.

It was October 10th. The sun had begun to set beneath the clouds, painting the sky with streaks of orange. It was a time for celebration and mourning, for it was that very day eleven years ago when the Kyuubi no Kitsune (The Nine Tailed Fox) had ravaged the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konohagakure no Sato. Shinobi paid their respects to fallen comrades, while other joined the festival celebrating the Kyuubi's defeat.

Naruto Uzumaki was sitting on his bed, a cup of ramen sitting half-eaten in his hand, watching as the villagers jeered at him through the filthy window of his apartment. He flinched as an empty can of beer sailed through the air, narrowly missing the glass. Tears had already begun to spill onto his orange jumpsuit but he angrily wiped them away. He hadn't done anything wrong! No way was he going to let those villagers get to him. He'd become Hokage! He'd show them that he deserved their respect in place of hatred.

Every day. Every single day, he was abused by the villagers in one way or another. Whether it was bumping into him on the street or selling him faulty weapons. They told their children to avoid him, to leave him alone. Besides, they were already busy fawning over the Uchiha anyway. But not when he became the Hokage! They'd look up to him then. It would be him they'd gush over.

Jumping up, he clenched his empty fist, slamming the ramen onto his table. He'd show them.

The man in the black cloak with red clouds moved smoothly, his long ginger hair blowing in the wind as he leapt from tree to tree. A slashed Rain Village headband glinted softly in the evening sunlight.

Night was approaching fast, he noted, increasing his pace. He had to reach Konoha quickly, so that he might mingle with the crowd as they returned to the village from their annual parade around the walls.

Even as he travelled steadily towards the Hidden Leaf Village, he had begun to run through a steady number of hand seals, finishing on the Boar sign. To any sensors, it would appear as if his chakra signature had simply faded.

The man continued on, not even slowing down as he came across a leaf patrol Shinobi.

"Hey, what are you–"

The ninja looked down to see a black rod impaled through his chest. Shock and pain stopped him from crying for help as he fell to his knees and slumped down, dead, into a puddle of his own blood. The orange-haired man didn't look back, feeling no pity for the fallen Shinobi.

'Such a pathetic excuse for a mortal,' he thought with revulsion. 'So weak.'

He came to a halt. Stepping into the air, he gracefully fell to the ground and landed in a crouch before straightening up.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" He muttered, blurring through more hand signs. Six bodies, all wearing identical cloaks appeared in a cloud of smoke. Their features were hidden by the shadows of the night.

The long-haired man stepped back to join the ranks of the newcomers, as one of those six walked forward. This one had hair rising in spikes and three piercings through his nose.

Discarding his cloak to reveal a normal black robe underneath, he clasped his hands into a ram seal, masking his true eyes with temporary onyx coloured ones. They would have to do for now.

Striding forward towards the village gates and grimacing in disgust at the stench of the crowd as he followed them from behind, hastening in order to join their number.

A particularly drunk man barrelled in front of him, a bottle of cheap sake in his hands.

"Ha, the Yondaime got that demon good! Just gotta… Gotta kill the demon-child, eh?" He slurred, teetering about dangerously while waving the glass bottle around. The people around him shouted in agreement.

The man's face remained static. 'They would hurt an innocent child without reason?' He inwardly questioned curiously.

"Move," he commanded the drunk. The fool laughed, the smell of alcohol washing over the man.

"Whatcha gonna do?" He spat. The man briefly contemplated stabbing him with a chakra rod to kill him in a long, drawn out and extremely painful fashion.

'No,' he mused silently. 'I can't let my cover slip.'

"I am not a patient man," he stated without a flicker of emotion, grabbing the drunk's wrist and squeezing it until it shattered. Luckily, the crowd's collective yelling masked his agonised screams. Allowing himself a brief smirk of satisfaction, the man kicked the drunk away where he collapsed onto the floor, nursing his injury.

The man in the black cloak didn't look back, instead continuing on through the large wooden gates of Konoha as if nothing had happened.

"Maybe I should go and pay Old Man Ichiraku a visit," Naruto wondered aloud. "No one saw me last year, and I got as much ramen as I could eat free. Yeah, that's what I'll do! I'll sneak out, dattebayo!"

The young boy grabbed his orange sneakers and slid them on, hastily throwing the laces in an approximation of a knot.

"On second thoughts, I'll bring Gama-chan just in case," he said to no one in particular, grabbing his green froglike wallet from his cheap wooden table before dashing to the door and slipping away into the shadows.

Danzo sat there, fear overpowering every other emotion. The Akatsuki leader himself stood before him, leaving his two best ROOT agents gurgling in their own blood, a metal pole rammed through each of their stomachs.

"I won't ask again. Where is Hanzo of the Salamander?"

Danzo took a shaky breath, fingers ghosting towards his Sharingan Arm in an effort to release the clamps without him noticing. Immediately, a shockwave of force exploded through the room, sending Danzo hurtling through the air to crack his head against the wall. The man stalked forward and grabbed his shift, lifting him up against the wall with a single hand.

"This is your last opportunity before I rip the information from your mind. The only reason you are still alive is because you have more use to me that way," he said in a monotone. Thoughts raced through the old warlords head, but self-preservation took priority.

"He's… In his private mansion. The one is Ame is a decoy. His location is around fifty miles North of the longest tower in the city," Danzo hissed through the pain. The other man contemplated this information for a couple of seconds, before smashing the other's head against the wall, knocking him out cold.

'Interesting…'

The man actually smiled in anticipation. Soon, Hanzo would know pain.

"Please!" Naruto whimpered, shrinking into the alley corner. "I'm sorry! Whatever I did, I won't do it again. Don't hurt me…"

The mob cruelly laughed as one. Chants of "demon!" ran through the air, as the eleven year old was beaten within an inch of his life. His face had already begun to swell, and purple bruising ran down his arms as he used them to shield the rest of his body.

"Please! It hurts so bad! Please stop!" He cried in anguish. Of course, no one came to help. They never did.

The man stopped in his tracks and cocked his head to the side. Yes, he could definitely hear it. Anguished screams just over the sound of jeering.

He was about to continue on his path – he had no time for Konoha's concerns after all, before one comment, yelled by a loud-mouthed woman, shocked him. Froze him completely. Stopped all thought in his brain and numbed his senses for that moment in time.

"Kill the Uzumaki demon! No one'll care if that devil Orphan dies!"

'Uzumaki? But… They're all dead! I'm the last one. Aren't I?" He thought in shock, before turning around and running towards the source of the noise, channelling chakra into his muscles for a shunshin. 'And he's the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune as well!? If I can play my cards right, I could definitely harness the fox's power.'

Barely a ten seconds later, he had arrived at the noise's origin. A little child slumped up against the side of an alleyway, who couldn't have been more than twelve years old.

His killing intent flooded the alley, though he made sure to control it so that he would be undetected by ANBU. The crowd went silent. Some even began to vomit due to the sheer malevolence the man was radiating. He was the personification of fear.

The man looked at the young boy, lying unconscious on the ground, and opened his hand, and beckoned to the boy. An invisible force picked him up and pulled him to the man's arms, who placed two fingers under his jaw.

'Good. There's a steady pulse.'

Looking back at the crowd, he extended his arm and pointed his hand at them. The mob completely stilled. An look of revulsion crossed the man's face.

"Almighty Push."

In the shadow of the trees, a redheaded boy stepped forward and ran through a few hand seals, disgust on his face from what he had just witnessed. He had to move fast, before the ANBU arrived.

"Gyaku Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

He disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The first man, with the long ginger hair in a ponytail stepped forward and formed similar hand seals.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Smoke once again exploded. Once it cleared, it revealed the man with three piercings through his nose. Without exchanging words, the six simultaneously turned and began to run in the direction of Ame.

Naruto cracked his eyes open slightly, and immediately regretted it as pain blossomed in his forehead. Immediately, a cool hand examined the damage. Pulling back after a few seconds of probing, a smooth voice began to talk in a low tone.

"You've been attacked in an alleyway. You have suffered blows to the head and may have minor concussion. I need you to stay calm and breathe evenly."

The first thing he noticed was that he was lying down, in relative comfort, on a surface that was reasonably soft albeit slightly chilly.

Secondly, there was someone taking care of him. That definitely came as a surprise. A smile began to make its way across his face.

"You can try and open your eyes now. Slowly," the voice murmured. Naruto complied, flicking open one eye before the other, squinting as his eyes adjusted to a soft green light that covered his saviour's hand.

He looked at the man. He was about seventeen, and of average height and slim build, with long red hair that covered one of his eyes. The revealed one was blue-black.

"What…" He tried to speak, forcing the words out of cracked lips. He swallowed and tried again. "What's your name?"

For a second, the man's lips curved upward. He opened his mouth, hesitated for a second, before answering.

"Nagato… Nagato Uzumaki."

Naruto's eyes widened, and he gasped, aches forgotten.

"Nii-san?" He asked, looking like he had just discovered fire. He wasn't alone?

The redhead nodded slightly. He could definitely use this boy to his advantage if he played his cards right.

"I realise it's a bit chilly out here, but I didn't know where your home was. Would you mind…?" He trailed off and looked questioningly at the boy, who immediately nodded and grabbed his slender hand, pulling him out of the park he had been hiding in, whilst telling him about his life.

Nagato smiled slightly – a miniscule twitching of his mouth.

"And what of the people? You must be quite popular with them." He knew, of course, judging by the mob, that the opposite was more accurate.

Looking over at the blonde, he watched the gaki's face twist into a sorrowful expression.

"The people don't… Like me. They're really mean and always do stuff to make life hard, nii-san." Then a slight smile. "But that's okay. I've got you now. Right?"

"And I you," Nagato replied smoothly.

'As well as the Kyuubi for a bonus.'

"Anyway, otouto. Tell me about yourself!"

He heard his new nii-san snort as he described in great detail his graffiti of the Hokage monument, which made him smile in contentment.

"And then there was this time when I–" The blonde stopped abruptly as he collided with a drunk who seemed to be gingerly holding his wrist whilst concurrently grasping a bottle of sake. When he saw the child, he gave a savage smile.

"Little freak," he snarled, spitting at the boy.

A hand grabbed Naruto and pulled him out of the way while the other settled into a single handed seal.

"Wind Style: Air Bullets!"

Several pellets of hardened air ripped through the man's shoulder, making him drop the bottle and leaving him gasping in agony. Naruto gaped at what had just happened for a second before latching onto his aniki, grabbing him into a hug.

"That was so cool! Are you a ninja? Teach me that jutsu! You're the best nii-san ever!" Naruto continued babbling a string of praises, before being interrupted.

"We have to move quickly," the redhead stated, ignoring the ceaseless chatting. Reluctantly, Naruto unstuck himself and took his hand again, walking at a more brisk pace, taking a shortcut through an empty alleyway.

Minutes later, they arrived at a worn, wooden door. Naruto stuck his hand into his trouser pocket and fished out a battered silver key, unlocking the entrance to his apartment and pushing it open, and awaiting his self-appointed brother's opinion with a nervous air.

Nagato looked at his relative's little apartment with a raised eyebrow. There were ramen cups scattered all over the kitchen and with unwashed pots littering the sink. The jinchuuriki looked sheepishly at the mess.

"Uh… It needs a bit of a wash…" He feebly tried, cheeks burning with embarrassment. The older boy ruffled his hair and stepped inside. Locating the nearest couch, he sank into it and motioned for the blonde to join him. Immediately, the kid closed the front door and jumped to sit next to the redhead.

"I never caught your name," Nagato said, fingers tapping a rhythm onto the sofa armrest. He'd gotten the habit from a certain orange-haired gaki a long time ago.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Remember it!" The boy yelled. Honestly, did he not know how to speak normally? "I love ramen, but I hate the three minutes it takes to cook after you add the water. I love the ramen Old Man Ichiraku makes even more than that! My dream is to become Hokage, so that everyone respects me! Dattebayo!"

The older boy frowned. "You don't need to become Hokage to earn respect. Is that the only reason you want the title?"

Naruto scrunched his face up into a thoughtful expression.

"Uhhh… I never thought of it that way. I guess?"

Nagato sighed. "Never mind. Anyway, as I was about to say, you cannot tell anyone about me. Got it?"

Naruto looked confused. "Why?"

The redhead groaned. "Because they'll think I'm a ninja who's infiltrated Konoha. After all, how many ninja do you see around here that aren't Leaf Shinobi?"

"Uh. Not many."

"Exactly."

He didn't want to have to deal with the Hokage yet. Sure, they were bound to realise eventually, but he would easily be able to talk himself out of any trouble. In the worst case, he'd be able to fight his way out. But whatever he didn't, he couldn't rely on Naruto to back him up. In the brief time he'd spent with his relative, he had already began to analyse him. He was too trusting – a bad liar. Sure, he'd probably try to help, but it would do more harm than anything else.

The blonde's eyes widened. "I won't tell anyone ever!"

He smiled slightly, before his eyelids began to droop. Somewhere in the night, six bodies slowed to a halt, each seeking a hiding place in the forest they were in.

"So, are you gonna teach me some cool new jutsu? You seem really strong!" The kid blurted out. Nagato forced his eyes open and began to answer the question.

"Well–"

"Whoa! Your eyes are weird!"

The redhead almost punched himself in a rare show of frustration.

'I'm such an idiot! I forgot about the Rinnegan activating when I used my Paths! Then again, I didn't exactly prepare for this turn of events when I travelled here.'

He briefly considered killing the boy to ensure his secret's safety, before deciding against it.

"It's what Shinobi call a Henge," he explained, hoping the gaki wouldn't ask why he was wearing one. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention it to anyone."

"WE LEARNED THAT IN THE ACADEMY! Look!" The boy closed his eyes and clasped his hands into a seal. "Sexy Jutsu!"

A burst of smoke appeared from nowhere and surrounded his relative. When it cleared, it revealed a rather curvy woman, with nothing but quickly receding smoke to preserve her modesty.

With an exasperated sigh, Nagato tapped his new brother on the forehead.

"Gakido!"

"Whoa, that feels… Weird. I'm so… Sleepy…"

The boy groaned before falling off his chair. Nagato caught him before he hit the ground, and proceeded to pull him over to the bed in the corner of the room.

Allowing himself a brief smirk at gaining the boy's trust, he lay back on the couch and closed his eyes, Rinnegan deactivating.

Ring ding ding! Ring ding ding!

Naruto slapped his alarm clock, effectively shutting it up. The time read 7:30 – still an hour before the Academy started. Yawning, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, yesterday's events coming back into his mind.

"Aniki!" He exclaimed loudly, looking at the sofa. Nagato was nowhere to be seen. The blonde's lip wobbled dangerously as he thought of the possibility that he could have imagined what happened. Had his oniichan left him?

Then smelled it – a delicious scent wafting through his little apartment from the kitchen. Throwing the door to the other half of the room open, he laid his eyes upon a delicious-looking spread of food.

Rice and steamed vegetables with fish were laid on the table, along with a small bowl of ramen. Naruto's eyes almost popped out of his head.

"Nii-san! You… You made this for me?" He yelped. "You didn't have to!"

Nagato looked at him. "My sensei had a strong belief that I should know how to cook. Besides, with the training you've got today, you'll need it."

One would almost be able to see the cogs grinding in Naruto's head as he thought, perplexed.

"Training? Academy's not that hard."

His older brother gave a shark's grin. "It's a shame you're sick, then, isn't it? You won't be able to attend."

The blonde's face morphed into a confused expression.

"I'm not sick!" He denied, shaking his head at the older boy's statement.

Nagato buried his face in his hands.

"I know you're not sick, baka. You'll be training with me today."

"But I'm not allowed–"

"I'll go for you," the redhead stated matter-of-factly. Without any hand signs, a shadow clone appeared and henged into an identical copy of Naruto.

"But still! I can't–"

"I'll teach you new techniques."

Naruto frowned. "You think I'd sink so low as to miss out on Konoha's century-old training program over some new technique?"

"Yes."

"Argh, whatever. Let's eat!"

"The first trick in being a Shinobi is chakra control," Nagato explained, scratching his red hair as he tried to remember the first few lessons his sensei taught him. He was leaning on a tall oak in Konoha's village park, whilst Naruto was sitting on the grass.

"So we're going to be climbing trees–"

Naruto gave an exaggerated yawn. "I can climb trees in my sleep, nii-sensei. It's easy for me!"

"Without using our hands," he finished. The kid's confusion manifested on his face, prompting Nagato to sigh. Was the Konoha Academy really that bad?

"Pay close attention," he instructed his pupil. Channelling chakra to his feet, the redhead proceeded to walk up the trunk of the tree and, after spreading the chakra to his legs, sat cross legged, upside down, on a branch.

"That's awesome! How the heck did ya do that?" Naruto gushed. His face lit up with awe.

"It's quite a simple concept, really. You simply channel chakra to wherever you want to stick to the tree. In this case, the bottoms of your feet. Be warned though – it is the hardest area to establish chakra control over, and since you have a lot of chakra, it'll be even harder for you."

He looked over to see the blonde jump up to his feet. "I'll have this done in no time, nii-san! Just watch me!"

Eight hours later, Nagato was beginning to get irritable. He had already told the other boy to take a break twenty two times exactly, and was about to stab him with a chakra rod.

"Naruto. You've made enough progress. It took me two days to fully learn it," Nagato lied. It had taken the older boy less than five minutes to figure out tree-walking, but then again, his eyes gave him the advantage.

"No worries, nii-sensei! I've almost got the hang of this," Naruto yelled from his position in the tree, before becoming unstuck and falling to the ground with an "oomph." Leaping to his feet, he tried again, this time leaving deep footprints in the old bark.

"Aren't you hungry at all?" Nagato tried, hoping the boy's love for ramen would trump his hunger to learn for now.

"Now that you mention it…" The blonde said thoughtfully. "I wanna show you this awesome place for ramen! Let's go!"

"Finally," Nagato sighed, and allowed himself to be pulled back through the exit of the park, into a main street. Noticing something odd, he poked Naruto's forehead to get his attention.

"Why are they looking at you like that?" He asked, faking puzzlement. His relative's eyes moistened, and he looked away from the older boy.

"Dunno. S'always been that way," he muttered.

"Why would you even want their respect?" Nagato said, a curious tone underlying his usual deadpan.

"I dunno," Naruto mumbled.

Seeing he didn't want to talk about it, the redhead let the subject drop. Fingers tapping on the side of his leg, he continued to walk in silence.

A minute later, they reached the stand, the scent of broth wafting through the air. Naruto immediately jumped to sit in the seat second from the end on the left. Nagato moved to sit on his right, but the blonde put his hand on the seat.

"This is where Iruka-sensei always sits," he protested. "You can sit here instead," he suggested, waving his hand to the seat on his left.

"Troublesome…" the redhead sighed before gracefully perching on the stool, hugging one of his knees to his chest whilst letting the other one dangle down. Somewhere in Konoha, two certain Naras sneezed.

'Hm? Troublesome…' They both mentally yawned as they went back to their naps.

The old man running the stand straightened his hat and gave Naruto a wide grin.

"Naruto! The usual, I suppose?" He didn't wait for a nod of confirmation before turning to Nagato and smiling uncertainly. "I haven't seen you before, lad. You new around these parts?"

The youth nodded. "I'm here on an extended holiday. It's my first proper day in the village."

Luckily, the old man bought it and extended his flour-caked hand which Nagato shook with great reluctance.

"I'm Teuchi Ichiraku, owner and chef of Ichiraku ramen! I'd introduce you to my daughter, but she wasn't feeling well enough to come to work today."

The redhead replied. "My name is Nagato. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ichiraku-san."

The old man laughed. "None of that, gaki. Teuchi's fine."

"Teuchi is it then."

"And what will you be having?"

The boy looked at the menu for a second.

"I have whatever Naruto-chan's having," he ordered in a monotone.

The chef smiled. "Two orders of Miso Ramen with extra pork, coming right up!"

Suddenly he heard Naruto gasp. "Iruka-sensei? What are you doing here?"