Broken Naruto

*A Naruto Story*

I do not own Naruto. Just my OCs. Enjoy!

"Talking"=Normal speech

"Talking"=Naruto thinking

"Talking"=Kyuubi talking

"Talking"=Kyuubi thinking

Chapter 1: Missing the Festival

~October 10th~

"Hey forehead!" Ino yelled loudly. Sakura, who was down the street turned at the name.

"Ino-Pig! Let's go! We're gonna be late!" Sakura yelled back. Ino jogged to catch up with Sakura.

"Finally! Let's go! It's 6pm already!" Sakura exclaimed looking at her watch.

"Let's hurry to the park then. We've got to meet up with the others." Ino says as she and Sakura start running.

~Park~

"Where are they?" Ten-Ten asks impatiently.

"They should arrive here soon enough." Sasuke says after a moment.

"Whose idea was this anyways?" Kiba growls.

"It was Sakura-san's idea." Shino answers slowly.

"Well Sakura, Ino, and Naruto are late!" Ten-Ten pouts angrily.

"HEY GUYS!" Ino and Sakura shout from the far side of the park. The group of genin turned and saw Sakura and Ino sprinting across the park.

"Hey, where's Naruto?" Sakura asks as she skids to a stop near her fellow shinobi, with Ino right behind her.

"Don't know." Sasuke replies.

"Don't care." Kiba adds.

"Let's go already! If Naruto comes, then he can find us in town!" Ten-Ten says stomping off. The rest follow, except Hinata, Shikamaru and Shino.

"Something's not right." Shikamaru says concerned.

"I agree." Shino says nodding.

"Naruto-kun's n-never late. D-do you think something's h-happened to him?" Hinata asked worried.

"I don't know. But something is definitely not right." Shikamaru says honestly.

"Oi! We're walking here! Dilly-dally on your own time! Cause it certainly is not worthy of mine!" Sakura yells from the main road.

". . ." the 3 concerned genin's say nothing but use their speed to catch up to the group.

"Come on! The festival will be over by the time we get there if we don't hurry up!" Ino exclaims as she grabs Shikamaru by the arm and practically drags him to the center of the village. The other genin's having to jog to catch up.

~Town Square ~

"Yes! We aren't late! Let's have some fun!" Ten-Ten shouts as she runs to the nearest weapons booth, dragging Neji with her.

"Yosh!" Lee yells as he runs to sign up for a race.

"Shikamaru, what do you want to do first!" Ino squeals loudly in Shikamaru's ear as she grips one of his arms tightly.

"Leave. And let go of me woman!" Shikamaru says harshly as Neji and Ten-Ten return from the booth they were at. "S-Shika?" Choiji asks uncertainly as he drops his BBQ chips in shock. Shikamaru yanks his arm out of Ino's grip and steps back in anger and disappointment. Lee returns warily as he sees Shikamaru's angry face.

"I am disgusted with all of you! Naruto is missing! And no one but myself, Hinata and Shino are concerned! Something is wrong! Naruto would normally be the first person to meet us anywhere. Don't you think it's weird that he's not here at all?" Shikamaru shouts, making his friends feel guilty.

"Shikamaru is right. You all are selfish and horrible! Naruto-kun could be in trouble for all we know and you don't care at all." Hinata says without stuttering, much to the shock of most of her friends. Shino merely nods his agreement.

". . . Well, let's go look for the dope then." Sasuke sighs walking off. The group nods and starts to search. While Shikamaru, Shino, and Hinata were still mad at their friends, at least they were doing something. So they started to search as well.

"Hey . . . what's that over there?" Ino asks confused as she points to a large group down the street. Everyone turns to look at the large group of drunken shinobi and civilians.

"I don't know." Sakura says uncertain and wary.

"They seem to looking for something." Sasuke says, narrowing his eyes.

"Ignore them. They're just a group of drunks. It's the same group every year. They're old shinobi and older civilians; they get drunk each year and go looking for something every year. Something about a fox hunt. But, whatever." Kiba says shrugging. Shino, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Hinata's eyes narrow in thought.

"A-anyways, where should we look? The Ramen Stand is closed today, so he can't be there." Sakura says.

"I honestly don't know why he eats there. It's just a cheap ramen stand. Full of fat and calories." Ino says flipping her hair in a know-it-all way.

"Let's just walk around the village, I'm sure Naruto-san will find us." Lee says calmly. So they walk further into town.

"Hey, does anyone know where Naruto lives?" Choiji asks suddenly out of the blue.

"Huh?" everyone says confused.

"It's just that, if we know where he lives, then we could stop by his house and see if he's there." Choiji explains. Realization dawns on the others.

"Well forehead? You're teammates with him. So you'd know where lives right?" Ino asks as she and the rest of the group turns toward Sakura. Sakura and Sasuke both fidget nervously.

"N-No. Not really no. Naruto never really liked to talk about stuff like that. He said something about it being 'unsafe'." Sakura says nervously. Everyone looked on with pure shock.

"I know where he lives. I brought him some ramen once when we were still in the academy. He lives down here in the slums. Said it was all he could afford." Hinata says walking towards a really run-down building at the end of the street. When they reached the building, they saw how bad it really looked. At a distance it looked terrible, but up close it looked even worse.

"How could any human live in this and survive without going insane?" Ten-Ten asks in shock.

"It didn't use to be this bad." Hinata says.

"Wow." Sasuke and Kiba say with wide eyes. A passer-by saw them and walked over.

"Ah! Come to see the demon's house?" the older woman asks. The groups of genins look at her confused.

"Demon?" Hinata asks.

"Yea. Some genin brat lives there. But around here he's known as the Demon of the Leaf Village. No matter what we've done to the brat, he's stayed in that building since he was 5 years old and kicked out of the orphanage at 3 years old. Hell a couple years ago, we lit the place on fire, but it got put out, and he still came back. I still think the Hokage should tear it down and just kill the Demon, but she's got a soft spot for it. Just like the 3rd Hokage did. Just you wait, one day that Demon will turn on us. Mark my words, get rid of it while you can." The old woman says with narrowed eyes at the building. She then shuffled away down the street and then disappeared. The group was shaken at her story. But Shino, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Hinata were worried about how she seemed to mean Naruto was the Demon. A bum about 40 years old across the street then walked over to their group after the old lady was gone.

"Hey, I'm Kura. You guys friends of Naruto?" Kura asked.

"Yea. We're his classmates from the academy who graduated with him." Kiba says stepping forward. Kura nods as if he already knew that and was just confirming it.

"Yea I figured. Naruto talks about you guys. Glad he's found some friends. After what he goes through, he needs some. Good kid that boy. Helps us bums out when he should use what little money he has for repairs on the building and his own medical bills and taxes. He owns the whole apartment building, sorta. No one wants to live there, but him." Kura says with a sad smile as he thinks about how nice Naruto is. The other genins were shocked and confused.

"Wait a minute, why is he living here all alone? And how do you know Naruto anyways?" Ten-Ten asks confused.

"I met Naruto a few years ago. I was in a really bad funk back then, worse than now if you can believe it. I was trying to mug him at the time. He didn't fight against me at all which I found strange. I couldn't really see him in the alley we were in because it was so dark, so I didn't know who he was at first. Anyways, when I demanded him to give me all his money and valuables and told him that if he didn't I'd kill him, he just calmly handed me his wallet and told me he didn't have anything valuable because the village always destroyed everything he had. I was confused at first until I read his name in his wallet. It was then that Naruto bowed to me and wished me "a good evening" before calmly walking out of the alley we were in. I was in shock that he did it so calmly, as if it happened to him all the time. I then realized that because of who he is, it is normal for him. I immediately felt guilty, so I ran after him. By this time he had reached his apartment and was about to go inside when I ran up to him. He then calmly turned to me and asked if there was something else I wanted from him. It was at that point that I actually looked into his eyes and saw how resigned he was to what I knew he thought was going to be a beating. I told him that I was sorry and how I wished that he would have a good evening. Naruto then smiled a small, but warm smile at me and thanked me and assured me that it was okay because he was more than used to people doing what I did at first and much worse. He then invited me in to talk and to get off the street for the night. He was nicer than I thought he would be after everything he's gone through. After that night I would occasionally go to his place and hang. He has met a few of my other buddies and he helps all of us out when he's the one who truly needs the money, food and help. But he truly is a good kid. He has a heart of gold that boy, with a stubborn streak as strong as steel to match it." Kura says with a fond smile. Throughout Kura's speech, the leaf genins faces grew somber.

'Oh Naruto! Why didn't you tell anyone?' the genins all thought to themselves quietly. When Kura saw their upset faces he realized that Naruto didn't tell them anything about himself, he merely let them believe in the 'mask' he made for himself. That made Kura sad, sad that Naruto was scared to let his friends get to know the real him.

"Wait a minute! You still haven't told us why Naruto lives in that apartment building by himself!" Kiba says as he remembers that Kura only answered one of Ten-Ten's questions. Kura glances at Kiba as the other genin look at him.

"If you have to ask that then I can't tell you the answer." Kura answers calmly as he starts to walk away from the group of genins.

"Why the hell not?" Sakura demands angrily. Kura glares at her sharply making her and the other genin step back a bit.

"If you don't know the answer then you haven't earned Naruto's full trust. And I won't betray him. Good bye." Kura says curtly as he sends the group one last glare before fading from view into a near-by alley. The genin were both confused and worried.

"Well let's get back to searching for Naruto. Standing here isn't going to help us find him and he's obviously not home." Neji says as he starts to head back to the busier part of the village. The other genins follow him and keep their eyes out for Naruto.

Soon they spot Naruto a little ways up ahead, but not in the way they were expecting.

A/N: Cliff hanger! Hahahaha! So what did you guys think? This is a new story I've come up with. I hope you all liked this chapter. I'll try and get the other chapters for this story typed up and posted soon. But with my college semester having started up again I will be slow in updating any of my stories. Anyways! R&R please! I'd love to hear from you!