This prequel/first chapter. Please enjoy, sorry ahead of time for slightly spastic nature, if it's even noticed.
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A cool, pleasant breeze floated gently over Konohagakure, the hidden village of the leaves. The weather was excellent, and most had no worries. The villagers were going about their daily business on this early morning, and some random groups of merchants were checking in at the gates. The shinobi population was prospering since the ending of the Second Great War years ago, and thing couldn't seem better.
This surreal and idealistic overview of the city would be excellent to believe, if you were a very gullible and/or blind person. In fact, one only had to look a distance of about 100 feet from the main gates to spot the first instance of trouble. This particular instance of trouble had a large amount of cuts on its surface, which looked rather shallow in general, but the sheer number of such cuts and the combined blood loss, combined with the risk of infection, would quite possibly make such wounds fatal over time. Said instance of trouble also was moving at a particularly fast pace away from what would appear from great heights to be a large blob. From said great height, said instance of trouble would appear to be nothing more than a particularly fast moving small orange blur. Said small orange blur was, in actuality, a small boy, known as Uzumaki Naruto.
Uzumaki Naruto... the future hokage if you asked him, an annoyance if you asked his fellow classmates at the Konoha Shinobi Academy, and a monster, or possibly demon, if you were (for some reason) to ask the general population of Konohagakure. Naruto was, at the moment, running for his dear life from what he severely wished was simply a giant blob. Instead, it would be more accurate to describe the pursuing force as a giant MOB, filled with rather hateful people. Said mob was filled largely with rather hateful civilians, but there were a few rather hateful shinobi leading the group. All in all, Naruto would much rather take his chances against a giant blob over the rather hateful group following in his wake.
Unfortunately, young Naruto very rarely got his wishes, and he was forced to deal with his perusing force in a very natural reaction to one threatened with their life in overwhelming odds; the path of flight.
This sequence of events led to something to villagers would normally abhor; namely the beating, cutting, and general overall lynching of a small child. When put in the context of said young child being one Uzumaki Naruto, however, it made perfect sense for them to pass up normal common sense and decency in favor of a path of more bloodshed and all around nastiness. How young Naruto managed to escape was something he marveled at, but decided to take more time to marvel at when said marveling time was more readily available; such as when his life was not in a very dangerous position.
As it was, he figured, he was lucky to be alive now at all. Best not to ruin that.
Young Naruto had been running for a very long time now, as his chase had started near the very bowels of Konoha and for a rather stupid reason at that. In fact, if one were to look at the history of the village's actions toward young Naruto, one would find most of them were for very stupid reasons. As it was, this particular reason was slightly more stupid than the ordinary stupid reasons. As poor Naruto will be running for his life, and the villagers won't catch up anytime soon, we shall take this time to gloss over said stupid reasons.
The date of today was October tenth, a date more commonly written as 10/10. Coincidentally, and on a completely unrelated note, this number is pronounced in exactly the same manner as a young, brown-haired girl residing in Konoha, who was currently occupied with sneezing in the middle of the field in which she was practicing throwing shuriken at a tree.
This date was also one of much celebrating, mourning, and Naruto-beating for the villagers. Celebrating, because this day was the anniversary of the defeat of the Legendary Nine-Tailed fox demon, Kyuubi, who had attacked the village seven years prior. Mourning, because of the sheer number of deaths from the attack of the Kyuubi.
The Naruto-beating is where said stupid reasons of the villagers come in. Because the Kyuubi was so powerful, it couldn't be killed or destroyed by conventional means. This meant that it needed to be beaten by rather unconventional means. Enter the Yondaime Hokage, the fourth ruler of Konoha, legendary sealing master, and general all around awesome ninja. Using a seal invented by himself, he managed to seal away the Kyuubi's power and soul, hence his description of awesome ninja-ness. Unfortunately, the Kyuubi was too powerful to seal in an inanimate object or person, as it would be too powerful and break the sealing medium, which would be rather horrible for a person. The only option would be to use a newborn child, whose chakra coils would be able to develop to adapt to the power of the Kyuubi.
Enter baby Uzumaki Naruto, who had apparently drawn the "ass end of fate" card and been born only 2 hours before the Kyuubi attacked. He had thus been the sealing medium, leading to the villager's severe hate and fear of him. Fear, because of the possibility of the Kyuubi breaking free, and hate because he reminded them of those who had died on that day. That and they were just not generally very pleasant people to be on the bad side of, and held rather fierce grudges, even though anyone could plainly see that a small child was not the demon of fear that vexed them so.
Nevertheless, the villagers disliked Naruto, and on the Kyuubi's Defeat Anniversary, some decided to do something about it. This made a spectacle, and rather than help the defenseless child, many chose to join in, leading to young Naruto's fleeing, leading us to him now.
Naruto had amazingly been running this whole time, kindly waiting to initiate any type of plot point until you readers had finished reading the explanation of why he was running. Doesn't that make you feel bad? All that time you spent reading; you kept a poor young child running for his life. You probably shouldn't have doubled back on that one spelling error you thought you saw, huh?
Don't even bother apologizing, it's far too late at this point, as Naruto has already done all that running you've forced him to do.
Anyways, Naruto had not even realized that the wishfully-giant-blob mob of people had stopped following him long ago, after becoming very tired. The death threats from the Elite ANBU shinobi standing in their paths probably didn't help them much either.
Regardless, Naruto had no idea how completely alone he was, and only slightly more of how completely lost he was. He had, in fact, been following what appeared to be a rather large coastline for quite a while now. He was to afraid to even notice how obscenely tired he was, or to notice that he was only able to keep running through the fact that his wounds had healed extremely quickly, and were already closed, leaving perfectly scar-less, though slightly bloodstained skin, behind.
The healed wounds still did nothing to help his exhaustion, though, and it was beginning to catch up with him. His vision was quickly blurring, although his mind, being focused only on running as far as possible, noticed none of this. In fact, Naruto hadn't even noticed that through his blurred vision, the forest ground he was running on was turned to stone, the forest canopy overhead had turned to clear sky, and the clear water to his right now had silvery strips going straight out into the water. Naruto hardly even noticed when he had smashed headfirst into something large and rectangular in his path.
His mind only registered that he was no longer moving, and that was very bad. This state of panic was only worsened by the slightly ominous human shaped blurs coming slowly closer to him. Even more panic inducing, and rather unfortunate, was the fact that he was so thoroughly exhausted that he could do nothing to stop the advancing figures. So poor Naruto was left only to panic.
"No…" he softly mumbled as his last grips of awareness slipped from him.
ssssssssssssssssssssssss
Naruto had possibly hoped to end up like in one of the stories he had heard, and wake up on a comfy bed with some nice people, who would turn out to be awesome ninjas, and would train him to be an awesomely kickass ninja, so he could return to Konoha, sweeping the Hokage title directly onto his feet
Sadly, this was very far from the truth. Naruto woke up feeling very stiff, and was on a cold metal floor. He also felt extremely queasy. This was odd to him, as Naruto had only been sick to his stomach twice in his life. The first had been when he had eaten some rather rubbish food out of a dumpster, for lack of anything else to eat. The second time had been after he had woken up from trying to sleep in one of the little boats he had noticed in a small lake in Konoha. Not remembering eating trash anytime recently, Naruto's mind jumped to the second conclusion. Upon sitting up and examining his surroundings, finding a window in the process, Naruto indeed had surmised correctly that he was on a boat. A rather large one, by the looks of it, and judging by the fact that he could see no land outside of his window he was in a rather large body of water, which was probably why the boat was so rather-ly large.
Almost expecting someone to come in and make some comment about his being awake, Naruto waited. And waited. And waited, for quite a long while. Finally deciding to forego the desire for clichéd plot points, Naruto tried the door. It was, to his chagrin, unlocked, and Naruto almost slapped his head, only stopping when he realized that there was a person standing right next to his door, apparently having been about to open it.
"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, feeling like he was interrupting something meant to be scheduled to happen.
"I was about to come in and make a clichéd comment about how you were finally awake, and tell you how long you were out and where you are now," replied the man.
"What…?" said a very confused Naruto.
"I was going to check on you."
"What was with the rest of that…?"
"Rest of what?"
"…The…never mind……" uttered Naruto to the odd man. "How long was I asleep?"
"You've been out for about 3 days"
"And where…"
"We're on a trading ship, heading towards the Hidden Mist village," Informed the man, interrupting Naruto as though knowing exactly what he knew what he was thinking. (AN: whistles innocently)
"Hidden Mist, that's…"
"A shinobi village, yes."
"Maybe I can…"
"Learn awesome ninja moves, maybe. It will, however, be hard to actually find a teacher there."
"Could you…"
"Stop reading your mind and interrupting you? I could, but this is more fun." Naruto was quickly getting angry.
"But I…"
"Don't like it, I know." Angrier…
"Shut…"
"Up? No thank you." Last straw; time to trick him!
"I'm a bag of horse dung!"
"……" Didn't work so well…
"…"
"…"
"That didn't come…"
"Out very well, I know."
Naruto just sighed in exasperation.
"What…
"Are you here for? You passed out in a port town, where we were leaving towards Hidden Mist. You looked beaten, and were running far too fast for a normal child. We guessed you had some shinobi training, and were running from something. We figured we'd take you along with us. If you were attempting to escape something, the sea would help separate you. If not, we would return you on the next trip back, and I, as captain, would take full responsibility."
"Well, I was trying…"
"To get away… We'd thought that was most likely, based on the bloodstains. Unfortunately, we cannot let you upstairs, as you'd likely scare the passengers with your appearance. We will make port in Kirigakure in a little over a day and a half, so we kindly ask you to remain in your room until then. Food will be provided for you shortly, and you have a bathroom in there."
"Okay… thanks, I guess," Naruto said, and dazedly wandered back into his room.
Food was, as promised, shortly delivered. The man took about 2 hours to bring the food, but was only somewhere in the vicinity of four feet tall. (cue readers: sweatdrop. You know you want to)
Unfortunately, Naruto was still rather tired, and wasn't at all kept awake by the boringness of the ride. After waiting… and waiting… and waiting, Naruto looked up at the conveniently placed clock on the wall. Since it showed only 45 minutes passing since he'd had his meal, he decided to give up on his consciousness and slowly passed out.
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Naruto was awakened by a hard thump on his left hand side, and groggily looked around him. He saw wood below him, and water to the front and sides of him. Upon closer inspection, he also saw a boat swiftly moving away from him. Upon even closer inspection, he saw the half-psychic Captain from before, waving to him from the back of the boat.
Upon very little inspection of the general area behind him, Naruto saw a large looking wall, with a large looking door, and a couple large looking towers on either side of said large looking door. Naruto knocked. The door, as most doors do when knocked upon, opened, letting him inside. Once he was clear, the door did the only other thing doors regularly do, which happened to be close.
Naruto saw a large amount of buildings, and some people. He saw the air that was always topped with a fine layer of mist. He also saw guards on either side of him, wearing ninja hitai-ite emblazoned with the Kirigakure symbol. After proliferating for a few seconds, young Naruto's oh-so-sharp mind came to the simple conclusion that he was, in fact, in hidden mist.
The guards proceeded to block his route into the village, and asked him some basic village entry permit questions, including "what is your name?", "what is your favorite color?", and "How many times was your Grandfather arrested for being in odd situations with a goat?". Seeing as how Naruto was an orphan, he had no way of answering the last question, and was only given a provisional visa, and had to check back in a month in order to get a citizenship visa.
Naruto wandered for a bit, until his stomach interrupted his wandering via a loud grumbling sound. He contemplated the fact that he had no idea of where to get food, and even if he did, he had no money with which to buy said food. His contemplations were interrupted by a rather angry voice shouting "MONSTER!" from rather nearby.
"KILL IT!" the rather nearby voice shouted again.
Naruto, while very annoyed at being interrupted so often in very recent times, was still very panicked, and quickly leaped into a nearby dark alleyway, hiding inside a conveniently placed empty dumpster.
Naruto heard to shouting man grow into a shouting mob, and soon feared a repeat of his previous experience with an angry mob. The voices were moving closer to the side of the building he was hiding behind, and he was about to consider running when a figure leaped into the same empty dumpster he was currently sheltering in. The figure smashed into Naruto, though he noticed it was slightly smaller than him, and slightly lighter too. Naruto also saw large amounts of yellow cloud his vision, the same shade of yellow that his hair could be described as.
As the figure straightened up, Naruto realized it was a girl, probably only a year younger than him. Her hair, oddly the same color as Naruto's unique mop, was straight, and flowed to just below her shoulders. Her body was slightly shorter than his, but showed the same signs of starvation that he was very familiar with. She was panting, and appeared to be greatly distressed. Her face, which under any other circumstance would appear adorably cute, was laced with fear and panic. The most interesting part was her eyes, which were made of many different colors. Naruto could see blue, red, green, black, and even some yellow all swirled within them. Sadly, the eyes that would have been amazing at any other time, were currently glaring at him in fear and confusion.
"What are you doing here?" the girl asked. Her voice was shrill, mostly from fear, but see couldn't have been more than six.
"I'm hiding from those freaks out there!" Sadly, Naruto's assumed bravado was naturally lost from the fear of the people outside.
"Why are you hiding? They're trying to hurt me!" replied the girl in as close of a scream as her whispering would allow her.
"Why would they hurt you? I'm the one they're after!"
"Are you dumb, or just trying to be mean? They want me dead!"
"No they don't! They're yelling 'MONSTER' out there…!"
Both children piped up at this moment.
"That monster's me!"
Both children then chose this moment to silence themselves, and stare at each other in a mixture of confusion and awe… but mostly confusion.
pppppppppppppppppppp
AN: kind of a cliffhanger, I know, but I needed a good stopping point, and wanted to elaborate some things.
First, the girl is not a jinchuuriki, but will play the major part of making this fic what it is. Ladies and gentlemen, meet your new secondary character!!! expects cheers, gets silence… right… well, she may not seem like much now, but I'm avoiding the jinchuuriki cliché, and attempting very hard to not make a mary sue here. Rest assured, she is very special, though it is through a bloodline, not demon powers. There is still a reason for everything happening, but she will not be almighty in any way, but her bloodline should be very unexpected. I promise it won't be any "kill everything" bloodline or move, but it will make this fic what it is and let the humor flow while excusing the brief moments this fic might possibly pass as a crackfic. I promise it isn't, but even still.
Second, pairings ARE open debate, to some extent. Some limitations, being:
-most likely not NaruHina. They are cute, but it's been overdone, and I don't feel I could do anything new with them.
-no one severely age different. IE, no Tsunade, Shizune, Anko, Kurenai. Etc.
-not NaruHarem. I have read some good ones, such as From Ramen With Love, but I wouldn't be able to do it justice or fit it with my plans for the story
-NO YAOI/YURI. I have no problem whatsoever with homosexuality, as long as I'm not involved. I am not gay, nor do I particularly feel like writing about being gay. It's nothing personal. I wouldn't about being Buddhist. I have nothing against them, but I am not Buddhist. This means I wouldn't be able to actually understand it or write it well. Same principle.
That said, I was leaning towards either Naruto + Temari, or Naruto + OC girl introduced in this chapter. The OC girl will play the major part as secondary character whether she's the love interest or not, so it doesn't matter, though I can tell you they'd be great. Even still, you can vote in your reviews, and I shall listen.
Lastly, I am a perfectionist, and won't tolerate bad spelling on my own part. Any spelling errors you notice, especially things like the Mangekyo Sharigan or Sannin/Sennin would be appreciated. I've seen horrible spelling ruin otherwise good fics, especially simple things, like somehow getting Uzamaka Naruto or Kahona Village. Help would be thanked.
That said, reviews would be nice for some feedback, and you should definitely read the stories listed in my Bio, Especially Never Cut Twice, which is my personal favorite fic ever.
Hope you enjoyed the prequel.
