pain
When Naruto was young it was a common occurrence to wake up in pain. He healed faster than others most of the time, but sometimes the wounds were so bad that it'd take hours to heal, or even days. He'd wake up sore, his muscles screaming and his skin tight, and it'd take him hours to so much as stand.
That was the real reason he was often late. That, and the many times his alarm clock was destroyed by rocks thrown through the windows. But it was okay. He was used to it. A little time to adjust, to stretch, maybe a quick shower, and he'd been good to go. He might be an hour or so late, but at least he came at all, right?
The teachers never noticed, not even Iruka. How would they? He was so used to being in pain that once he had some time to adjust, he wouldn't even notice it anymore. The constant ache in his bones and stretch of his skin was something he was used to. It was normal, for him.
Naruto didn't fear the villagers, not anymore. Fear, you see, often comes from the unknown. What if they find me? What will happen? What will they do to me? Will they hurt me? I'm scared.
But Naruto doesn't have those questions. He knows what's going to happen when they corner him in the street, when they herd him into an alley. He knows they're going to hurt him. He knows just how much it's going to hurt. And he knows that eventually, before it can go too far, before they can kill him, an ANBU will appear out of nowhere and stop them. Send them home. No punishments, no reprimand - he just sends them home.
Then the ANBU is gone again and Naruto is left there, alone, to sit slumped in a puddle of his own blood as it slowly cools. As he watches it seep back under the skin, and his flesh stitch itself back together again. When the scars are mostly faded, when the sky has gone dark, he'll push himself back up again and begin the long trek back to his little apartment with the broken lock and the shattered windows.
When he wakes it'll be nothing unusual. Just another day of aches and pains and pink skin and fading scars. He'll push himself up again, in time, and make his way back out into the world until the cycle repeats itself again.
It's fine. He's used to it.
burning
One day is worse than usual. The ANBU doesn't come.
Naruto's not stupid. Despite how he looks, despite how he acts, he's not dumb. He knows the ANBU does it on purpose. He knows the ANBU is there, always, watching. Watching as the villagers tear him apart and waiting until the very last second to intervene. He knows the ANBU doesn't like him, and he knows the ANBU would likely rather leave him there to die, but he has a job to do. He has to keep Naruto alive, no matter how much he doesn't like it. Otherwise, he has to deal with the Hokage, and Hokage-sama can be scary when he wants to be.
So he comes. Eventually, late, after Naruto is in pain and bleeding, he comes. But not today. Today he doesn't come. Where is he, Naruto wonders. Is he watching, still? Has he made a choice? A choice to finally let Naruto die? Naruto isn't so sure he'd mind. What point is there anyways? Wake up, pain. Go to school, pain. Go home, pain. There's never anything but pain. And so, Naruto thinks, he wouldn't mind.
Sure, the pain will get worse—at first. But it'll go away, won't it? Naruto doesn't know. No one's ever told him.
The pain gets worse and worse and worse. And it hurts, oh it hurts. Make it stop. Anything, just make it stop...!
And it does, eventually. Naruto wonders if he's dead. But he's not, not really, he can feel it. He can feel the life around him, as dark as it is. And that's when he sees it.
A giant, pulsating mass of energy. A beast. More powerful than anything he had ever seen. More powerful than the honorable Hokage.
It was enormous, and bright, and it burned. It burned him to look at, to be close to. He didn't know what it was, and he knew he should fear it, but.
But.
If felt...warm? Comforting, even. Familiar. Like he'd known it his whole life.
"Because you have."
Oh.
soldier
Up until he met the Fox in his head, Naruto had never before had any friends. Not any real ones, anyway. He'd had classmates who'd humor him occasionally if they were a person short for a game, or who'd talk to him when there was no one else there to talk to. But there was no one who would ever look forward to seeing him. No one he'd talk to regularly, no one who knew about him (more than just the assumptions they came to when they'd look at him).
But the fox was a friend, or what he imagined a friend to be anyway. They talked, and talked. He figured the fox only spoke to him because there was no one else to talk to, but he didn't mind. The more they talked, the more he got used to the fox and the more familiar they became. Where before the fox was a silent watcher, a silent protector or healer, now he was an active participant. Naruto saw him in his mind often and they spoke and learned. Naruto learned more about chakra, and jutsu, and fighting, and techniques, and practical knowledge, and not-so-practical knowledge about other tailed-beasts, and the fox learned more about his frail little host. More than what he knew from just watching him, and it's no wonder the other villagers were so clueless about him; the kyuubi had lived in Naruto's head for the past seven years and he was unsettled to realize he barely knew anything about the kid. (Everything he thought he knew about him was wrong.)
For example, once the fox started helping Naruto to avoid the villagers and lose ANBU tails, and Naruto stopped waking up in pain all the time, he was finally actually given time to read the material and to study it, and the kyuubi found that this kid, this supposed dobe...was in fact a prodigy. Techniques that'd normally take days to master, at least, Naruto was mastering in mere minutes. He'd read the material and then get it right on his first try. It was easy to him, now that he wasn't so distracted by the pain.
The only problem he had was with regulating his chakra. The kyuubi had pumped so much of his own chakra into the kid over the years, in order to heal him, that he ended up expanding Naruto's chakra coils to the point that they were several times larger than they should've ever been able to become, increasing the amount of chakra that Naruto could produce and sustain exponentially. Basically, he gave Naruto massively overpowered chakra stores.
But Naruto wasn't complaining. It allowed him to practice for hours on end. Naruto was able to sprint home immediately after class ends and practice his chakra control and various jutsu techniques until dawn. Unfortunately, however, the Hokage and his associates are more keen than they seem, and when one of Danzo's men whom he'd had watching the jinchuriki noticed the strange things one could sense in Naruto's apartment at dusk, he immediately reported it to Danzo, who then confronted the Hokage about it.
Naturally, Naruto was confronted about it next, and feeling that he had nothing to hide he confessed to exactly what had been going on. No one had ever told him about the kyuubi or that he was supposed to avoid the kyuubi at all costs, and he had never before tried to hide what he was doing, training in his little apartment. The only reason his grades hadn't improved had simply been because he didn't care. School was irrelevant to him, and he only attended it to appease the Hokage. Learning to be a shinobi, however, that was something he could do in his free time, with his resident fox tenant to guide him.
Needless to say, the Hokage was not appeased, nor was the council. Perhaps it hadn't been a good idea to confront Naruto with them as witness, but what was done was done.
The only thing left was what to do with him. When they tested Naruto to see just how skilled he had become, they were both taken aback and appalled to find that he'd already reached the level of chunin at the mere age of seven.
Their first thought was to kill him.
"Kill him," one of the Clansmen shouted out, "this demon-fox is getting stronger by the second. If we leave him as is, he will kill us all!"
Naruto shuffled his feet, but stayed silent.
"He will not kill you, he is a child. Albeit a very talented and gifted child, but a child nonetheless."
"Then why would he hide it? Why would he play the fool, other than to have us let our guard down so that he may attack us when we're vulnerable?"
The hokage paused at that, before turning to Naruto. "Naruto...you've been truthful up till now, so I hope that you will continue to do so—" someone scoffs "—why did you pretend not to know anything? Why are your grades so poor when you are clearly so talented?"
Naruto hesitated for a moment, but the fox in his head gently coaxed him to speak. "Hesitating will make them suspicious; it will lead them to think that you are using this time to come up with clever lies. Do not hesitate, but do not appear overly confident either. Be careful, kit."
"It didn't seem important," Naruto answered.
"What didn't seem important, Naruto?"
"Grades. The academy. I only go because you want me to, Jiji. What does it matter if my grades are good or not?"
The hokage seemed at a loss for words, as did the rest of the people in the room.
Naruto continued, "You told me, when I was four, that I didn't have to do well—I just had to show up. So I did."
"I...Naruto..."
He sighed. Turning back to the council, he asked, "You have your answer now?"
No one said anything, and the room was quiet for a moment while they thought.
Finally, someone on the other end of the room spoke up: "But what are we to do with him?"
"Why must we do anything with him," another interjected.
"He's strong...he skilled...he could be useful to us."
"Useful how?"
"What if..." said a voice from the back of the room, "what if we put him in the ANBU?"
"The ANBU? Surely, you must be joking...!"
"Why not? That's what we do with all our prodigies, isn't it?—Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Itachi—"
"—that's enough. How about we take a vote? Who says we assign the boy to the ANBU and use him for the good of the village?"
Two thirds of the room raised their hands.
Hiruzen did not.
He sighed, "The majority rules that Academy Student Uzumaki Naruto be inducted into the ANBU. Further details will be discussed at a later date. Dismissed."
Once everyone but the Hokage and Naruto had left the room, Sarutobi approached Naruto and lowered himself down so that they were of equal height. With a sad look in his eyes like he had just seen a terrible mistake be repeated yet again, he put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm so, so sorry..."
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Continue: yes or no?