I do not own Naruto


Naruto lay beaten on the ground as the villagers smirked above him. It was the day before the Kyuubi festival and the villagers always thought it was their duty to beat him, punish him, for the crimes that Kyuubi had committed. He had expected them to come and had even sensed their arrival, but he had done nothing to stop them. He promised himself long ago that he would never hurt any of the villagers no matter what they did to him.

"Look at the little monster just lying there," said one of the villagers. "I bet it's just waiting for us to turn our backs and then it is going to attack us."

"We can't allow that," said another villager as he took another swing at Naruto with his bat. Naruto made no move to stop him except to put his arms above his head so that his head wouldn't be bashed in.

"Why won't the demon just die?" hissed a woman. She wasn't going to hit him, the women rarely did when the men were around to give a harder hit, but the form of torture that they gave to Naruto was the worst. They often spoke the most painful of words that would stay with him for weeks, months, and even years. "No one wants it here. Can't we just kill it?"

"We aren't allowed to," said another villager.

"Why not?" asked the woman.

"The hokage will put us in jail."

"I think that the hokage should reward us for our service to this city," said the woman.

"Yea," agreed the villagers, "but somehow the demon has her under some sort of curse."

"I don't have her under a curse," said Naruto. "Baa-chan just likes me."

"Who could ever like you?" hissed the woman. "Who could ever like a demon?"

"I'm not a demon," he tried to say.

"Shut up," said the villagers with another bout of attacks.

"I'm not a demon," he said again.

"You are a demon," said the woman. "A filthy creature. A murderer. You are nothing but a demon."

"I'm not a demon," he repeated.

"Shut up," she said. "No one wants you here. Why don't you just die? Why don't you do this world a favor and kill yourself?"

Naruto whimpered as the villagers attacked him again. He could feel his bones being broken only to be healed so that they could be broken again. Kyuubi enjoyed the times that the villagers attacked Naruto. He enjoyed watching Naruto suffer and he would gladly heal the boy if it meant he could watch him suffer even more.

Finally, the villagers stopped, scoffing at how the demon wasn't worth their time, and turned to leave. Naruto stood and braced himself against the wall as Kyuubi healed yet another broken rib in hopes that someone else would come along to beat Naruto. He didn't know what made him do it, but he called out to the villagers making them turn to glare at him. They readied their weapons and advanced towards him to beat him once more, but they were stopped by Naruto's words.

"I thought it would be polite to answer your question," he said with a small pained smile.

"What?" asked the woman.

"I thought it would be polite to tell you why I haven't killed myself yet." The villagers remained where they stood. Despite themselves they were curious to hear what Naruto had to say and Naruto was actually surprised that they weren't going to attack him. "Did you know that Kyuubi heals all my wounds so well that they don't turn into scars?" he said as he pulled off his jacket to reveal the baggy black long sleeve shirt that rested underneath it. "He heals all of them except for one type of wound. For some reason the wounds that I inflict upon myself remain on my skin as a scar forever. I think it's because he likes to remind me that I have failed to serve my village by getting rid of the two of us." With a sad smile he pulled off his shirt to reveal his well-sculpted chest.

There was a gasp as the woman threw both her hands in front of her face in disgusted horror and several clattering sounds as all of the villagers dropped their weapons. They were shocked to see the boy before them. Yes, the boy, because in that moment they could no longer see him as a demon. They could only see a boy with scars all up both of his arms and across his chest. The scars even seemed to continue past Naruto's pant line where the villagers could not see. It seemed that there was no place untouched by the scars. There was even one that looked like a kunai had been thrust right into his heart. The villagers tried to convince themselves that Naruto was lying to them and that these wounds were just ones that he had gotten on missions. Naruto seemed to sense their doubts as he turned to show them his back, the only place that he was unable to reach on his own, which was completely flawless. He wasn't lying. All the scars had been inflicted on his own.

"So my answer to your question," Naruto said, "is that I've tried, but it's useless. Kyuubi won't let me kill myself. I've given up trying. I'm sorry." With that Naruto turned with his clothes in hand and left the alley that he had been attacked in. Naruto's words hit all of the villagers deeply. Especially when he had apologized for giving up in trying to commit suicide.

The woman collapsed to the floor with tears cascading down her face. How could she have done that to the poor, innocent boy? How could any of the villagers have hurt the child? How could they not notice that he was not a demon, but actually a boy who felt pain just like all of the rest of them? How could they be so cruel?

Without another word the villagers all returned home with their heads hung low. Each of them regretting all of the things that they had ever done to the boy and trying to find a good way to make up for all of the pain they had caused him.


Naruto lay in his bed silently pondering what had happened only hours ago. He had been so careful to hide his many scars from the people so he had no clue what had possibly prompted him to show the villagers that were beating him. Maybe he just got tired of them accusing him of purposefully living to torment them. He didn't know, but, whatever the reason was, they would probably all forget in the morning. He allowed himself to drift asleep, fully expecting to be awoken again in an hour or two by another villager who had decided to break into his apartment during a drunken stupor and beat him up. He didn't much care. He had gotten used to it by now. He even usually stayed awake all night waiting for them to come. Right now though, he felt so tired, and he just couldn't stay awake any longer. He drifted off into a sleep filled with nightmares just as he always has.


Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, comments, or requests, please message me and I will read them all. Flames are accepted and used to make my stories better.

I have the next chapter written, but I didn't want to post everything at once, so I will post it in a week unless I get 5 comments before then.