For better or worse, I do not own Naruto.

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Beta read by the wonderful rose7anne101 and lincoln time, who have written some pretty amazing stuff!

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Chapter 2: Before

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Land of Fire

Konohagakure

Hokage Tower

Twelve years after Naruto's birth

"So Iruka-sensei's going to be alright?"

It had been a rather hectic night, reflected the Third Hokage. What with Naruto being tricked by Mizuki into committing treason. Fortunately, it had all worked out better than he could have imagined, and now his surrogate grandson impatiently standing in front of his desk as he waited for news about Umino Iruka.

"Yes, Naruto," the Third Hokage reassured him with a grandfatherly smile as he locked away the Forbidden Scroll. "The medics assured me that he'll be right as rain in just a few days. I'm very proud of how you handled yourself out there against Mizuki by the way. Iruka was right, you've proven yourself as a ninja!"

Blushing a little even as he beamed, Naruto proudly fingered his new Leaf forehead protector that had once been Iruka's until he had proved himself. "He he he! Yep!"

Wanting to broach the topic before Naruto did, to show his concern, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat down in his chair with a more serious look. "And Naruto, I'm sorry that you had to find out that way about the Kyuubi."

Naruto blinked at that, but quickly put on another bright smile, "No worries! I'm sure you had your reasons! And it's not gonna stop me from being Hokage! Believe it!"

But the Third Hokage had still seen the brief emotions in his eyes, including the pain. "I'm sure you will," he praised, "yet I'm still so very sorry that this happened to you. It was always my intention for you to learn the truth, but never like this. I wanted you to find your own path as a ninja before making you aware of this burden. So that you would have a chance to prove to yourself and everyone else that you were more than just the cage holding back our greatest nightmare."

A compliment and a declaration of faith, which seemed to be working, Sarutobi decided. The truth is always best, even if it is not the entire truth. That however can wait for later.

"Thanks Old Man! And I will!" Naruto cried out. "I'll surpass you! And then have all of the people of this Village acknowledge how awesome I am!"

"Very good Naruto, I look forward to it," the Hokage promised, his cheerful expression becoming fake as he felt an old pain. Yes, the Will of Fire burns brightly within you, just like your parents. Brightly enough, that maybe you will be ready for the truth about them before I die.

XXX

Coast of the Land of Fire, across from the Land of Waves

A Few Weeks Later

Naruto tried to stay still as he and the rest of Team 7 waited for the boat to approach the shore that would take them to Tazuna's homeland, where the bridge builder was to finish his finest creation. The man had —eventually, after the attack by those two missing-nin from the puddle— come through with the truth of his mission. Tazuna –along with the childish enthusiasm of his students— had managed to convince Kakashi, who dramatically demonstrated his power in effortlessly dealing with those attackers, to help him, while bringing along his genin students. As for Naruto, he was determined to prove to everyone –including himself— what he was really capable of; especially after he had frozen up against the two Demon Brothers.

I'll show them all! I'll beat down anyone who comes at us, and show Sasuke-baka what I'm really capable of, and Sakura will be so impressed! I bet it will even make Kakashi show me some cool ninjutsu to bring me even closer to being Hokage!

Besides, we're off to rescue a country from a ruthless tyrant! I can't wait to tell Iruka-sensei and the Old Man! Stuff like that will make everyone notice me and say that I should be the next Hokage!

Sasuke Uchiha was just as eager as his 'idiot' teammate. Every day, every available hour, he had dedicated himself to growing stronger. Pushing himself to bridge the gap That Man held over him in age and experience. He had tried to graduate earlier to enter real combat as soon as possible, except that since the last Great Ninja War, the academy had rarely graduated kids early during peace time, and had abolished that policy altogether after That Night.

Finally though, Sasuke had a chance to test himself in the field and make an accurate assessment on where he stood. Best of all, his clash with the Demon Brothers, two chunin who were bigger, older, and more experienced, had given positive results. If Kakashi had not butted in, he probably even would have beaten them both. Although Sasuke was willing to concede that regardless of his superior skill, a single error could have meant being cut by one of those poisoned weapons, so perhaps it was for the best. Now though, the tests were only going to get harder. As it should be. The only question is if these other two will get in my way or not, and everything they've done so far indicates they will only be a nuisance. Neither was even able to move during that attack.

Sakura…well, she just kept going over in her head how fantastic her beloved Sasuke-kun had been. His speed, his skill, his utter coolness. Any thoughts about how abysmal her own contribution had been, were overlooked.

Besides, they were still just genin, right? Sakura knew the whole point of being here was for them to learn how to handle stuff like this. Right?

As for Kakashi Hatake, leader of this merry band of misfits called Team 7, he kept his own feelings on the matter hidden. Posture relaxed, and his only visible eye projecting a detached demeanor. While Tazuna had told his story of woe, Kakashi had been keeping a close eye on the reactions of the so-called 'Demon Brothers' as they sat tied up, to help confirm the old man's story. Afterwards, a quick jolt of lightning chakra –which had suitably impressed his little genin— had knocked them out. Then Kakashi had left a note with the two wannabies, aware that a patrol would be coming by the area in the not too distant future. No, there were no troubles behind them, what lay ahead was the problem since the next assassination attempt was likely to be far more serious.

And then there was Naruto.

Kakashi had watched the boy from afar, but Kakashi was now coming to suspect that distancing himself from him had caused greater scars for his sensei's son than he imagined. The social isolation the boy had endured had even stunted his development as a ninja. For as much as he wanted to be Hokage, it was still only a step in his primary goal of being noticed, of having his existence acknowledged. So he would spend most of his time pulling stunts, like playing pranks, or running around in Kill Me Orange despite being a ninja –maybe it was the Academy's fault? Were they emphasizing too much on 'cool' ninjutsu like spitting fire, instead of quietly sneaking up on someone sleeping to slit their throat?— when he could have been studying and training.

Maybe if there had been someone else in Naruto's life, someone to help him, motivate, support him, or even gently yet firmly push him back in line, things could have been different. Not that we haven't tried to give him that, except each time something interfered with that. It's really fascinating how often something comes up to spoil those plans.

Not that Kakashi could prove anything, especially since those problems had come from so many different sources, and neither he nor the Hokage could find any evidence of coordination between them. It was even possible that some of those issues were as innocent as they appeared.

Something still smells rotten though.

Still, as Naruto progresses, if there is something sinister behind this then they'll have to come into the open more, and we'll catch them. And once Naruto is strong and mature enough to learn about his family, his legacy, then I'm sure things'll improve for him.

As it was, being in Team 7 was only marginally helping the situation. Naruto did now have people acknowledging him on a daily basis, and the effect of this showed, yet it was not entirely healthy.

Kakashi could not be anything more than a teacher and commander, someone who might have to send Naruto to his death, and not the father figure Naruto so desperately wanted. Even being a male role model was out, since Kakashi was self-aware enough to know that he was too damaged to be a positive one. Iruka remained more of an older brother Naruto now saw less of, and the Third Hokage was both too old, and usually too busy.

Sakura's responses to Naruto's action tended to be violent, but because she actually was responding to him, he kept coming back. His social isolation even making him feel a romantic attraction to her due to the fact it was at least some attention. As for Sasuke, things just got more complicated there. Kakashi and other Anbu had noted how fixated Naruto had been on Sasuke after the Uchiha Massacre, seeing someone else who was also all alone in life and who Naruto emphasized with. Unfortunately, Sasuke's obsession with killing his older brother, Itachi, left no time for friends. So instead Naruto was focused on becoming Sasuke's rival, so that the young genius would acknowledge him.

In Kakashi's eye, the incident when Naruto had stabbed his hand only highlighted the seriousness of the situation. Naruto's lack of concern with self-injury, and his failure to notice how abnormally fast he was already healing, were all signs of a serious lack of concern for himself, as well as a complete inexperience of how quickly other people healed due to a lack of interaction to actually learn that.

Even worse, no one else in Team 7 had been particularly upset on Naruto's behalf. Yes, they had been shocked that he had taken such an extreme measure, but neither Sakura nor Sasuke had been overly worried for his personal health while he had a kunai jammed nearly all the way through his hand.

As for Kakashi, while he was mildly disappointed that Naruto had frozen up, he was not surprised. Unlike Sasuke, Naruto had never been in a life and death situation until just recently, with Mizuki. Such a reaction on his first mission was perfectly understandable. Demonstrating his commitment via such grievous self-harm had been a little unnerving (although Kakashi had tried to just play it off) yet it was still good to see Naruto's spirit was undaunted.

Sasuke's single minded focus on revenge was another reason Kakashi was stressing teamwork exercises over developing his genin as fighters and killers. This was a philosophy that Konoha stressed, and the fact was that Sasuke had too much potential to be wasted because he charged in alone and missed the kunai coming from his blind spot. He somehow assumed that he could develop the skills necessary to kill Itachi all on his own, without anyone being there to support him and help counter Itachi's own abilities. It was especially laughable because Sasuke's own skills so far were merely inferior versions of Itachi's, meaning he would never be able to surprise his more experienced foe.

There was also Sasuke's assumption that he would somehow stumble across Itachi, since Kakashi's covert observations had given no indication that the boy had developed any skills to actually track down one of the most notorious criminals in modern history. A man who had casually avoided the Hunter ninja sent after him for so long, that the Third Hokage had eventually accepted defeat and called them back.

Only teammates could balance out Sasuke's own talents, and draw out his true potential. Regrettably, Kakashi knew that if he brought that to the boy's attention in such a blunt way, then they would only be viewed as pawns, and thus weaken the group as a whole. Sasuke had to on his own initiative learn and accept this. The only problem was that he did not respect Sakura or Naruto enough yet to understand this. Hopefully time would correct that, and perhaps this mission would help that as they were thrown into danger together. Perceived danger at any rate, since Kakashi had little intention of letting such threats actually reach them.

Sakura was a far more straightforward and normal case. She had entered into a life she was not really prepared for, but one of the reasons Kakashi had agreed to a C-rank mission was to see how his cute little genin reacted to their beloved sensei and role model butchering a bunch of bandits, while splattering the audience with blood and gore. A little more humane than sending them right into danger in a sink-or-swim manner (the lives of bandits and similar scum did not deserve consideration), and their psychological reactions would give him a good idea on whether or not he should let them continue as ninja.

Oh well, as it was, actually spending time with her crush for a prolonged period would inevitably rub off some of the shine on her obsession with him. Fangirls tended to lose their idealism after seeing object of their desires get as dirty and smelly as them from camping in the woods for days on end. Not to mention she might finally catch on that Sasuke was uninterested in romance right now.

Mental trauma aside, he was twelve after all.

Truthfully, the only reason the Demon Brothers were still alive, was because it was not every day possible sources of new intelligence conveniently delivered themselves right outside your village. But this, this might be a little too extreme.

No, I will protect them. I'm Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan Eye, and I doubt Gato will have any rabble strong enough to challenge me. No need to trouble the Third Hokage with reinforcements. Besides, a little hostile Killing Intent will also be a good measuring stick.

XXX

Mount Myōboku

Resting in his home amongst all the other Toads, Gamatorra mediated in thought. For years he had covertly done his duty, and it was becoming apparent that his friend's dying wish might be for nought. The forces opposing Minato's son were too great.

When he had sworn to this task for the Fourth Hokage, he had failed to realize the obstacles he would face in getting the scroll to Naruto. The first and foremost problem lay in that the boy was still not ready. Presenting the Scroll to him before he had spent some time in the Ninja Academy had seemed unwise, since he would lack the knowhow to actually use the secrets the scroll contained.

So Gamatorra had laid low, carefully gathering information from Toads who associated with Jiraiya. While he was disappointed that Jiriaya had been deemed incapable of caring for his godson, by both himself and other parties including the Third Hokage, the Toad Sage kept busy protecting the boy from afar. Repeatedly the man had intercepted and discredited any intelligence gathered by foreign nations regarding the identity of the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki, as well as any 'superficial' resemblance between the Leaf's chief prankster and pariah, and Minato Namikaze. Kakashi, the Fourth's apprentice, had been active in hunting down these spies, ruthlessly exterminating any threats to his sensei's legacy.

Gamatorra had also gained further information by using Mount Myōboku's Distant Body Water to travel to the village, and check up on the boy and those around him.

The tragedy was though, that the boy had grown up in near utter social isolation.

No one dared harm the boy, or even be caught thinking of it, after what Jiraiya had done to the man who had criminally revealed Naruto's burden to the world. But at the same time, no one could be forced to approach the boy, talk to him, or even smile at him. It was clear the loneliness was bearing the boy down, robbing him of social cues and knowledge, and leading him to developing some unhealthy ideas.

If I gave him the Scroll right now, it would be a disaster, Gamatorra reflected with a heavy heart. He would just show it to the world in a desperate attempt to get more people to acknowledge him. Or even worse, if Naruto's suffering was greater than I suspect, the information contained within the Scroll would give the young Jinchuuriki –and he now knows that is his one, as well as why people hate him so much— the opportunity to wreck bloody vengeance upon the village if he ever snapped.

Doubtless it would provide ironic satisfaction for the pre-teen: that if he was going to be shunned and treated as a monster, then let him be one, humanity be damned.

And the legacy of the Fourth Hokage would be death, death for many villagers, and the eventual death of Naruto when the ninja finally killed him.

All assuming of course that Naruto did not try to unlock his prison and unleash the Nine Tails before he fell.

Something has to change, Gamatorra thought with dismay, and soon. But I don't know what to do.

XXX

Author Notes:

First, I shamelessly admit that this description of Naruto's mental and emotional health, was heavily inspired by the Naruto fic, "Team 8," which was written by the genius S'TarKan. If you have not read this story before, you are missing out on what is probably the best one of them all, so please go read it. If you have read it before, go read it again, especially since he has started updating again. And then look at its TvTropes page.

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Next Chapter: 'Changing the Future'

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