I'm back! (Readers give death glare) *sigh*, yes I know it's been a while and the only real excuse I can give is writer's block and plot creation because I still hadn't fully decided where I want to go with this story. Anyway, on with Chapter Two.

I don't own Naruto. If I did, the war wouldn't be lasting for like 9000 chapters.

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It was another regular day in Konoha. The shopping district was full with its usual customers, people were laughing and smiling, and the whole village had the same ambience of peace that it became known for. Of course, young Naruto Uzumaki never got to experience any of the happiness and joy as he was a pariah to all of Konoha. Although, his situation wasn't completely terrible. There was at least one Anbu watching over him twenty-four seven so he never had to worry about being physically harmed, but the tongue can be mighty powerful, especially to the mind of a four year old boy.

Naruto had been living with the Hokage for the first short years of his life, and as one would assume, Hiruzen kept the boy on a very short leash, and very sheltered. Naruto's only true interaction with any of the villagers are a few of the clan heads and their children who come to visit from time to time.

Over the years Naruto has met quite a few characters. First there's Kiba Inuzuka, the brash, loud-mouthed, self-proclaimed "leader" who always boasts about how manly he is, although he may be irritating at times, Kiba is generally the one that Naruto gets to joke around with the most.

Then there's the lazy Shikamaru Nara… there's not many ways to describe him as lazy…, although he is very intelligent for his age, as all Nara's tend to be. Unlike others, Naruto actually enjoys cloud-watching with Shikamaru, something that amazed everyone because Naruto was always rambunctious and full of energy. Since Naruto was living, and was under the tutelage of the Third Hokage he also became known be intelligent amongst his peers, although it still wasn't enough to rival a Nara, it was actually still very good.

Another addition to the group is Shino. The stoic, coat wearing, bug-boy who is a boy of very few words. Both Shino's and Naruto's problems derived from the same basic theory. Everyone always stayed clear from the both of them due to what they possessed in their bodies. Even though Shino didn't know directly what the villagers saw in Naruto, he, as well as the rest of the group, always noticed the stares and whispers that would generally come from walking with Naruto. Nonetheless, Naruto had never shown any hostility towards him for his bug situation, so he deemed Naruto to be someone he could call a good friend.

We come to the only female of this group: Hinata Hyuuga, Konoha's little Princess. Hinata was practically considered royalty in Konoha. Being that she was raised in a high society clan as the Hyuuga are, she always demonstrated the epitome of class, grace, and dignity that her status deems her to be. She was loved even more when people saw her always-blushed face and her minor stutter that was found to be very cute by the populace. Being that this was the first girl he'd ever had the chance to meet around is age, and being that she was very cute, they both ended up sporting large blushes upon making eye contact, before looking away of course. As time went on they were able to have full on conversations with little stuttering and rosy cheeks on Hinata's part.

The final member of the group happens to be Konoha's Junior Heir to the Uchiha clan: Sasuke Uchiha. Now, many are surprised at this, including Sarutobi himself, as he never thought that the "almighty" Uchiha clan would want anything to do with the young Jinchuuriki, especially since they were still the main people who had fingers pointed at them for the incident itself. Fugaku Uchiha, Sasuke's father, hadn't really cared when he heard of their bondage, he figured that having the Kyuubi wrapped around his finger could gain him some leverage on the council, although he'd never tell anyone that. But, everyone that are lucky enough to be clan heads are intelligent enough to know this is why he would be welcomed by the Uchiha for any reason.

The relationship between Naruto and Sasuke is a little rocky, whereas Sasuke is the more calm, cool go with the flow, Naruto is a little loud, and eager to be the center of attention, which can throw the young boys into a glaring match. Though, secretly they get along very well due to the presence of a certain Weasel masked ANBU: Itachi Uchiha.

Itachi, along with Kakashi Hatake, Yugao Uzuki, and Tenzo, is one amongst the few ANBU who watch over the ANBU due to their complete disgust with anyone who would dare mark the child as the Kyuubi itself. They were made the only four guards to watch Naruto after a recent incident.

-FLASHBACK-

It was a very festive night in Konoha as all the people gathered to celebrate one of Konoha's darkest days in history, the defeat of the Kyuubi at the hands of their beloved Yondaime Hokage: Minato Namikaze. On this very October 10 everyone was having a fun night enjoying themselves including Hiruzen Sarutobi who was looking over the village from the balcony of the Hokage tower while smoking on his famed pipe. It was then that Hiruzen got a very strange feeling that something had just gone wrong. That coupled with the fact that several specific words were now being chanted throughout the crowd.
"Demon!"

"Get him! That's the one!"

"Tonight, we finish what the Yondaime started!"

A chorus of 'Hoorahs' went through the crowd at that specific thought.

'Naruto-kun…" thought the old Hokage before he disappeared in a shunshin.

- With Naruto-

Naruto was having a pretty decent night with all of his friends, enjoying all of the sights around him. The smells of freshly grilled foods, the laughing and cheer surrounding him, and the random firework that would light up the sky. His only complaint was that he had to wear a hoodie on a night that was a little humid, but if he meant he could have fun by his friends side then he would deal with it. As it was, he was too busy joking with Kiba to be preoccupied with these thoughts. All was well until a particularly drunk civilian bumped into Naruto, knocking the hood off his head.

"Wh-ops my bad *hiccup* sor-" he stopped when he realized who he was looking at. "Wait… Y-You're him! The Demon! Hey! He's here!" he screamed in panic.

The next few seconds were greeted by an eerie silence, followed by every single civilian in the vicinity focusing their attention to the now visible blonde-haired boy. The tension was thick in the air, but that all ended with one shout.

"DEMON!"

Everyone now rushed the young blonde boy in herds, however all of the clan heads warned their children beforehand not to stray too far away, which is why at that very moment, five blurs whizzed by the children and began to start knocking out all of the violent civilians. Whether it be a chop to the neck, a quick disabling Jyuuken strike, chakra drainage from bugs, or looking into a pair of Sharingan eyes, every method was used by the five clan heads to protect their children and their friends. Though the clan heads are respectfully the strongest in their clan, even they can't handle a whole mass of civilians with anti-Naruto Shinobi in them. A masked ANBU then appeared and threw a few shuriken flew past the clan heads that headed straight for Naruto and Sasuke, who jumped in front of Naruto after the initial assault, it was then that another person appeared in front of Sasuke and quickly caught all of the shuriken in their hands. This person was none other than Itachi Uchiha, the other son of Fugaku Uchiha and senior heir of the Uchiha Clan.

"I must admire your bravery Sasuke-kun, but please from here on let us deal with this." Itachi said as he turned to look at Sasuke, although he almost held his mouth agape as he looked into Sasuke's new blood red Sharingan eyes with one tomoe in each of them. 'So he reaches his potential when protecting those he cares about hm?' thought Itachi, 'I'm glad you found people you care about Sasuke, you may be the one to break the curse' Itachi thought with a smile as three other figures appeared next to him.

"Well Itachi, if you're finally done gawking we can get started," joked Kakashi as he appeared next to him, Yugao and Tenzo bit back a laugh as the usually-stoic Uchiha glared at Kakashi.

"Hn. Fine." They all then began to disable the populace before them.

Suddenly, a larger plume of smoke appeared amidst all the chaos,

"ENOUGH!" The now-thunderous voice of the Hokage boomed, "This has gone on long enough and I refuse to see this village fall so low as to attack children! Are you all mad?!" The villagers all began to look somber at the fact that they were being berated by their own Kage. "This type of foolishness needs to end, or we as a whole village will not be able to prosper even on days like these where our sole purpose is to celebrate, look at what you've all done."

It was true, if one looked around the area there were a few shops that were damaged due to the scuffle, or being hit by a stray kunai or shuriken, although the damage was fairly minimal and concentrated in that one area, the fact that it was caused by the villagers themselves and for such a idiotic reason stood to make the Hokage really question the future of the village after his time finally comes. Would the village be stuck with generations that hate the next Jinchuuriki and the one after that? He really hoped not. All of this came to mind as he said what came next.

"What part are all of you not understanding? You attack this young, harmless boy for something that he has inside of him, while he protects you all! What would happen if the Kyuubi wasn't contained in him? Would it not be free to attack this village at some other given point in time? Would you rather see him die so that the Kyuubi would manifest itself within a few years?" This stunned most of the populace, while it was true that they understood some of this, they were still blinded by their hatred of the Kyuubi. Whether it be due to the lost of loved ones, homes, or businesses destroyed in the destruction, they just couldn't see past that hate to see the real truth. Although, with Hiruzen now enlightening them again, some of the populace began to walk away, as they now had a lot to think about. Would they get over this and move on to a new day? Or, would they continue to hate just because they might be seen as a supporter by their peers? The strong had already come to their decision, while some of the civilians just decided to write it off, but there were still a portion of the villagers who resent the boy, even if they could see the truth in their Hokage's words. These were the ones who decided they would still try to make the boy miserable in any way they could that wasn't physically harming him, they didn't care, it was still a detriment to the boy so they were satisfied. Everyone either continued to celebrate, or began a trek towards their home, still in deep thought about the night's events.

"I hope all of you now see the dangers of being with Naruto." Stated Hiashi Hyuuga as he walked up to the kids, "this may not be a daily occurrence, but just being with Naruto will hurt all of your social statures in the eyes of the public as well as lower the respect that the public have for you. Are you all willing to give this up for Naruto?" The elder Hyuuga gave a long look into each of their eyes, looking for any doubt in their convictions, and to his gratification, there was none.

"Who Naruto? This is one of my best friends! I'll always have his back." Stated the young canine boy.

"Indeed. Naruto has never shown any prejudice towards me so I will not turn my back on him." Stated the coat wearing boy.

"It would be very troublesome at this point to sever the ties I have made with Naruto." Said the lazy boy.

"I-I couldn't be w-without N-Naruto-kun at this point." whispered the shy, lavender-eyed girl.

"Even though we have our bouts I can assure you that my life would be very different without Naruto in it." Stated the duck-butt hair Uchiha.

Naruto's heart swelled at the conviction at which his friends all stated this, he started to shed tears of joy as his smile was wide enough to light up the sky, he gave all of the guys a bro-hug, while Hinata got a particularly long hug from him, causing her to blush the shade of a tomato and promptly pass out, eliciting laughter from all of those around except Naruto who still didn't have a clue as to why that would continue to happen. Boy, if only Naruto knew.

"These will be rough days young ones, but rest assured that I, as the Hokage, will see more to these problems directly. No longer will these acts of violence go unnoticed by me. I am going to look into some more archives first, so I will let you all know when this becomes official." Sarutobi said towards the clan heads. A chorus of 'yes sir!' came from the group.

"Well, it's very late and I think all of you should be going now wouldn't you?" Hiruzen said to the kids. It was true, they were all still very young to be out at this time of night, even if it was where all eyes could see them.

"Yes, but guys," Sasuke said as he turned toward the group, "I want us all to meet at the park tomorrow at around nine alright?" said Sasuke seriously.

All of the kids furrowed their brows in confusion, but agreed nonetheless. What could Sasuke possibly have in store for them? I guess they'd just have to see tomorrow for themselves.

-FLASHBACK END-

"Who would've ever thought that Sasuke was going to try to start a training regimen for us?" asked Hinata, stutter free.

"I had no idea something like that was what he had in mind." Naruto said as they were both resting from the previous training session.

"Hey you two, are we gonna get back to training or what? I thought you had something to prove Naruto-kun?" said Itachi was he appeared next to them via shunshin.

"Sure sure, we were just taking a break is all. C'mon Hinata."

"Right Naruto-kun" replied Hinata, 'I wonder if you notice how much stronger you're getting from these training sessions Naruto-kun… I have no doubt that you'd be able to protect yourself, but…. I still want to be here to protect you.'

They both held on to Itachi and shunshinned to Training Ground 3 for another session.

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Another Chapter done :D It only took around two months? *rubs back of head sheepishly* I'm actually going to start putting a lot more time into writing, especially since I've been cleared to work one less day a week. I should post sometime this week, hopefully, see you all soon! This is just another Introduction chapter. Some real action should be coming the chapter after next.

Oh, and REVIEW!

-A1