Chapter 3 – 5 years old

When Naruto came to he was lying in the same spot he had been left in. it was no longer dark and he culd see the first stream of people beginning to come out of their houses. He needed to get away, they could hurt him again if he didnt. Naruto sat up, most of his wounds healed already and all that hindered him was a slight limp. He rather hurridly made his way off the main street and returned to his modest home. It took him a long time to wind his way up the stairs but he was luvky he had not encountered anyone. He reached up for the door handle and went inside just barely retaining his whimpers. He sat on his bed and wrapped his blanket round him. Memories of last night flashed in front of him and he trembled uncontrollably.

He wondered what he had done to deserve this, in his short existence he had done nothing wrong and yet people treated him so evilly. He withdrew further into the blanket and closed his eyes, willing the memories to stop coming, to find their way away from him. But no matter how he tried they remained fresh to antagonise him. He heard a soft thump outside and he jumped up off the bed, a vivid image of the foot bearing down on his face sprung up and Naruto let out a shriek, his heart immediately racing in reaction to the recollection.

After his heart slowed down to normal pace he realised that the soft thump was just a kitten that had clambered across his window sill. He ignored the feline and dropped the blanket, he noticed his hands and arms were dirty and bloody but the wounds gone without a scar. He wanted to be clean, maybe then I'll forget the bad things. he limped into the bathroom and turned on the shower, the water was freezing cold but he had never known any different so he stepped in, still wearing his clothes, after all , they needed cleaning too.

After scratching off the dirt and blood the water stopped, it always does that…it would be nicer if it lasted longer . He stepped out creating a puddle around him, he had nothing to dry himself with and shivered as the cold water continued to drip off of him. He sat in the small patch off light his window gave him and waited to dry, it didn't take too long, it was a warm day.

Now that Naruto was clean and dry he felt better, but couldn't bring himself to be rid of the images yet, but to his relief they were getting fainter.

For some reason unknown to Naruto he felt the need to be around people, so despite what the people did to him he would always end up venturing outside, looking for someone, anyone who would talk to him. Even after a year of nothing he still persisted to do so. He stood steadily, his leg now fine and smiled, looking at the sun he thought today there'll be a nice person and it will be nice day and I'll have a nice friend!

He walked out of his apartment and shut the door behind him. He then crept into small roads with lots of corners in a bid to get to Market Street. He knew that there were lots of people there but he could easily hide behind the stalls, this way he could be around people but they couldn't hurt him. He would hide there until he saw someone who looked nice enough to talk to. Soon enough there was a girl who was about his age walking with her mother, the mother led her to the fruit stall and begun conversation with the vendor. While she was busy the girl had turned and spotted Naruto who was waving and smiling brightly at her. The girl took in his appearance, she noticed first the blonde hair, it stood out from out the crowd, as did the unnaturally bright blue eyes. Her eyes then drifted to his feet, she noticed he was bare foot, he had no shoes. she also noticed the boy was thin, too thin, but looked otherwise healthy. She thought he might be lost and hr mother had always taught her to help those who needed it.

She smiled weakly back, not knowing who this other enthusiastic boy was. At this, Naruto smiled as if he had just been given a present and his eyes sparkled. The girl made his way over to Naruto, after a quick check her mother was still pre pccupiede with talking.

"who are you?" asked the girl shyly.

"Naruto!" he relplied, struggling to keep his voice quiet, "whats yours?"

"Sakura Haruno"

Naruto looked at sakura, she was nice! He had finally done it, he had found a nice person! Shes my first friend!

"do you want to come eat ramen with me?" he asked, restraining himself from making a big scene and attracting attention.

"I have to ask mummy." And she turned to walk back to her mother, pulling on her skirt to be noticed. "mummy can I go eat ramen with Naruto?" she pointed to naruto "Please?" she asked. Her mother looked shocked and picked up her daughter, she walked to Naruto.

"keep away from my daughter demon boy, you'll contamintate her!" she slapped him on the cheek and walked away, people had heard the woman's raised voice and watched the scence, their eyes drawn to the blonde boy. Sakura was shocked and stared at the boy over her mother's shoulder as she was taken away. Everyone was now looking at Naruto with disgust he could hear them all murmuring… 'look at him…he's vile'… 'he should be killed to save the children!' …. 'demon' …. The mutterings then rose slightly and bcame louder… 'did you see he just tried to hurt that girl!' …. 'my goodness, I never thought the brat would actually to poison someone his own age!'…. 'Preposterous, something must be done!'

Naruto suddenly felt closed in like he was being crushed slowly. He wanted to run and hide, nothing bad happened when he hid. His feet stayed where they were, the stares of the villagers freezing him to the spot. Only when one tried to grab him did he come to his senses and weaved his way through the onlooking crowd, he was small enough to slip by most without trouble, but some of the more angry villagers chased him.

His thoughts turned again to last night, he didn't want that to happen again so he ran as fast as he could but it wasn't enough, they were catching up. He wasn't sure where he was running, his legs propelled him without thought, too late did he realise that he was leading them directly to where he lived. Too soon had he entered his home with the villagers after him. No malnourished 5 year old could out run healthy grown adults.

They kicked and slammed against his door, trying to make their way through, but the sturdy door held and kept Naruto sealed away from them, Naruto had instinctevly curled against the the wall opposite the door trying to back away as far as possible. He prayed for them to go away, the bangs slowed down and became less powerful. Naruto felt a little relief they're going away, they're stopping… then he heard a venomous comment through the wood.

"we know where you live now demon.." a chorus of laughs followed. Minutes later Naruto had finally processed his situation. They'll come back.

The next morning naruto woke after a fitful sleep from his bed. His stomach rumbled not having eaten the previous day and all the running had hungered him further. He ignored his growling tummy and drank some water from the rusty tap, he had to tiptoe to reach and drank from his hands, but as usual he was used to it.

His eyes strayed to the door and worry glinted in his mind will they come back and do bad things? I didn't mean for them to find my home... maybe they'll be nice and forget! He wanted that to be true but he knew really that his worry was for good reason and that they'd come.

His stomach brought him out of his thoughts and gained his attention. Naruto wanted to eat but he wanted to stay home for the day, just for a little while to avoid the bad people. He decided this was a good plan and clambered back into bed. He wasn't tired but it was warm and gave him comfort.

Memories of the old man oddly came to him and naruto realised it had been a long time since their goodbye. He counted counted the months on his fingers, he was slow to work it out but finally figured that it had been just over a year. He wanted to speak to him again. I know he's a nice a person. He'd talk to me and he'd talk nice things, not bad like other people. Old man is nice.

Naruto wondered how he could manage to speak to him. It was obvious that he couldn't come to visit so he'd have to go to him... Naruto thought it out in his head and begun to form a plan that might grant him his wish.

It was a simple plan, even for a five year old, but it would probably work. He hoped it would.