1 Year Later
The village had been rebuild, all the destroyed buildings and the flames weren't there anymore. Despite looking from outside that nothing was wrong. Inside you could still see that people hadn't forgotten about the kyuubi, the demon who killed their loved ones and most importantly killed the fourth hokage.
As people were walking around the street, and busy doing their jobs and living their life. The same couldn't be said for a baby who was crying in the the orphanage.
The baby with red hair who was crying. Despite being only a year old, Naruto could still say a few words and could take a few steps but that only made his situation worse.
Naruto was still little but even he understood that he wasn't having the attention of anyone around him. Or if he did he would get glares of hatred that made Naruto scared and sad.
Right now. Naruto was crying since he was alone in a room and there was no one else there. No other babies sleeping, just him. Suddenly the door opened revealing a woman glaring at the 'demon brat' as everyone liked to call him.
Seeing someone Naruto stopped crying and smiled at the woman, he was happy that someone came for him despite having the cold feeling from her.
The woman got angry when he saw that the demon was smiling, that smile reminded her of her dead girl who died when the Kyuubi attacked. She glared at the monster and his smile made her snap. She slapped him in the face.
Naruto immediately started crying and touching the place where it hurt, the woman smiled that she could hurt the demon and left the room. Leaving him to cry until he got tired. Naruto kept on crying for 4 hours until he slept but woke up again after a few hours because he was hungry.
Naruto was given food only once or twice a day. But even then was given the bare minimum. If it was in the hands of people who worked there, they would let him starve but the hokage would visit once a month to check on him and they knew. Would be dangerous to anger the hokage. In the beginning Hokage noticed from how Naruto looked like that he wasn't being fed. He had warned the people who worked in the orphanage to treat Naruto like the other children.
After 3 months.
Naruto was walking slowly to the place where he knew they kept the food. His baby legs didn't make sound, and he knew, if he was quiet he could reach the room without anyone noticing. Naruto just hoped none of the other children would wake up in the middle of the night crying.
As Naruto reached the door, and was happy that no one was guarding it. He couldn't reach the handle at first but then used a few books to reach it and slowly opening the door to not make sound. Naruto looked inside and was even darker than it was in other rooms. The other room had windows so the light of moon brightened up the rooms slightly. This room had no windows that Naruto could see. He was scared but he was hungry so he swallowed a huge breath and decided to be brave and crawled slowly inside the dark room.
Naruto slowly crawled to a jar with food that he knew the other children were fed with. He put his hands around the jar but couldn't move it. It was heavy for him. Naruto then tried to use his hands to open it where it was but to no success. He was disappointed but he was hungry. His stomach started growling as to answer him.
Naruto tried again and again but no success. Naruto felt tears in his eyes and decided to try one more time, and he started feeling something from his seal in the stomach. The seal started glowing red and Naruto opened the jar. He smiled so much that even his eyes were smiling. Naruto felt the feel from his tummy but decided to ignore it.
Naruto then put his hand inside the jar and started eating with his little hands. That went on for almost an hour. Naruto then slowly closed the jar again and left the room quietly.
After 2 Years
Naruto was looking outside the windows as it was raining. It has been raining for 5 days now. Now Naruto was only 3 years and three months old. He was able to walk, talk, run and even knew how to read a little. He felt lonely in this place. He had seen the way woman would look and treat other children, they would always smile at them and be kind to them.
While no one was kind to him, they would all look at him with anger and coldness. He didn't knew why. He couldn't understand what he could have done to make them hate him. The only person he knew that was kind to him was the old man with robes. He was the only one who gave him a kind smile but Naruto could feel sadness coming from the old man whenever he saw him. Naruto was told by the old man that he was the hokage of the village and explained to Naruto what his job was.
From what Naruto understood, he was the strongest and the most important man of the village, but that confused Naruto. If he's what he says that he is, then why is he spending time with me? Naruto had asked himself but found no answers.
In the orphanage Naruto had heard other children calling certain people 'papa' and 'mama'. Naruto didn't know why he didn't have them. He had asked a woman who worked here where his parents were. She answered him.
They abandoned you demon, no one would ever love you.
Naruto had run to his room crying after hearing that. Sometimes Naruto would see dreams of a woman with the most beautiful smile talking sweet words to him. She would call him 'sochi' and she would kiss his cheek and his forehead. Naruto always saw her smile but never her face. The dream would always end when he tried to look at her face.
The only thing Naruto could remember from her was her long red hair. Just like his. Naruto had heard many children of his age or older calling him tomato. Naruto didn't cared that much, at least that was much better than being called a 'demon'.
But he heard many adults pointing out his hair and saying that was proof that he was a demon. Naruto then had wondered if everyone hated him because of his red hair but he quickly pushed that thought away. That was just ridiculous to him and made no sense to him.
Naruto had also noticed the three whiskers in each cheek of his face. He wondered what they were and why he had them. For this question Naruto decided to ask the old man once he visits the orphanage again.
Naruto had also noticed the weird drawn in his stomach. He had noticed how the weird symbol would glow red sometimes. Naruto had a weird feeling in his tummy everytime that happened.
Naruto hadn't asked anyone what that meant because he really hadn't asked anything since the woman told him that his parents had abandoned him because he was a demon.
Now as Naruto was looking at the rain he felt someone coming towards his room. He knew this one wasn't the old man despite feeling powerful like him.
Naruto just hoped that whoever it was wasn't there to beat him or call him a 'demon'. The door slowly opened and Naruto saw an old man walking inside.
White spiky hair, red markings under his eyes, a headband that had the 'Kanji' for Oil, a red traditional geta with two yellow circles on each side.
Naruto wondered who this one was but he didn't feel anything bad coming from him.
Jiraiya
As he opened the door and looked at his godson. The first thing he noticed was how much he looked like Minato and Kushina. True his hair was red but was spiky just like Minato's hair and his face looked a lot like Minato's. He wouldn't be surprised if Minato looked exactly like that when he was the same age except blonde hair.
His hair looked just like Kushina's hair. Red like blood and made somehow made him look cuter. But then the old Sannin looked at his eyes and saw that Naruto was afraid of him and could tell from his face that he wasn't happy here.
Jiraiya hold himself to not go immediately and beat up whoever made him this sad. Jiraiya decided to let him know immediately that he was friendly and there was no need to be afraid.
"Naruto, don't be afraid of me. I'm a friend" Jiraiya said kindly to the young boy.
Naruto raised his eyebrow in confusion. "You are my friend?" He asked with a tiny voice but not wanting to be helpful.
The old man nodded with a kind smile. "I thought friends were supposed to be around my age. Why I only get to get old people as friends?" Naruto asked innocently. No one from his age wanted to be his friend and so far the old man hokage was the only one who Naruto could call a friend.
Jiraiya's eyebrow twitched slightly at being called old but let that go for now.
"I'm not that old, and what's wrong with a godfather visiting his grandson" Jiraiya responded smiling and the moment he said that. He was hugged by Naruto who had hugged his legs.
Jiraiya smiled and Naruto was hugging him tightly almost afraid that he would just leave him. He started playing with Naruto's hair and he looked up at him with tears in his eyes. But Jiraiya could tell Naruto was happy.
"Will I live with you? Please?" Naruto asked hoping that he could leave this place. Jiraiya immediately frowned at that since he knew. That he would be in the village only for a week and then leave again.
"How about you and I sit?" Jiraiya asked and both of them sit in Naruto's bed. Naruto had noticed the feeling of sadness coming from the old man but decided to not ask about it.
Jiraiya sighed and took a deep breath. He turned to his grandson who looked like his eyes were shining with happiness.
"Tell me Naruto how is your life here?" Jiraiya asked despite knowing how his grandson might be treated here. From his face alone, Jiraiya knew Naruto was treated harshly.
Naruto frowned and lowered his gaze. Jiraiya felt stupid to ask that so he decided to change the subject. "Tell me Naruto, do you know how to read and write?" Jiraiya asked rubbing his hair.
Naruto turned his head to him. "I only know a little, I taught myself but is hard to find any books here" Naruto responded. Jiraiya was surprised that he knew how to read. He smiled and grabbed a book from his coat.
"The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi" Jiraiya said and gave the book to Naruto who grabbed it and looked like someone just gave him the best gift in the world.
"I will teach you how to read and write. And after that I will give you new books to read if you want to become a shinobi" Jiraiya added smiling.
Naruto turned to his godfather. "Thank You" he said repeatedly hugging both him and the book.
"Don't worry Naruto" Jiraiya said hugging him back.
They stayed like that for a few minutes and Naruto pulled back and opened the book in the first page.
Jiraiya was happy that Naruto wanted to learn and he started teaching Naruto how to read and write.