Chapter 1:

"I can't believe that Iruka-sensei made me stay so long after class to clean up the paint from today's prank..." Naruto mumbled to himself as he walked down the empty streets of Konoha.

Stuffing his hands inside his pockets and and keeping his eyes to the ground, Naruto continued on his walk home lost deep in thought. He was so zoned out that he didn't even notice the man walking towards him until he bumped into him.

"Hey! Watch it! I'm walki- *MPH*" Naruto began to say when his world went dark and a sack was pulled over his head.

XxXxXxX

"Uzumaki?" Iruka called without looking up from his notepad, only lifting his head to scan the room when there was no response.

"Can anybody tell me where Naruto is? Have any of you seen him?" Iruka asked the class only for a civilian child who was known to Iruka for bullying others(including Naruto), to scoff and answer him.

"Hah, he probably knew that there was a taijutsu test today. He probably skipped out like the chicken he is." the child said, earning some laughs from the other civilian children but the children from shinobi families just rolled their eyes.

Iruka said nothing, he just shook his head and decided to talk with the Hokage after his morning class had ended.

'Very unusual for Naruto to miss class when he knew there was going to be taijutsu spars today. That seems to be the only time he actually enjoys himself at the Academy.' Iruka thought as he shuffled all of the students outside towards the sparring rings.

XxXxXxX

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in his office, packing his pipe as his lunch break had just began. His face was wrinkled and his hair had long since turned white but it was quite obvious that this man was the leader of this village. As he packed his pipe, he thought about the technique that he was going to show Naruto after they had lunch together today. A smile crossed his face as he thought of the young blonde. As boastful as he was, Naruto still had the innocence of a child who had not been exposed to the horrors of the shinobi world yet. 'Yet...' Hiruzen thought to himself as his smile faltered just a little. It was clear to anybody who bothered to pay attention that the old Hokage had a soft spot for the young blonde troublemaker. Hiruzen shook his head and reminded himself that although Naruto may be dear to him, he could not stop the boy from becoming a shinobi. The only thing he could do was to aid Naruto in his quest to be the next Hokage, which is why he was going to teach the boy the "Shadow Clone" technique.

Hiruzen's thoughts were interrupted by a series of knocks at the door. Hiruzen placed his pipe down and called for the person to enter.

"Hello, Hokage-sama. I'm sorry to interrupt but I was wondering if you had seen Naruto today, he didn't show up for class today which is odd because he knew that we were having Taijutsu spars and those are his favorite." Iruka said calmly, figuring that the young blonde had ditched to hangout with his "grandfather".

Hiruzen smiled warmly at the only teacher at the academy who showed concern for the blonde. "Hmm, I can't say that I have seen him but we had plans to get lunch together today so why don't you and I take a stroll to Naruto's house and see if hes there?" Hiruzen asked as he stood up from his chair.

Iruka moved to stand beside the door, holding it open and gestured for the Hokage to leave first. "Right behind you, Hokage-sama." Iruka said as they both walked out of the tower while talking.

As the two made their way to Naruto's door, they knocked and announced themselves. No answer. Growing worried, Hiruzen called into the room that if Naruto didn't answer the door then they would be coming in. Still no answer from the other side.

Hiruzen broke the lock and walked into Naruto's apartment, followed by Iruka. After taking a look around, Hiruzen flared his chakra quickly and immediately an Anbu appeared that hadn't been there before.

"Your orders, Hokage-sama?" the masked shinobi asked in a respectful tone.

"Inu, call your dogs and see if you can find young Naruto, he can't have gone too far." Hiruzen said, growing more worried by the second.

'Where did you go off to, Naruto?' Iruka thought to himself.

XxXxXxX

*Elsewhere, at the same time.*

Naruto's eyes began to open, his vision blurry and his mind disoriented.

"It's waking up, sedate it again. The damned fox is stronger than I thought! That sedative would keep a jonin out of commision for 3 days! Its only been 16 hours!" a voice snarled beside Naruto as he felt a slight pinch in his neck before his eyes closed again.

When Naruto woke again, he was in a large dark room with no apparent way to leave. There was only a bed, a shelf full of books, and a shelf full of non-perishable rations. Just as Naruto was about to call out to somebody, a disembodied voice rang throughout the room.

"Greetings child, you will become my warrior now. You will not have a name, you will be given a codename later. At this time, your objective is to read through all of these books and scrolls and train yourself. Ten days from now, I will send in another of my agents and his objective will be to kill you. There is a scroll in the mix called "Shadow Clone Technique" I suggest you learn it. It will aid you in your training. You will have no contact with anybody until then." The voice said, before suddenly disappearing.

Naruto began to yell for help. He yelled for hours, straining his voice to the point that he lost it. He had hope that somebody would come to save him... At least for the first three days.

On the fourth day, Naruto opened his mouth to try and yell some more, but found that his voice was ruined. He couldn't call for help. Nobody was coming. With tears streaming down his face, Naruto sat on his bed, grabbed the Shadow Clone scroll and began to read.

Having mastered the "Shadow Clone", Naruto spent his days reading the other scrolls on hand, while getting his Shadow Clones to do the practical training. Now on the 9th day, Naruto was steeling himself for what was to come next. He was 7 years old, and yet tomorrow he had to kill somebody or they would kill him first.

He hated to admit it, but he found himself to be a sponge for learning. He had no doubts that with the help of his shadow clones he had already progressed beyond Sasuke, his self proclaimed "rival".

Naruto frowned for a second, he couldn't think about his friends. He could only think about surviving. Tomorrow would decide if he got to live to have a chance to see his friends again. Tomorrow was the day that either Naruto died, or he became a killer at the age of seven and his innocence died anyways. 'Tomorrow...' Naruto thought, as he drifted off to sleep.

XxXxXxX

"Hokage-sama I realize what that boy means to you but having Kakashi running around the entirety of the Land of Fire for clues leaves you exposed. Besides... Its been a week and a half, Naruto was not even on track to pass the academy... How long do can we expect for a seven year old child to survive on his own after running away?" a man with an "X" on his chin asked as he sat across from the Hokage in his office.

Suddenly the room became very cold, as Hiruzen glared at the man.

"Danzo, do not go any further. I will not believe that Naruto has ran away, let alone died. I know he has to be alive. Call it a hunch, call it whatever you'd like but as long as Kakashi is willing and able, he will be searching for Naruto. You know as well as I do how much that boy means to Kakashi. Naruto is Kakashi's last link to his sensei. When Naruto graduated I was going to have Kakashi be his team leader." Hiruzen finished with a sad smile on his face, wondering if he would ever see his favourite blonde again.

'Well if my plans go properly, nobody will ever hear from Naruto again...' Danzo thought to himself.

Danzo prepared to stand and leave, but a foul presence flooded all throughout Konoha almost instantly. Danzo's eyes shot open in surprise as he turned to Hiruzen whose face mirrored his shock.

"This is-" Danzo began, but Hiruzen was already gone.

XxXxXxX

*Earlier, outside the walls of Konoha, deep underground.*

Naruto woke with a start as he heard what sounded like a heavy door unlocking and opening. He stared in the direction of the noise as his eyes adjusted. He barely had time to move as a handful of kunai were thrown at him with speed he had only seen a chuunin accomplish.

Jumping off of his bed, Naruto cursed under his breath when he saw paper bombs attached to some of the kunai. After he landed he looked down and hissed, he had been hit in the leg with a kunai. 'Still too slow.' He thought to himself as he pulled the kunai out and let his leg heal. He knew he healed faster than regular people but this still seemed too fast.

Naruto held the kunai that had been stabbed in his leg, now in his right hand. He caught a glimpse of his attacker with the fire from the paper bombs lighting up the room.

'An Iwa shinobi? What do they want with me?' Naruto thought to himself as he dashed at his attacker. His speed must have caught the Iwa nin offguard because he landed a solid punch to the shinobi's face. His face fell when the "shinobi" he punched turned into a mud clone. Behind him he heard the sound of metal flying through the air, as Naruto turned around he was met with a sword in his gut. Naruto coughed up blood but didn't give up, he leapt backwards, off of the blade and gained some space to think and heal.

'Think, think, think! What can I use against this person?' Naruto wracked his brain. Suddenly a small smile found its way to his lips as he came up with a plan. He sprang into action immediately, using a decent sized version of the Wind technique "Great Breakthrough" he ignited the flames some more and sent them at his attacker. At the same time he created a shadow clone and hid himself as the shadow clone took his place.

When the fire died down, Clone Naruto spotted his attacker had made it out but not unscathed. Not wanting to waste his momentum, Clone Naruto snuck up to the recovering ninja whose face was still shrouded, covering all but the headband that rested around their neck. As quietly as he could Clone Naruto snuck up behind the recovering shinobi and slit their throat. As the ninja grasped at their bleeding throat, Clone Naruto uncovered their face.

Clone Naruto took a step back and dispelled itself with a wide-eyed look on its face. When Naruto received the memories, he ran out to the fallen "ninja" and sank to his knees while crying.

There, lying before him, was the gasping form of Iruka. Still fumbling his hands to stop the bleeding and looking up at Naruto with a horror filled look in his eyes. Having not spoken since the 4th day, Naruto let his despair take over him and wailed silently at "Iruka's" side. Suddenly, a kunai was at Naruto's throat and then he watched his blood being to spray all over the spot where "Iruka" was laying just a second ago.

As Naruto slumped to the ground, he realized he had been tricked. The shadow of his attacker stood over him as Naruto began to get angry. How dare they? How dare they use one of his only bonds against him. 'Genjutsu, huh?' Naruto thought as his eyes closed and his anger began to boil. He stopped breathing as his attacker began to leave.

Suddenly, a red aura enveloped Naruto's body and he sat up straight with his eyes closed. His head snapped to the direction of where his attacker was making his way to the exit. Naruto lifted his hand and seallessly aimed an air bullet at the attacker.

Hearing wind whipping behind him, the attacker turned to look at Naruto who was sitting up now, but had his eyes closed and his arm raised towards him.

'Wait it's arm is raised at me? What does it expect to accompli-' he never had time to finish his thought as the upper half of his body exploded.

The energy around Naruto receded into him as his eyes opened. Seeing what had happened and then seeing the open door, Naruto stood shakily and began to stumble his way to the door.

XxXxXxX

"It came from here, he's in there. I know he is." Kakashi said as he took a step towards what looked like a tree with a hollow base.

"Shouldn't we wait for reinforcements, Kakashi?" Pakkun asked, growing nervous about the presence they had felt.

"No need, lets go." Kakashi turned to see who had spoken to see Hiruzen land beside him, followed by Iruka and Danzo.

Unknown to the rest of the group, Danzo pressed a seal on his arm and the ground began to rumble beneath them.

"It's going to collapse, we need to go in and get him!" Iruka yelled at the others, before being stopped by Hiruzen.

"Kakashi, go in alone. You are the fastest one of us and will be able to locate him faster due to his scent." Hiruzen ordered as Kakashi nodded and disappeared under the tree.

The others waited with baited breath as the seconds ticked by, almost a minute had passed at the ground beneath them began to collapse. Just as it seemed they had lost Kakashi, a blur shot out of the ground and tumbled to a stop at Hiruzen's feet.

There, cradled in Kakashi's arms was Naruto. He was barely conscious and he was blinded by the sunlight. Hiruzen knelt by the boys side and caught his attention.

"Naruto, my boy! You're okay! Thank god you're alive!" Hiruzen exclaimed with tears welling up in his eyes.

Naruto looked up at the Hokage and began to try and speak for the first time since he had ruined his vocal cords in the underground bunker.

"Y-you... lied to m-me." was all Naruto could say before he passed out again.

XxXxXxX

AN: Well, there's chapter 1. I hope this doesn't feel too rushed and the scenes play out nicely. I've been told that I rush scenes and its not very cohesive. I'm still learning as a writer and I hope this story can help. Ill admit I've abandoned my other stories because they do feel rushed but also Naruto becomes way too strong way too fast. Id like to take this story a little slower and make it more believable in terms of how strong Naruto gets. Leave reviews if you'd like to see pairings, or if you have any issues/ideas. Anyways, bye for now!

-Wonderouzzz