Naruto stomped into his rundown apartment long past dusk. The street lanterns were lit below, and the crowds were delighting in the balmy spring weather. He didn't care. He didn't care at all. He threw himself on his bed and shuddered through deep breaths. He didn't care about the festivities or how unwelcome he was, because he didn't care. He fell face first into his bed and muffled his scream of frustration into a stained pillow.

When he finally stopped shaking, Naruto swallowed down the raw feeling in his throat and rubbed furiously at his eyes. His stomach rumbled with hunger, but instead of getting up to fix food, he rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. Instead, he pushed down the hurt sinking in his chest, and he willed himself into a quiet point of anger. His skin tingled, and then heated. The sound of the festivities outside, so far away and still so loud, faded away into the hum of water running through pipes. A drip of warm water struck his cheek.

Naruto opened his eyes. Water sloshed around his knees, muddy and clouded. He looked to the battered bars of the towering cage.

Kyubi stared back down at him, bored and disdainful. He rests his chin atop a soaking paw. "You failed your test, loser."

Naruto clenched his fist. His expression only twitched. Then he raised his palm out in front of him. He swiped it downward, and chains materialized, falling and striking into the water. The instant net caught Kyubi around the throat. It dragged the beast under the suddenly bottomless water.

Naruto waited until he felt a little better. Then he allowed Kyubi to gently float to the surface. He allowed the fox to breathe, to splutter curses.

"My day went great," Naruto said with a happy smile. "Thanks so much. I finally achieved my dreams. I owe you." Naruto tilted his head down, and the chains tightened around the kyubi's throat and muzzle, making the demon yowl in pain. The boy's sunny expression darkened, and his voice softened. "You hate me that much? You couldn't let me have a single thing go right?"

The kyubi yowled curses, and Naruto screamed right back. It was a normal Thursday, and the boy had failed his graduation exam for the first time.

It all began when Naruto was seven, and he got so angry he blacked out. He came face to face with a strange world, full of shadows and buzzing halogen, with hot metal pipes and foul water. It dissolved a moment later, and he was right back in his class at the academy, facing off against his latest unfair teacher. But now his teacher's face was pale. He sent Naruto back to his desk without any further scolding.

And before the pipes, that weird dream that felt so vivid, Naruto had been full of fury. He'd been indignant, ready to scream and yell that it wasn't his fault. He got blamed for things that weren't his fault, because it was easy to blame him.

But afterwards, he just felt confused. And shaken. His sandals weren't wet, but they should have been. That's how real it felt. He thought it might have been a genjutsu, but why would someone cast it? Thinking about it just made him frustrated, so he ignored the memory of his teacher's shaken expression and his classmates' detached confusion.

Instead, when he was alone, he tried to see that world again. Hot, muggy, and stagnant. Even remembering it made his spine prickle like bugs were crawling over his skin. It felt like his nightmares crawled out from underneath his bed and decided to tag along where they weren't wanted.

After a few days of trying, Naruto gave up. He forgot about it and moved on.

"Naruto," the third Hokage sighed. He looked up from his desk and pinned the boy with a disappointed look. "What is it this time?"

Naruto glowered at the floor and shrugged. "I didn't do anything."

The chunin restraining Naruto with an ample amount ninja wire rolled his eyes. "He released several hundred crickets into a teriyaki restaurant and spiked the manager's uniform with pheromones."

"Where would I even get cricket pheromones?" Naruto challenged sarcastically. "It sounds like they just had a health code violation or a faulty container at the pet shop." He shrugged his shoulders and twisted around, his fidgeting finally overriding his desire to look vaguely dignified. "I got an itch on my nose," he complained, stamping his feet as much as he could.

"Then why did the restaurant owner insist it would be you?" The chunin huffed, but he reached over to scratch Naruto's nose. "And why did you resist being brought in?

Naruto returned the favor by sneezing on it. "Ahh, thanks!" Naruto ignored both his second question and his thinly veiled look of disgust and yelled, "And that's because I went to his shitty stand and complained about there being a bug in my food! Which there was! So he's got a history of health code violations, and now he's trying to blame me."

"So if I were to check with local bug enthusiasts, none of them would tell me you bought anything of that nature?" The Hokage said.

"No!" Naruto huffed and looked past him. "Like anyone would sell me it. Hah, no, he's got no proof, dattebayo!"

The Hokage glanced over to the chunin. "Thank you for your work. Dismissed."

With a short nod of respect, the chunin released his hold on the ninja wire and retracted it into the mechanical reels hidden in his sleeves.

Naruto stuck his tongue out at him as he exited the office, rubbing at his wrists. He nearly bolted out after him, but that would just get him a longer lecture. The boy glanced back to the Hokage. "They got nothing on me, old man."

"Your reputation precedes you," Sarutobi said dryly. "Clever to use it to your advantage, I suppose."

Naruto's eyes widened at the praise, and he broke into a grin before he realized the implications. His surliness melted away, replaced with an excitement. "I used a henge today, too! It had everyone fooled-until I tripped, y'know?"

Sarutobi shook his head, cutting off Naruto's unwarranted good mood. "You aren't off the hook, Naruto. You forgot to wash your hands."

Naruto looked down, only to see a single cricket happily perched on his sleeve. He blanched and shook his arm furiously, but the thing kept buzzing back to his sleeve until he smacked it. "Ahh, get off!"

Sarutobi eyed the display with a degree of humor, but he quickly sobered. "You are going to clean up your mess. And pay a fine to the establishment-"

"That's not fair!" Naruto shouted, distracted from his disgust with the bug guts on his hand. "That bastard had it coming!"

"-And for stealing both the crickets and the pheromones," Sarutobi continued.

Naruto gritted his jaw, before he decided to own up to his skills. "I didn't steal any crickets," he corrected imperiously. "I got them myself. Store bought ones don't swarm right."

"I'm not going to praise your ingenuity." The Hokage pinned him with a look. "If you want to be a respected ninja, Naruto, you can't pick a fight with everyone who looks at you wrong."

Naruto bared his teeth. He's not the one picking fights. Everyone has a problem with him, not the other way around. "I don't! Because then I would have to prank everyone!" His landlord, his teachers, people on the street. They all treated him like he was shit on their shoe, and he was sick of it!

"When you have difficulties, you need to file a report or submit a complaint," the Hokage continued. "And I will take care of it."

"Well, what's gonna happen to the owner, huh?"

"Nothing," Sarutobi stated. "Because you're almost nine, and this is the fourth time I've had to tell you to stop in the last month, and you're somehow under the impression that you can lie to my face. So nothing will happen."

Naruto threw his hands up, his scarred cheeks flushing red in anger. "That's not fair!" Naruto got a bug in his food, no refund, and an asshole treating him like dirt. He shouldn't have to do shit to help him.

"I think you will find it is," Sarutobi said, his tone uncompromising. "And if it isn't, I don't really care."

Naruto stood rooted to the spot, betrayal making his hands shake. He clenched them into fists and ignored the stinging in his eyes. "Fine," he bit out. "I'll clean up his shitty shop."

"Then you're dismissed. I'm taking the fine out of your stipend."

And there went the new kunai set he had been eyeing for weeks. Whatever. It's not like it would fix his horrible aim. Naruto turned stiffly and marched out of the office. He stomped all the way back to the other side of Kohona and glared the shitty shop owner in the eye. He had a cricket on his hat and a glower on his face, and Naruto didn't mention either of them.

He spent the next few hours painstakingly collecting the dumb bugs and ignoring the obvious rage of the teriyaki stand owner. His mood progressively got worse as he wasted his day off. He should have washed his hands better. Or changed clothes.

Why am I so dumb? He went through all the trouble of not getting seen, and the old man clocked him in half a second. He would just have to be sneakier next time.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed as another cricket escaped from his clutches. He scrabbled forward on his knees, chasing the slippery bug as it fled under a table. "Get back here!"

"Funnily enough," Iruka-sensei said stiffly, "That's exactly what I said to you earlier today."

Naruto's head whipped up. He yelped when it collided with underside of the table. "Ow! Hey, don't sneak up on me like that, datebayo!" He had heard someone, but he'd assumed it was one of the few customers who had braved the shop's partial re-opening.

Iruka glowered at him, not dignifying that with a response. "Quit making ninja chase you. It's getting old."

So he was grouchy about being outsmarted, huh? "Sounds like y'all are the ones getting old," Naruto scoffed, not in the mood for a second lecture. "Not my fault you can't see through a basic transformation." And Iruka had been the one to critique his transformation just last week. Naruto felt deeply satisfied with the work he had put into his prank; his tireless efforts with the transformation jutsu had been mostly for Iruka.

"You have a cricket on your shoulder," Iruka said, the vein in his forehead pulsing despite his calm tone.

"That's Maki. He's my second in command." The little hellion had a half a wing to his name, and he still managed to escape every time Naruto so much as cracked the box open. He had quickly grown fond of the chirping bug.

Iruka snorted a laugh. "Comradery between pests?"

Naruto flinched, and suddenly decided he hated his teacher. Mizuki was now batting for the position of favorite. Iruka had dropped to the bottom of the list. "Yeah," he drawled, loud and grating like he knew Iruka hated. "My dearest and only friend!" Naruto turned around and went back to chasing after the stray cricket.

Iruka sighed and dropped into a crouch. "Listen, Naruto, I'm not here to yell at you."

"Really? You got something better to do?" Naruto jerked back and shoved the cricket into the container. He then stood and pointedly ignored his instructor as he listened for the next one.

"I'm sorry I called you a pest," Iruka tried, rubbing at his forehead. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said bluntly, "sure you didn't. I don't have time. I'm very busy."

"Here, let me help-"

"I don't need your stupid help!" Naruto glared at Iruka, and his dumb look of frustration, and his constant wariness that he never gave to any other student. Iruka might try to pretend otherwise, but Naruto wasn't stupid. No matter what other people thought, he wasn't stupid. "You're too loud and I can't hear them, so just leave me alone!"

Iruka stared at him, his expression carefully poised. "Alright. We have a quiz tomorrow. Don't forget." He stood and brushed a stray bug off his flack jacket. "Good luck."

Naruto glowered at his retreating back. He nearly kicked his box of crickets because they were so loud he could barely hear himself think. "I'm not a pest," he muttered as he chased down the last remnants of his prank. "I'm not."

He finished gathering nearly all the bugs, and he figured it would just have to be good enough. The owner saw him off with a scowl, and Naruto flipped him off before he set off for a training ground where he could release his crickets. At some point, Maki crawled into his hair and started singing next to his ear. Naruto shuddered, but he let the bug have free reign. At least someone was happy to be around him.

The setting sun turned training ground eight into a golden zone. The sky above turned pink and orange, and Naruto whished he could enjoy it. Instead, he trekked deeper into the underbrush. Bushes caught at his pants, but he pushed further into the clearing where he first collected the crickets.

"Thank you all for your hard work," he told the bugs as he set the box down. "Despite all odds, your mission was a success. The failure lies with me." Somberly, he gave his subordinates a salute, opened the box, and quickly fled before any more bugs could jump on him.

He began the long trek back to his apartment, walking slowly through the streets with his hands shoved in his pockets. His stomach rumbled, and but the sour taste of anger prevented ruined his appetite. He shouldered his way into his apartment and flung his jacket in the corner. Cups, all in wildly carious states of cleanliness, covered his countertops, but Naruto ignored the mess and sunk into his couch with a tired sigh.

Then his hair started chirping.

Naruto looked around for a split minute before he began laughing. He put Maki on his bedside table, showered, and went to sleep. The singing drowned out the noises of the street below.

He failed his quiz.

That was normal. Naruto wasn't worth shit in academics. But the look in Iruka's eye when he handed back the exams, all pitiful and annoyed, made Naruto want to chew glass.

He picked a fight with Kiba during taijutsu practice that day just so he could calm down. Kiba seemed to recognize it as a bloodmatch, because he kept making loud, cocky quips that only infuriated Naruto more. He got sloppy out of sheer anger, Kiba kicked his ass for it.

Iruka spotted the beginnings of a nasty black eye when their class returned for end-of-day lecture, but he didn't comment. Naruto tried his best to pay attention, but every word out of his instructor's mouth felt incomprehensible. His mood didn't improve.

Instead of going to the park or trying to tag along with some group from his class, Naruto walked over to the east side of Kohona. The teriyaki stand he pranked earlier that week was back in business. There were still a few bugs lingering on the edges on the premises, their chirping loud and clear.

Naruto snorted and then entered the adjacent pet store. He marched up to the front counter, and the clerk's eyes narrowed in recognition. Naruto scowled at her in return. "I have a pet cricket. What do I feed it?"

"We don't sell cricket food," The clerk said. "Crickets are the food."

Naruto argued with the clerk for a good ten minutes on the topic before he felt satisfied and ready to leave. He didn't buy anything, which meant he would probably get kicked out the next time he tried to come in, but it was worth it. Some stores told him to scram immediately, and Naruto usually fought against that viciously enough that it wasn't a battle worth picking. He had earned his reputation of being a hellion fairly, and he was going to prove it to everyone, one shop at a time.

He went home, ignoring the mess building up on his counters. Crickets were scavengers, so they really ate whatever Naruto had. He appreciated it. He had someone he could share meals with. He ran to his room and grabbed the small container he had made for Maki out of a clean takeout cup and a pane of broken window glass.

Naruto carefully set the lid aside and greeted his pet with a soft, "Hey. Wake up."

Instead of leaping from the box, the bug didn't move. Not even when Naruto uncorked the bottle of leftover pheromones. They should still be good-Naruto had traded a lot a favors and money to get another orphan to agree to buy him some. It should have lasted for another day or two before losing potency.

Naruto stared into the box, and he leaned against the wall, giving it a little shake. Slowly, he slid down to a crouch, the drywall cool against his back, and poked the bug with his pinky finger. Maki didn't stir, even though that morning, he had been chirping just fine.

Throat tight, Naruto rose and tossed the takeout container in the trash. It figured. Maki didn't have wings. He was probably going to die all along, and Naruto was just too dumb to realize it.

Naruto finally cleared off his countertops, dully washing all the dishes he had neglected for the week. Mold had grown on a few of the dirtier plates, and an old cup of milk made him gag in disgust. He took his momentum and ran with it, soaking that bathroom in bleach and sweeping out everycorner of his home. He threw the old food from his fridge in the trash, not caring whether he would be able to afford more.

When his hunger finally broke through his single-minded focus, it was dark. His alarm clock batteries had finally died. The couple down the hall was arguing about whether to have a child. They couldn't decide who would quit their careers to be the main parent. They wanted their child to have stability. They wanted little Mitsuki to grow up in a nice neighborhood. They didn't want to raise a child in such a dangerous building.

Little Mitsuki, if ever born, would have good parents.

Naruto sighed and set some water to boil. Then, like some switch had been flipped, all the aches from scrubbing at the floors and his awful taijutsu match surfaced. Exhausted, Naruto flooped over the arm of his couch and laid there, awkwardly sprawled and staring at the ceiling.

Unbidden, his eyes started stinging, and Naruto let his tears run back into his hair.

Which one of his parents had wanted to raise him? Had they both rushed into the kyubi attack? Had they both been civilian? Had he been wanted at all? Did his mother know what she had done by giving him such a horrible birthday?

The argument got louder. The water in his kettle hissed, but didn't scream.

Would they have let him keep a stupid cricket as a pet? Would they have kept it alive?

Naruto slammed his head into the cushions, and it did nothing to alleviate the pain in his chest. He twisted and buried his head under a pillow that smelt of sweat. He could still hear his stupid, rude neighbors and he hated it. He hated that stupid shop owners had a family to go home to, and that he never did. No one ever adopted him. No one ever would.

It wasn't fair, and the whole world, just like the old hokage, didn't really care.

Naruto screamed into his pillow and punched at his shitty couch, anger rearing up hotter than magma. It burned a painful hole in his throat and it never abated. It just built and built until Naruto's skin heated up and tingled.

And then, between one scream and the next, his pillow disappeared, and Naruto snapped to awareness. He stood in the middle of a hallway, grubby water flowing over his bare feet. Hot steam hissed from the numerous pipes running along the walls. The light burned and buzzed like red-gold.

He turned, slowly. There was a door. The handle was a wheel, metal and rusted. It opened easily, and Naruto stepped inside. The door opened into a giant cavern, industrial and stinking of stagnant water.

Naruto stepped through, almost in a trance. He walked towards a feeling so similar to the burn of fury in his throat-and up to a row a giant columns. All neat and orderly in a line.

Except, as he looked higher, he realized the structure looming above him was not a platform, but a lock. The columns were bars. And the structure in front of him was a cage. He stared up at the paper pasted against the metal, trying to understand the script in the dark.

As his vision adjusted, he realized he wasn't alone.

A red eye stared down at him from behind the bars, dark and stark against the white of an eye taller than him.

"What the hell?" Naruto breathed, frozen in shock.

And then the beast growled. A shockwave of ripples disturbed the stagnant water, causing him to flinch.

Naruto snapped back to consciousness in his living room. His heartbeat thundered in his ears and his skin tingled. Breath shuddering, he sat bolt upright and frantically looked around his shabby little apartment. His kettle still hadn't boiled. The argument down the hall hadn't moved on from screaming.

Naruto looked down at his adrenaline-shaky hands and said quietly, "What the hell was that?"

Edited 11/20 because ff ruined my formatting. If you enjoyed, let me know!