Chapter 1
[4 years later]
Konoha
A young redheaded boy can be seen sitting on a bed inside the orphanage looking at the window with sad eyes. His stomach rumbled because he received no dinner today. This was nothing unusual for the boy as the matron would rebuke him for arriving 5 mins late to the orphanage and he would be punished by not getting dinner. Even when he got dinner it would just be leftover food. He was not allowed to play with the other children from the orphanage and the villagers would keep their children away from him and tell them that he is a bad child. A tear ran down his cheek as he tried to figure out exactly what it was he did to deserve such treatment. Only one old man came to visit him regularly and he had made friends with the two workers at the ramen shop. When he asked the old man why was he treated the way he was, all he got was a sad look and then the old man would tell him to give the people a chance and time to get to know him better. Naruto noticed that the villagers would give the old man respect and looks of admiration when he walked down the street. Upon inquiring the reason why, the old man told him that he was the hokage and the strongest ninja in the village. Looking towards the old man, he asked what makes him so strong. Taking him to the top of the hokage mountain more specifically on the head of the yondaime hokage, the old man replied " once my sensei brought me up here and I asked the same question you did. Naruto-kun, he said to me that the village is like a tree the people are the branches and the hokage is like the stem that must remain strong and protect itself from the winds. This protection urge brings forth true strength."
Hiruzen watched as naruto sat down reviewing what he was just told while gazing out towards the village and his eyes burned in determination and a thought came to mind " the will of fire burns brightly in you my boy." Taking naruto back to the orphanage, hiruzen got him some books to learn to read and write and about the leaf's history. Late at night, naruto read about the story of the yondaime hokage and decided he will surpass him, unaware that said hokage was his father. He drifted off to sleep with a soft smile on his face. He awoke early the next morning, had breakfast and was excited to train a little. He recalled reading in a book yesterday that shinobi had to train differently as they would build their bodies from an early age to suit various attributes such as speed, strength, agility etc.
Naruto decided that since he has a flexible body, he would train his body to be a quick shinobi. So he began his regiment of doing five laps, a few sit ups and push ups. When that was over, he sat at the tree and practiced his reading and writing skills. When he was finished, he saw that it was already lunch time and after he had to be under the matron's constant clock. For a few months this routine continued: training till lunch then relaxing and working on his reading and writing while his body rested.
While reading one day he came across the concept of chakra. The book gave detailed instructions on what chakra is and how to unlock it. Following the instructions he sat down and meditated. Feeling inside himself for the warm feeling, he found it difficult to find. After half an hour of trying he was beginning to give up when suddenly he felt a fuzzy feeling in his stomach and began to pull on it. An explosion of blue energy surrounded him as naruto sat there mesmerized by said energy. After a couple minutes the energy began to dissipate and naruto started to feel exhausted and fell asleep under the tree. The day after he started to read further into the chakra book and found that the first thing to learn is how to control said chakra. He also read about hand signs but decided to work on his control for now. Seeing the first exercise is the leaf sticking exercise, he began to practice it.
[Timeskip 1year]
During the last year, naruto grew a lot. He became quite fast and agile for someone of his age and had exceeded some academy students who were in their final year. He practiced the leaf balancing and could now hold up to five leaves on his forehead and one each on his arms and legs. He also found that he could sense when others were near him and upon investigating it found that he was in fact a sensor. Once he placed two fingers on the ground and found someone nearby in the trees. This continued for 2 days and when he confronted the stranger, he found an ANBU agent with a dog mask. Looking at the Anbu, naruto asked why was he following him to which the agent simply said that he was protecting him. Nodding at the response but internally confused as to why he needed protection, naruto just shrugged and accepted.
During the months that followed, naruto and inu became good friends even though inu would not tell naruto his name, much to the redhead's chagrin. Inu taught naruto the henge and kawarimi. Naruto was overjoyed and henged into a plain looking child and went into the village and noticed that people were treating him with kindness. This made him sad and a little angry that it was only him that was treated in a negative way while everyone else seemed to get proper treatment.
With this knowledge he started to shop with a henge and this solved the issue of overly priced goods that were not of the best quality. Inu taught him how to use kunai and shuriken but he was not allowed to own any because he was still very young. He was elated however when he got a kunai holster, a utility bag and a practice set of kunai and shuriken from the old man for his birthday.
Two days later, the villagers were still in a party mode but he did not join in the festivities as he saw that they were hostile to him. So he was in one of the unused training grounds when he felt someone moving quickly around the festival and towards the village walls. This presence he felt was not a familiar one and he could sense the negative emotions (naruto discovered he could sense people's emotions as well) radiating from the person. There was also another individual present who had emotions of fear and sadness. Deciding to investigate, he took the shortest route to where he predicted the presence would be passing. Upon arriving, he was met with the sight of a man with a Kumo hitai-ate with a bag slung over his shoulder moving.
Taking 3 shuriken in one hand and 3 kunai in the other, he threw it at the foreign ninja. Said ninja noticed at the last moment and leapt away. Seeing as there was no other option, naruto came out to confront the man.
The jounin saw that it was just a five year old boy with red hair and sapphire blue eyes that made him look away. He looked to the boy in front of him and said "Oi brat, get out of my way and maybe I'll let you live." "Let the person inside the bag go and I'll leave," replied naruto. At this the kumo nin laughed and replied "do you think a child like you can do anything? I am a jounin you cannot hope to defeat me." Not taking his eyes off the man, naruto thought to himself 'I can't beat him but I can stall him long enough for another ninja to get the bag'. Seeing as the boy isn't going to budge, the kumo jounin's face twisted to a sneer and pulled out some shuriken and tossed them at naruto. Dodging the projectiles by stretching out of the way, naruto jumped and kicked the man over his head but he was blocked with the free arm of the foreigner. Quickly back flipping naruto avoided a counter attack. Taking out some more shuriken and throwing them at the man but they were deflected by the jounin using a kunai. Becoming more frustrated and agitated as he knew soon the anbu would be here, the kumo nin placed the bag on the floor and threw the kunai made hamdsigns and shouted "Ninja art : Shadow Kunai Jutsu." This scared the young redhead as he knew that he had no time to get away. Seeing the kunai coming closer, the man knew it was over. All of a sudden, everything started slowing down for naruto and he could now see the kunai more clearly as his vision sharpened. Twisting out of the kunai's way, he threw shuriken at the man who, not expecting the attack, was hit on the leg and he howled in agony. This only served to enrage the jounin more as he flew through handsigns and shouted "Fire style: fireball jutsu." Having no time to dodge, naruto just thought it was over and closed his eyes.
The kumo nin smirked as he knew there was no way the boy could avoid him. Looking towards where the boy was, all he saw was a burnt area but no sign of the boy. Widening his eyes as he felt blows feeling like he had been hit from the inside out, he heard a voice shout "Eight trigrams sixty-four palms." Turning around, he was met with the face of the hyuuga clan head Hiashi Hyuuga with a murderous look on his face. Behind him was Inu with naruto on his shoulder and three ANBUs circling him. The kumo nin fell unconscious and hiashi walked towards the bag where he found his older daughter tied up inside. Swifly cutting her loose, the girl immediately latched onto him and sobbed her eyes out. Breathing a sigh of relief, Hiashi comforted his daughter and closed his eyes.
The hokage along with four of his personal ANBU then arrived onto the scene and looked around. He saw hiashi hugging his sobbing daughter and looked towards Inu who had naruto in his arms unaware of the bleeding. Narrowing his eyes at the ANBU and showing exactly why he was known as 'the god of shinobi' who had seen three wars and led his people through two of them, with a cold voice he said, "report." Stepping forward, Inu said " Hokage-sama tonight the hyuuga heir, hinata, was kidnapped from her room in the hyuuga compound by the kumo ambassador who arrived with their delegation for the peace treaty talks when he was intercepted and stalled by young naruto."
"Both the Hyuuga clan and myself owes naruto-san a debt and shall visit when he wakes up," came the stoic reply from Hiashi after which he turned and walked back towards his home with his daughter now sleeping in his arms. "I'm getting too old for this shit" thought Hiruzen as he gazed upon naruto with a proud smile on his visage before turning around to return to the hokage tower to continue his battle against the greatest enemy he has ever faced – Paperwork.
To be continued