The glares and insults from the villagers became more and far more common and pronounced these days.
Naruto continued to stroll aimlessly. It didn't bother him before. It shouldn't bother him now. The words were the same old, passed around as communication whether he was around. Their gazes followed him with the equal amount of hostility and wariness, stepping back and giving a wide berth.
Naruto didn't know when or how it began. He did recognize them though.
"It's the demon again…"
"He shouldn't be allowed to roam around."
"I heard he paint bombed my cousin's store! Who would even do something like that?!"
"Just ignore him. He'll go away back to whatever he crawled out from, and we can go about our business."
He kept the smile on his face. It was attention, wasn't it? He wanted them to notice him. That's what he decided when Gramps told him about being a ninja. His pranks would give him attention, and once he became Hokage, they could no longer ignore him! It was as simple as that!
Ignoring them was a simple enough matter. He had done so for over the past few years of his life, but he could not ignore that the gestures of pointing and low voices became more common as he traveled around the village that very day.
But he didn't want to ignore them. Their attention was what he desired. They couldn't ignore him now, and once he became Hokage, they would never be able to. He would be acknowledged by all. His face plastered on the Hokage Monument, towering down to look at its denizens. They would not look at him with disgust and annoyance and anger and hate, but with respect and awe in the very presence of the village's leader.
He could see it. A coat like the Old Man he donned, a white, flowing robe, inscribed in the back was the very letters of which Hokage he was. The hat, a shade of red from the front, with the same designation. As he stood atop the Hokage's Academy, they would cheer his name over and over.
He smiled once more, attempting to revel in the attention, as the faces of those he desired to be the attention of, gave dark murmurs and looks.
Was it that simple though?
He pondered as he shuffled along the usual hustle and bustle of Konoha.
"Demon brat. He's enjoying our suffering! Just look at him smile!"
"Does he not feel any guilt?! I knew he doesn't even care! He has no feelings, he's just a complete monster!"
"The Fourth sacrificed his life to protect our village, along with many others, and he gets away scot free?! How is this fair?!"
"He's worthless, and I've heard from my kid that he's not even good at the Academy."
"How so?"
"According to him, he tells me that he isn't proficient at any of the three main Shinobi arts, Tai, Nin, and Genjutsu. He has the worst scores out of the entire class! I mean it, the entire class in the Academy!"
"Really?! But that doesn't make any sense!"
Naruto paused at the few words, eyes flickering in hope.
Did… did someone actually believe him?! Besides Gramps, did someone actually have faith in him?!
Perking up, Naruto shambled slowly along, honing his hearing on the front of the store where both the two men inched away, knowing that they were playing it off as them leaning against the wall, yet he knew.
"He's the demon! He destroyed our home and terrorized it. That doesn't make much sense to me that he would be a failure and that atrocious even at the Academy! I don't understand. Is he intentionally failing?"
"No. I don't think so. There would be no point in doing so. Why would he even enter then? But whatever he's trying to do in the Academy, he can't be allowed to be a ninja. Imagine if he passed…"
Laughter echoed. "I doubt so! He's so bad at the Academy and can't even make a single clone in the Clone Jutsu that he might as well drop out immediately!"
Just as it arrived, Naruto's hopes dwindled and his face fell. What did he expect…
He believed that there was someone else who would believe in him. That they would place their faith in him and didn't see him with hate. Perhaps maybe even a grudging tolerance…
It didn't matter then! He would just have to try extra hard and hard at the Academy and prove those men and the rest of the villagers wrong. Then once he became a ninja, they would recognize him. And once Hokage, they would show him respect! Just as they did with Gramps. Just as they did with the First, Second, and Fourth.
Their insults and vitriol only bounced off the blonde boy, never wavering in his optimism. His steps were wide and proud.
There was a deep part of Naruto, internal, however, that was planted as a seed. It had inched and buried itself deep within his soul, its roots beginning to burrow deep. He was only just aware of this, though he chose to ignore it, his faith in his never wavering optimism and hope, a tethering line between ignorance out of volition and hope and one of a child.
Yet even as so, it could never be removed, long since ingrained, to begin to grow just as annoyed with the voices around him, and wished that they could just leave him alone, wished that he could silence them, instead of reveling in the negative attention he received.
So if anybody recognizes it by summary's implication already, this is going to be a dark Naruto story.
Naruto won't be dark right off the bat. He'll gradually fall into a Menma/Dark Naruto esque personality by the time he leaves the village, but otherwise, he retains his Canon personality, with a gradual but slow shift once the story progresses.
