Excitement, anger, hate…bloodlust…but not doubt. Certainly not doubt. He had gotten rid of that obstacle years ago. He would not be stopped now. Not when everything was so close to its fruition. "Yes…" he thought, "Tomorrow. I've waited for it for so long…since then…I will finally have my revenge, my vengeance against them. I will visit hell upon them. The name Uzumaki Naruto will be spoken on the lips of scared children for years to come." He allowed himself a self contented laugh, and thought about the night, all those years ago, that had changed him…and his life, forever.
"…YOU are the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that killed Irukas parents, and destroyed the village!" That phrase…that one sentence…back then, it struck his heart like a poisoned arrow…and the pain was still as vivid now as it was then. He allowed himself to remember that night in vivid detail…Mizuki tracking him and the scroll to that abandoned shack…the revelation of who he was, what he was…and the betrayal. The pure, unadulterated betrayal. Iruka, the man that he had looked up to as a father, as a mentor, attempted to kill him. Mizuki and Iruka, working in tandem to trick Naruto, so that they would have an excuse to kill him. He remembered just barely avoiding the shurikens they threw at him, dropping the scroll of seals, and just running…running until his legs could no longer sustain him, running until his breaths came in wheezes…just running. But they still caught up to him. It was to be expected…they were Chuunin. Not only that, but they were under the orders of the Sandaime…the Third Hokage, to assassinate him. He had become a "danger" to the village…but that didn't matter. They were all the more willing to do the deed. It had confirmed Naruto's greatest fears and insecurities. Even the person he considered his friend…his ONLY friend…turned on him. He was just like everyone else in Konoha. The cold eyes, the blank stares, the taunts from the children, and the mothers who ushered their kids away from that "monster", they all made sense after that night…and it was this very event that put him into a chance encounter with a man whom he would come to respect, and fear.
He remembered running until he simply could not run any longer, and he collapsed. He had been able to barely escape the two Chuunin pursuing him, using the one thing he managed to learn off of the scroll…Kage Bushin no Jutsu. But he still kept running. His lungs burned, his body ached, and his mind was lost in a cacophony of thought that only served to anger him further. After some time, he simply fell asleep, unable to run any longer, and attempting to force his mind to stop churning.
The next thing that he remembered was waking up to the sound of medical machinery. He was in a hospital room…or at least, what looked to be a hospital room…there were various machines performing their various functions, and he was lying in a bed, staring at a sterile matte gray ceiling. His first instinct was to simply get up and run away…but somehow, he felt safe. "More safe than I would be if I were in Konoha…" he thought to himself. He eventually got up and wandered the room, looking for an exit, or any sign of life around him. When he found neither, he simply sat back down on the bed…and cried. He remembered the night before, the feelings, the tribulation he went through…he cried for what seemed to be an age, when he finally heard something like the creak of a door…and saw a figure before him who had not been there just a second ago. He was tall, pale, and his eyes…his eyes were naught but green with a slitted pupil in the center…very reminiscent of a snake. It was this man who was to give him what he never even knew he wanted.
"You poor thing…how are you feeling this morning? Are you healed?" Those were the first words out of his mouth to him. He was dumbstruck at first…simply staring at this snake-man with a combination of fear and hesitant safety. However, he managed to spit out a few words. "I'm…fine…I guess…" The snake-man seemed to smile, and reached forward to pat him on the head. His first reaction was to slap that hand away…but as soon as he did it, he felt sorry for it. "I'm...sorry. I guess I just…kind of have a thing…" he trailed off, not really knowing what to say. The snake-man simply grinned even more, and sat down next to Naruto on the bed. "It's ok. You've had a rough night, that's for certain. Lucky for you, I found you and brought you back here, or else those ninja might have found you." Naruto thought back to being chased…and he remembered falling asleep because of exhaustion in a clearing. The snake-man must have brought him here after that. "Thanks." That was all he could manage to say…he was still somewhat dumbstruck. The snake man grinned again, and began to get up from the bed, but then hesitated briefly. While his back was still turned to Naruto, he said, "I know why you were being pursued. I know who you are, and I know what you have gone through. Know that you are safe here, for the time being, however, I move constantly to avoid the same ninja that you were fleeing from. I will be leaving tomorrow morning for a different area...you may choose to stay here, or come with me. If you choose to come with me…" he hesitated again…and he turned around to face Naruto, but this time, his grin was curled at the top of his lips, and his eyes were slanted in something between anger and hate…"If you choose to come with me, Naruto, I will guarantee that you will get what you want. You will become my apprentice, and you will become a greater ninja than even that fool, Sandaime." He paused again, looking pensive as well as eager. "You may not realize it now, but you have a fire inside of you…and I'm not talking about the Demon Fox." He chuckled briefly at this funny aside…but Naruto was too enamored to notice the humor. "You were an outcast in Konoha…a monster, a recluse of circumstance. The very people who you came to depend on attempted to kill you, just because of what you are…what you carry inside of you, and you will come to resent and detest that over time. As I said…you have a fire inside of you. The fire of revenge. The fire of vengeance. Think on it, Naruto. If you come with me tonight, I will train you ceaselessly, until you can use the demon inside of you to its fullest extent. I will train you to be stronger than any ninja, past, present, or future. I will train you to kill, to destroy…and to claim your right of revenge upon Konoha." With that the snake-man turned to walk out of the room…but before he got to the door, Naruto managed to blurt out a simple question. "You…snake-man…you know my name, and you know more about me than even I do…but I don't know your name…I don't know who you are!" The snake-man stopped…and tilted his head in Naruto's direction…"My name…is Orochimaru."
Naruto didn't do much that day…nor did he sleep at all that night. His mind was churning again, digesting what this Orochimaru man had told him. He was beginning to realize that the snake-man…Orochimaru…was right. He was beginning to feel the stirrings of a sensation he had felt only a few times before in his life. The desire to make right a wrong done to him. The desire to see the faces of the villagers as he destroyed their town and their lives…the desire to show those in Konoha what a REAL monster was like. Just thinking about it made his hair stand up on end and his mouth curl up into a smile vaguely reminiscent of the smile that Orochimaru had used. It took him some time…but in the end, he was decided. He would go with this Orochimaru man. He would become strong. He would have his revenge.
