I: The Worst Day Ever

"Well I guess it all started the morning of Naruto's Seventh Birthday…."

Konoha: Five Years, Nine Months, Six days Ago

It hurt, oh Kami it hurt. He had never felt like this before, never felt fear like this before, never felt pain like this before. Each movement was agonizing, kunai and shuriken scraping against bone, the head of a pitchfork in his shoulder, the glass bottle in his gut-each breath was fire through four broken ribs, each awkward shuffling step was torture, the slash through his thigh had practically hamstrung him. But he couldn't stop. He could hear Them gaining every second he was still. He could see the glow of their torches, hear the shouts and screams the people crying for his blood, smell the sake on their breath, and once again the dizzying wave of terror descended upon him. He did the only thing he could.

He ran.

Naruto had been looking forward to this day for over a year. He was finally a whole seven years old and he could finally buy himself a set of practice kunai and shuriken. He needed as much practice as he could-next year he would finally (finally!) be allowed to enter the Ninja Academy. Maybe if he was good enough, people would stop giving him those hateful looks. And there was going to be a festival tonight. Maybe if he was lucky the matron at the orphanage would let him go and celebrate with everyone! Shikamaru had told him about it yesterday at the park. He liked Shikamaru, Shikamaru was too lazy to really hate anyone sometimes he would sit and watch clouds with him for hours. On days where he was really lucky he would see Choji too. Choji would give him a few of his chips (he loved chips, he never got any snacks at the orphanage) and sit with them enjoying the breeze. Maybe he would see Shikamaru and Choji at the festival today-he couldn't wait!

As those thoughts raced through Naruto's head, he bounded up the orphanage's back steps and rushed to the matron's office. Skidding to a stop just in front of her door Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself, and politely knocked on the door. "Come in!" the matron called out in a sweet voice. As Naruto timidly opened the door the matron saw who it was. "Oh, it's you, what do you want brat?" The matron was a large friendly looking woman, most of the time, but whenever she saw Naruto her voice grew cold, her eyes hard, and a deep scowl appeared on her face.

"Um…y-y-you see…i-i-it's m-m-my b-birthday today and I heard that there's a f-f-festival t-t-tonight..." Naruto stuttered out while the matron glared at him.

Before he could continue the matron interrupted, "I expect you want to go? Well I'm afraid that you aren't allowed to go. Besides today is your chore day, as I'm sure you know."

Naruto looked upset, "But everyone else gets their birthdays off, why can't I? If I really can't go to the festival at least let me have the day off!" Naruto pleaded, trying to look pitiful.

"No. Now go before I make you scrub the bathrooms with your toothbrush again."

At this threat Naruto went purple with rage "WHY!? It's not fair! I've been looking forward to this for a year I saved every penny of allowance the Hokage gave me so I could get myself a birthday present! IT'S NOT FAIR!"

As Naruto ranted the matron's face became colder and colder. "Fine!" she shouted, grabbing Naruto by the arm and dragging him through the orphanage to the front door "You want fair! I'll give you FAIR! I'll give you BETTER than FAIR! I'll give you MORE than YOU DESERVE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEMON!" she was screaming by the time she got to the front door. She pulled him to the edge of the step and kicked him as hard as she could in the gut, causing the young blond to roll down the stone steps. "YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE ANYMORE YOU DEMON!" She turned around and slammed the door shut making all the windows on the first floor rattle.

"At least let me get my stuff" whimpered Naruto from the bottom of the steps.

It was too late-they had caught him on a roof top, the two ninja following him had hit him with half a dozen kunai and shuriken. One kicked him in the stomach again-if he had eaten anything today, he'd have thrown it up by now.

"Hey how much you wanna bet I can cut his leg off with one swing?" One of the ninja asked.

The other had an evil grin splitting his face in half, "200 ryo says you can't" as the first one drew his ninjato. He turned to the edge of the roof, trying to run away. He felt a searing pain across the back of his leg. He did the only thing he could.

He jumped.

Naruto was not having a good time; he was sore, hungry, and poor. He tried to see the Old Man to tell him what happened but the receptionist said he was busy and wouldn't be able to see him for at least three days, and when Naruto tried to tell her it was urgent she threatened to sic the Anbu on him. Wandering the streets wondering what he did to deserve this, especially on his birthday of all things, he hoped that he could see Shikamaru and Choji-maybe they could help him. He wished that he knew where they lived. Maybe they'd help him, they were from clans right? Big ones! They were even clan heirs! Surely they could help him right? But no, he was tired and hungry; maybe he would take a short nap here behind the ramen stand, it smelled so nice. Maybe if he was lucky there would be leftovers he could eat, ramen was his favorite food. He never got it at the orphanage but occasionally Jiji would take him out for lunch and he would always pick ramen.

As he lay there the world spun with each breath. He didn't know what was wrong with him but the shouts from the roof top five floors way bought his attention back to the present. He tried to stand but his injured leg gave out immediately. As they climbed down and began looking for him, fear rose in his throat-he had to get away. He did the only thing he could.

He crawled.

Naruto awoke with a start, someone was kicking him! "What was that for?" he cried. Today was just not his day-he lost his home, his money, he was beaten twice so far, and he was starving!

"Oi Demon! What do you think you're doing here?" a large, grimy, and smelly man growled at him.

"Well I was trying to rest, but you started kicking me in the stomach… hey do you know when the festival starts?" Naruto's mind was prone to strange jumps of topic at the best of times but he was tired, hungry, cold and sore, and didn't really care what other people thought of him right now, "I hoped to see my friends, there 'cause I really need their help with something…"

Before Naruto could continue the drunk kicked Naruto in the stomach, "Demons don't have friends, brat!" While Naruto was on the ground whimpering, the drunk took the last swig of sake from his bottle. "Oh, I know" the drunk belched, "Let's play a little game of tag!" The drunk brought the now empty bottle down on Naruto's head. Kicking him into the street the drunk bellowed. "Lookie 'ere boys, I found us our very own Fox! For our very own Fox Hunt! Run little fox run!" Seeing the crowd of smelly drunks leering evilly at him Naruto ran.

It was no use he couldn't move his body anymore. The Evil Men had surrounded him they were kicking him and stabbing him. One pinned him to the ground with a pitch fork as another tried to gut him with a broken glass bottle. As the world faded and the lights dimmed, the jeering calls of the mob quieted into a gentle breeze and the blows softened until he could imagine them as soft rain drops. For a moment there was peace. And he did the only thing he could.

He wept.

And in the dark, something woke from its long slumber. Its bright red eye opened for the first time in seven years. It did the only thing it could.

It called

And the child answered.

Naruto woke in what appeared to be a dark sewer. The water was barely an inch deep but rising rapidly."So, Ningen, Are You My Jailer? Come To Gloat Have You?" The deep voice reverberated through the tunnel.

Struggling to stand, Naruto managed to raise himself onto his hands and knees. Looking ahead Naruto saw the bars of a huge cage stretching from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling. In the darkness beyond the bars Naruto could see a huge red eye glaring at him, "I don't know who you are, where I am, what you want, or how I got away from the mob, but I would never lock someone away." As Naruto spoke he dragged himself over to the cage. "Wow, you're a big fox, you look like you could help me, would you hide me from the evil men who want to kill me?"

"Uh, Shouldn't You Cower In Fear Before The Mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune?" The Kyuubi was puzzled. Never had anyone actually asked for its help-they either took his power from him or forced him to do their bidding.

"What's a Kyuubi? Are they strong?" Naruto asked with a blank look.

"Very, I am the strongest Bijuu in all the land-the merest flick of my tails can level mounts and cause tsunamis!"the Kyuubi bragged.

"Oh, good, then please hide me, Kyuubi-san."

Naruto then did what many would call the stupidest thing possible-he dragged himself into the Kyuubi's cage. Stunned by this idiocy the Kyuubi forgot to crush him like an ant and watched stunned as Naruto dragged himself over to its paw. "You have very soft fur Fox-san I think I'll take …a little...nap…here." Naruto latched onto the fox's leg, cuddling with it like it was a big pillow.

The Kyuubi was in shock, he was the biggest (at least until the fourth sealed half of him away, damn it), baddest, angriest, thing on the face of the earth and this little mortal brat was using him as a pillow! The Kyuubi's internal rant was cut off by the searing pain it suddenly felt blinking in the half light of torches. It realized just why the brat had come into its cage to hide. As the Kyuubi looked out through Naruto's eyes he found himself surrounded by twenty angry drunks with weapons, his body mangled. His chakra was too poisonous to use much of without killing the boy (and possibly himself, he wasn't sure). The Kyuubi pushed as much of its chakra into the boy's injured leg as he dared and stood shakily up.

"His eyes have gone red!" one of the men shouted.

"The Demon is getting loose-kill it quickly!"

The ninja with the sword drew his weapon and approached the panting red eyed child, "Cowards! It's almost dead! I'll cut its head of with one swing and be done with it!" The Kyuubi moved Naruto's body with surprising speed, dodging the clumsy swing of the drunken Chunin. He grabbed the ninja's wrist and with a sharp twist broke it. Before anyone else could react, the Kyuubi grabbed the ninjato from the man's loosened grip and ran him through with it. Leaving the sword in the man's stomach, the Kyuubi jumped over the group and ran for it, ignoring as much of the pain and fear as it could.

It hurt, oh Kami it hurt. He had never felt like this before, never felt fear like this before, never felt pain like this before. Each movement was agonizing, kunai and shuriken scraping against bone, the head of a pitchfork in his shoulder, the glass bottle in his gut-each breath was fire through four broken ribs, each awkward shuffling step was torture, the slash through his thigh had hamstrung him. But he couldn't stop. He could hear Them gaining every second he was still. He could see the glow of their torches, hear the shouts and screams the people crying for his blood, smell the sake on their breath, and once again the dizzying wave of terror descended upon him. He did the only thing he could.

He ran.

On the road from Tanzaku Town to Konoha: Present Day:

"You're kidding me!" Tsunade yelled "the kid did WHAT?" Tsunade couldn't believe her ears. Sure people did some stupid things trying to survive but slipping into what was obviously a prison to cuddle with the giant furry demon fox was a whole other level of stupid.

"How did he survive that? And how did you get the fox the let go of his body?" asked Shizune.

"Well," Jiraiya continued, "the Fox managed to keep them busy for another five minutes or so, before me and the Third managed to find him. Man, I've never seen Sensei so angry in all my life..."

A/N

Okay there's the first real chapter I know I promised you a strong Naruto but he's still only seven give him some time he hasn't even gotten his powers yet

Next Time On Sage Of The Seventh Path:

Watch as Sarutobi Hiruzen, Hatake Kakashi And the Gallant(?) Jiraiya flip their shit!

A/N 2.0 8/27/2012

Reformatted this chapter as well. Just three more chapters and the formatting will be the same throughout the story. Also removed the reference to Kakashi from the end chapter.

BETA'd by TheCookieMonster77