Road to Konoha present day:
"He was poisoned on his first day at the academy?" Tsunade was furious that someone would try to kill a seven year old three times in less than a year.
"Yeah, wasn't the last time either, the Brat's made of iron."
"How could someone do something like that?" Shizune used poisons in battle but she would never poison a child. She couldn't believe someone would do it not once, but multiple times.
"We managed to catch one of the perpetrators eventually. It was the same one who hired Zabuza."
"You said one of-there was more than one?"
"Like I said, the only reason I haven't razed Konoha myself yet is because the Brat likes it for reasons even I can't fathom at the moment."
"Jiraiya-sama, what happened next?"
"Well…"
Konoha: Four Years, Ten Months, Twelve Days ago
Naruto woke slowly; his mouth felt like someone poured glue down it. "Water," he gasped.
"Here you go kid." Naruto turned his head to see Jiraiya sitting next to him, a thunderous scowl on his face. "I came as soon as your clones dispelled." Well, that explained Naruto's splitting headache. "Someone put enough poison in your food to kill the entire school."
Naruto's eyes bugged out, "How'd I live?"
"Apparently it wasn't enough to kill you. Your stomach must be lined with iron."
"I helped Kit."
'Thanks Kurama, I owe you one' Naruto sent back. "Kurama says he helped."
"I guess he would…regardless, tell him I said thanks." Jiraiya walked towards the door. "I have … things … to take care of. It's late, get some more rest. You'll need it for class tomorrow and you'll have to make some extra clones to catch up with your training."
"'Kay, good-night Ero-Sensei."
"Good-night Brat"
Konoha: Four Years, Ten Months, Eleven Days ago
"Naruto! What are you doing here? The medics said they didn't think you'd make it, there was supposed to be enough poison to kill 100 people in your food!" Choji was surprised to see Naruto, here first thing in the morning, looking as energetic as he always did.
"Yeah Naruto, I was with the medics when they were pumping your stomach, you should be dead!" Sakura was glad to see Naruto alive.
"You really are troublesome, aren't you?" despite his choice of words, Shikamaru was glad to see his friend alive.
In the back of the classroom, Hyuuga Hinata rubbed her puffy eyes. She had cried herself to sleep last night, thinking Naruto had been killed, but here he was right in front of her, laughing and joking like he did yesterday, like nothing had happened! She pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
"Oi, Duck-butt, what did I miss yesterday?" Naruto plopped onto the seat he had sat in yesterday, right next to Uchiha Sasuke.
"Duck-butt?" Sasuke couldn't believe someone would call anyone that, let alone him, the last of the Uchiha!
"Have you looked in a mirror lately?"
"Hn."
"So, what did I miss?"
"Um… y-y-you c-can look a-at m-m-my n-notes, i-if y-you like." Naruto turned to look at the speaker; it was the quiet girl from the back of the class.
"My name's Uzumaki Naruto! What's yours?"
"H-H-Hyuuga, H-H-Hinata," Hinata managed to stutter out, while slowly turning red.
"Thanks Hinata-chan! Hey are you feeling alright? Your bright red! Do you have a fever?" Naruto placed a hand on her forehead, causing the shy girl to pass out.
"Oh no! Is she alright? Was she poisoned too?"
"You really are an idiot, aren't you Fishcake?" Sasuke decided that if the orange idiot was going to give him an insulting nickname he would return the favor.
"What are you talking about? She passed out! That can't be normal. Someone needs to get her to the nurse!"
"She'll be fine Fishcake."
"Fine then, I'll take her to the nurse myself, Duck-butt!"
Naruto picked Hinata up and carried her, bridal style, to the nurse's office. Partway there Hinata woke up, 'Is N-N-N-Naruto-kun c-c-carrying m-me?' she thought.
"You okay Hinata-chan? You worried me," Naruto asked Hinata when he felt her stir. Hinata promptly passed out again. "Huh? She must be really sick."
Hinata came back to class just before the second lesson started. Naruto handed her her notebook and a piece of paper covered in writing, "Here's your notebook Hinata, and here's a copy of my notes. I hope you are feeling better now." Not trusting herself to speak Hinata nodded her head and went back to her seat.
It was lunch time and Naruto, Shikamaru, Choji, and Sakura were all sitting together again.
"How are you feeling today, Naruto?" Sakura asked the hyper-active blond. "Should you even be here today? I mean yesterday you were poisoned, shouldn't you be getting some rest?"
"My stomach's made of iron! It'll take more than a little poison to put me down!"
"Naruto, there was more than a little poison in you food yesterday." Shikamaru gave Naruto a pointed look, "did you do anything to make sure it doesn't happen again?"
"Yeah my lunch is from home and I sealed it in a storage seal, locked with a blood seal. I'd like to see them open it!" Naruto twisted the top off of a bottle of water.
"Wait, Naruto! Where'd you get that water from?" Sakura asked, worried about her new friend. But it was too late. Naruto had gulped down the entire bottle, and was already turning green. "You bought it from the cafeteria didn't you? It was poisoned wasn't it? How stupid can you be?"
"But it was sealed… I thought it would be safe…ugh… I'll be right back" Naruto rushed to the bathroom and proceeded to be heartily sick. Naruto managed to stagger out to the academy training grounds just in time for afternoon classes, today's being Taijutsu, followed by weapons practice before going back inside for Naruto's least favorite class, Chakra theory.
'Naruto-kun doesn't look good again, did someone poison him again?' Hinata wondered.
"He's still here? If it was me I'd use being poisoned as an excuse to go home," the lazy Nara mumbled.
'Wow, Naruto's tough, I wonder how he does it.' Choji was impressed by the blonde's resilience.
Mizuki waved Naruto over to him. "Okay Naruto, since you missed yesterday, I'll teach you the basics of the academy style Taijutsu. Here take this stance…" Mizuki demonstrated the technique correctly, but with a clearly sloppy base stance of the academy style.
"Um… Sensei, your form is sloppy, your feet are too close together, and your arms are too far apart. You should do it like this." Naruto demonstrated the correct stance, his feet exactly the right distance apart and his arms in the perfect position. He could have been a picture from a Taijutsu scroll.
'Damn, I guess I can't sabotage this part of his education….' Mizuki thought to himself. "Ah… well," Mizuki sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "it's been years since I used the academy style and this is my first year as an academy instructor. How'd you get so good at the academy style? Your form's even better than Iruka's!"
"Ero-Sensei taught me! I spent two hours a day for the past year drilling in it, and it's pretty simple really. I know a few other styles, but I'm not as good at them…"
"Um…Naruto, why do you call your sensei a pervert?"
"Because he is one! His hobby is peaking on girls at the hot-springs! He has no shame! So I call him ero-sensei, and I'll keep doing it until he stops." Mizuki sweat-dropped at this and decided that he really didn't want to know, a move that he would regret in the long run.
"If you really are better than me at the academy style why don't you help some of the other students?" Iruka interrupted Mizuki and Naruto. "Haruno Sakura needs some help, so does Aburame Shino."
"Okay Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cheered, and rushed off to help Sakura.
The rest of the month went by like this. Naruto was poisoned in a variety of ways. Sometimes they'd manage to get to his food, other times it was poisoned pins stuck in his school bag, once it was a blow dart to the back of his neck. Despite being continuously sick, Naruto refused to give up. In the afternoons Naruto would help those who were having difficulty with the academy style, and then he would spar with Iruka-sensei, or occasionally Mizuki-sensei. He, Shikamaru, Choji, and Sakura had become good friends, until one day…
Konoha: Four Years, Nine Months, Ten Days ago:
It was lunch time when it happened. Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Choji were all eating together.
"Hey, Naruto, you never did tell us what happened on your birthday that made you disappear like that," Shikamaru reminded the blond of the subject they were discussing before he was poisoned the first time. "So, are you going to tell us or not?"
"Well I was attacked by a drunken mob during the festival." Naruto began, but was interrupted by Sakura.
"Festival?" Sakura was worried. Something terrible had happened to her during the festival that celebrated the defeat of the Kyuubi. "Naruto, just when is your birthday?"
"October tenth, why?"
'Oh, Kami… please tell me I'm having a nightmare.' Sakura thought, 'It can't be him, he's too nice for it to be his fault… please let it be someone else.'
"Anyways, I was attacked by this drunk mob, and they chased me all over Konoha. I had to jump, well fall, off of a roof to escape from them at one point, but they caught me when I ran into a dead-end alley."
Sakura was terrified of what he might say next, "N-Naruto, what h-happened next?" nobody seemed to notice her stutter.
"Well the bad men had cornered me and I really thought I was going to die," in his mind Kurama interrupted him, 'Kit, you weren't even awake at the time!'Ignoring Kurama for the moment, Naruto continued his story,"But the Hokage and Jiraiya of the Sannin saved me! I can't really remember what they did, cuz I passed out from blood loss before Jiji finished talking but I bet it was super cool!"
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! HOW COULD YOU!" Tears streaming down her face Sakura stood up, "I NEVER WANT TO TALK TO YOU AGAIN! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU PRETENDED TO BE MY FRIEND YOU MURDERER!" Sakura was heartbroken-to believe that he was the monster that was responsible for her father's death. She fled, sobbing, hiding in the bathroom stall with tears streaming down her face as she thought, 'Why did it have to be him? He was so nice to me! Was it all some sick plot to hurt me as much as he could?'
Sakura didn't return until after Naruto's eighth birthday came and went. And when he saw her again she gave him the cold shoulder, pretending he didn't exist. Instead of hanging out with Shikamaru, Choji and Naruto, she joined the other girls (except Hinata) in fawning over Sasuke.
Konoha: Four Years, Eight Months, Twenty-One Days ago:
"I don't see what's so cool about Duck-butt…why are the girls all over him?" Naruto asked a few weeks after the 'incident' as Naruto called it.
"Probably because he's 'dark' and 'mysterious' and Naruto, even you can't deny he's strong. He beats you six times out of every ten in Taijutsu practice and your better than the teachers!" Shikamaru pointed out.
"What does Sakura-chan see in him?" Naruto pouted, ignoring Shikamaru.
"I spoke with Ino-apparently Sakura's father was part of the mob that attacked you."
"I know, I feel terrible, but it's not my fault! I didn't ask to be nearly murdered on my seventh birthday! I even apologized to her but she won't listen to me!"
"It's troublesome, but all you can do is wait. Give her time-I'm sure she'll want to speak with you again." As Shikamaru was speaking the bell rang for the next class. "Come on, Naruto, it's time for class, maybe you can take some of your frustrations on Sasuke's duck-haired face."
"Good idea, Shika! Beating Duck-butt always makes me feel better!" Grinning like a maniac Naruto sped off.
"Troublesome blonds…"
Once again, Naruto was Sasuke's sparring partner. After the first week no one in the class really wanted to fight either of them while using the academy style. Iruka and Mizuki could beat both of them, but only while using their preferred Taijutsu styles.
"Yo, Duck-butt ready to get your ass kicked?" Naruto taunted, while bouncing lightly in place.
"Hn." Naruto had gotten quite good at understanding Sasuke's lack of speech; this one meant something along the lines of, 'You won't get the chance to touch me, Fishcake.'
"Is that so, Duck-butt? Bet you fifty ryo I get first blood!"
"Hn." Or as Naruto heard it, 'You're on!
Soon as the match started they fell into the familiar pattern of kicks, punches, spins, jumps, and dodges. They sparred so often that they knew each other's moves almost by heart. Naruto was so familiar with Sasuke's Interceptor Fist style that he felt he could recreate it on his own, while Sasuke, as strange as it sounds, understood how Naruto's mind worked so that he was able to predict seventy-five percent of Naruto's moves and dodge the other twenty-five.
"Why are you always so emo, Duck-butt? You're the top in the class in almost everything, all the girls love you, and if you have even the slightest difficulty with something Mizuki is over here in a heartbeat to help you with it!" Naruto had been wondering why Sasuke was always so depressed, but whenever he tried to find out he got responses like, 'None of your business Demon!' and, 'Why so you can kill him too?'
"You mean you don't know? My family is dead! I'm the Last Uchiha! We were once the largest clan in Konoha!" Sasuke answered, scowling in between blows.
"My family's dead too! I'm the last Uzumaki-there were so many of us thirty years ago we had our own village! It was razed during the third shinobi war! Only my mother survived! And she died an hour after I was born!" Naruto understood the pain of being alone, but he couldn't understand why Sasuke let the pain overwhelm him. Sasuke had so much good in his life-why did he ignore it?
"Was your family murdered? Mine was killed right in front of me! By someone I trusted!" There were tears in Sasuke's eyes by now.
"Well, technically my family was murder right in front of me by someone I trust, but I was a newborn when it happened, and he was under a Genjutsu when he killed my parents," at this point Kurama interjected, "Aww, You trust me?"Naruto sent back a mental nod, not trusting himself to split his attention three ways during this match. "So, I guess I don't know exactly how you feel, but I know enough," Naruto paused while he trip kicked Sasuke, finally catching him off guard, "to tell you," he continued while punching his downed opponent before he could get back up, "that, yeah your life sucked, but at least you haven't spent the last year dodging assassination attempts daily!" Sasuke had gotten up, his lip bleeding, all tactics forgotten, he charged Naruto with a mad look in his eyes. "Look Sasuke," Naruto was now effortlessly parrying Sasuke's enraged attacks, "yeah your parents were killed, but at least you got to know them, I never met my parents! Sure, they got taken away from you, but you got, what? Six years with them? I got an hour! An hour I can't even remember!" now Naruto was on the verge of crying. "You gotta look past the pain, Sasuke, remember the good times! And if you ever want someone to talk to about it, come to me, I'll be there for you when you need me." Sasuke stopped his mad attacks, he pulled something out of his pocket, pegged Naruto between the eyes with it and stormed off.
Rubbing his forehead, Naruto bent down to see what Sasuke had thrown at him before he left. It was a fifty ryo coin.