"ooooohhhh..." Naruto groaned as he opened his eyes.

Well, tried to open his eyes.

Panic overcame Naruto as his two arms shot up and touched his eyes. However, his small fingers came into contact with some kind of soft fabric which was wrapped around his head.

Trrrr..

Naruto heard the sound of the door sliding and someone walked inside.

"Awake, are we? Please don't touch your eyes for the time being. Your eyes have been damaged, so we had to perform surgery on them," A deep male voice explained as the figure moved across the room.

Naruto then heard the figure stop moving once it was beside his bed, and the sound of writing came to his ears.

"M-my eyes..." Naruto weakly stammered.

"Hmm?" The figure's attention focused on Naruto then. "No worries, you will be able to see. Your original eyes have been damaged, so we performed surgery and gave you a new pair of eyes."

Naruto suddenly was overcome with a strange feeling. His own eyes were damaged, and now he had somebody else's eyes inside his head.

"Alright, done and done. For the time being, rest up and regain your strength. Later on, we will remove the bandages and do some tests to make sure everything is alright with your eyes," Naruto then heard the sound of the figure leaving the room and door close.

However, before Naruto could think of anything, the door opened again and another figure walked in. Naruto was sure it was another figure because this one's footsteps were slower, fainter and there was the additional tapping of a cane.

"You are finally awake, Naruto," Hiruzen's voice came from the door.

If this was any other day, then Naruto would be happy hearing this voice. This was the voice of his beloved grandpa, the only person in this village who cared about him. However, today was not an ordinary day.

Naruto was sure that the meeting with Kyuubi was not a dream.

In other words, this old man had lied to him about the Yondaime, lied to him when Naruto would seek his help and lied to him about the Kyuubi.

"Leave!" He growled as he turned on his side, turning away from Hiruzen.

Hiruzen was stunned by the sudden aggression from Naruto. His years of experience surfaced as suspicions formed in his mind.

"Had someone talked to him before?" Hiruzen thought inside his head.

On the outside, he only approached the bed. "How are you feeling?" He asked kindly.

Naruto scoffed, "Great, I just found out I have a giant fox inside my stomach."

Hiruzen froze in place. A slight killing intent surged as he swore to kill the bastard who revealed this to Naruto.

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Hiruzen acted dumb as he asked.

"Don't play stupid, I'm not a little kid. I was inside of my stomach and I met the fox there... This is it, isn't it? The reason why everyone hates me, ignores me..." As Naruto talked his voice turned weak and shaky towards the end.

Hate or not, he was still a 6 year old. Finding out that he was hated by the village, yet being unable to do anything about it, left him feeling miserable.

Hiruzen took in a shaky breath and could only sigh, his youthful aura disappearing, seemingly aging by the second. "I... I am afraid that is so, my boy."

"Why? Why didn't you tell me?" Naruto asked, indignation in his voice.

Hiruzen took off his hat and sat down on a nearby chair. "I didn't want you to carry that burden, Naruto. I know that life had been hard for you, but at least you didn't have to carry around the knowledge of having the demon inside of you. I had believed that to be the best decision at the time."

"How good is it? Everyone hates me, yet I always foolishly believed that I could do something about it. I was stupid," Naruto stifled a sob, but his voice had still grown softer.

His grandpa may have lied, but at least he had done it with good intentions.

However, he quickly crushed those weak feelings. Like it or not, when Naruto would ask him why people hated him, Hiruzen would look him straight in the eyes and feign ignorance.

In that case, did this 'grandpa' also fake his own love for Naruto? How much of it had been Hiruzen feigning kindness just to keep him from finding out the truth? In fact, perhaps he even hated Naruto?

"For my sake?" Naruto asked, his voice still weak but laced with anger, "How about that man with the red eyes? He wore the same uniform as those guys who protect me, and yet he was the one who attacked me."

"Naruto, that man's name is Itachi Uchiha..." Hiruzen's voice then grew fainter. "A traitor of our village."

Hearing an Uchiha being labelled a traitor made Naruto freeze.

"Traitor?" Naruto asked.

Hiruzen nodded. "This man had attacked his own clansmen, committing great crime. At the time, he was escaping from my men, when he accidentally ran into you. What happened was an accident."

Naruto's emotion mellowed out again, but he had firmly decided to build a wall around his heart.

"What about Kyuubi? You said the Yondaime killed it."

Hiruzen looked through the window, at the giant stone head of Minato which was carved into a mountain.

"He was a hero, Naruto. He wasn't able to kill the fox, but he had still sacrificed his life to seal away the fox, protecting the village."

Naruto's two fists balled up, "Why me? Why did he seal it into me?"

Hiruzen's mouth clamped up. He desperately wanted to tell Naruto the truth, but he knew that Naruto wouldn't be able to handle it.

"He believed that you would be able to bear the burden, Naruto. By sealing the fox inside of you, Yondaime had hoped that you would protect this village and be hailed as a hero. The villagers don't hate you, Naruto. What they fear is the fox inside of you. Its presence is merely reminding them of the loved ones lost in the tragedy," Hiruzen explained.

Naruto was torn by indecision.

There was meaning behind each lie.

The fox was sealed inside of him because Yondaime believed he could carry the burden.

The villagers hated the fox, not him.

He wasn't told because Hiruzen didn't want him to suffer from that knowledge.

And yet...

Naruto had to come to a conclusion: forgive or hate?

Naruto now understood the circumstances, but that doesn't mean that it hurt any less. These lies were like daggers, each one stabbing into his heart, leaving behind deep scars.

...

"Leave..." Naruto's weak voice came from the bed.

Hiruzen sighed and didn't say anything else. He stood up, picked up his hat and walked out of the room.

Naruto had made his choice.

His anger may have lessened, but it didn't disappear.

Everyone around him was a liar.

Everyone around him would blame and beat him for the faults of others.

That was not something he had in his heart to forgive.

His decision was final:

Never believe anyone, never trust anyone. From this point forward, Naruto Uzumaki will live only for himself.

Chapter End

Author's Notes:

Reader: Help, I need more chapters!

Sypnotick: I'm here!

Cookies for those who understood the reference.

Sorry for the delay, guys. I am planning to move from one place to another, so I am busy with preparing everything and then there is other IRL stuff.

I still write when I can, but as you expect, I don't have much time for it right now. Though you don't have to fear, because I do have several chapters stacked up, and I plan to release them every other day.

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it.

If not, then drop the bomb or anything else. As I said before, criticism and suggestions are always appreciated.

See you in the next chapter! Toodles!