"People live their lives bound by what they accept as correct and true. That's how they define "reality". But what does it mean to be "correct" or "true"? Merely vague concepts ... their "reality" may all be a mirage. Can we consider them to simply be living in their own world, shaped by their beliefs?" - Uchiha Itachi

Chapter 2

It took nearly two hours for the Hokage and two of his anbus to finish the search of the laboratory and what they found was shocking beyond compare. Bodies of 8 years old children laid on tables with markings of what seemed to be fuinjutsu. Those bodies laid lifelessly with pale skin and large blue spots covering almost all of their bodies which showed massive internal bleeding. They were glad that Naruto had managed to survive but was still somewhat horrified with their findings; they did not know that there was a horrible experiment done underneath one of the well-secured places of Konoha.

"Tenzo, pick up their bodies to be properly buried but first, go to the hospital to be identified. Also, make sure to check if there are any reports of missing children and crosscheck with the identities of the children," commanded the Third Hokage to Tenzo, "Kakashi, help me to burn this room, after that, we will go and search the other room, the one where we found Naruto."

"Yes Lord Hokage," Kakashi complied.

Tenzo then used his mokuton (wood release) to make nine medical longboards measuring at 140 centimeters in order to do his task. He then slowly picked every single one of the children up and moved them to their respective longboard. He also made sure that he picked up the children carefully as to not cause more damage to the already significantly impaired bodies so that they can be identified.

When Tenzo was done with his task, Kakashi and the Third Hokage got ready before they launched two fire dragons to obliterate this cursed room.

"Ready Kakashi?" asked the Third Hokage.

"Whenever you are sir, I will gladly take this place down with you."

With the confirmation out of the way, the two of them started with the hand signs, they went through all of the necessary hand signs for the technique faster than what civilians could see.

"Katon: Karyū Endan(1)," screamed Kakashi and the Third Hokage.

Both of them released flames that were shaped like a dragon. The technique was more than enough to destroy the room, some people might even say that they went a little too much, but they needed to vent the disgust they stored ever since they have arrived at this laboratory. The flames soon engulfed the room with flames hot enough to turn a healthy adult to ashes. The room went blazing and in seconds, nothing in the room could escape from the hot flames. The Hokage and Kakashi barely made it out if not for the fact that they had anticipated the destruction that the jutsu could bring.

"It seems our job is done for now Kakashi," said the Hokage, "let's get back to the others."

The two left with shunshin(2) to catch up with the others.

~XxXxX~

At the Konoha Hospital, Naruto was resting on one of the rooms. It had taken the anbus that were tasked with moving Naruto to the hospital some intimidation in order to let, what the villagers so-called 'the demon brat' due to supposedly classified pieces of information, Naruto to get some treatments from the 'medics' of the hospital.

Some of the buses stayed inside the room to keep watch of Naruto while the others stayed outside and were tasked with guarding the door; they were to allow no one other than the Hokage, Kakashi or Tenzo in. One of the anbu, with a bear mask, started to speak,

"What a horrible life he had been subjected to."

"That was an understatement," responded another anbu with a yellow cat mask, "he was treated as an outcast and was unfairly treated. Maybe that to is an understatement."

"You're right, that is probably an understatement, he was beaten up by the villagers every time it was his birthday, not to mention the weekly beatings the villagers did to him," said another anbu with a mouse mask.

"I remember when I was tasked with watching him, he was beaten up by the villagers, he almost died had I not intervened," added the last anbu in the room. He had been assigned as Naruto's guard several times but all of them ended up doing pretty much the same thing; the anbu had to save Naruto from the beatings he received from the villagers.

"Now, at 8 years old, he had to go through that nasty experiment and it was also his first kill, though that man deserved it, his life was horrible," concluded the bear-masked anbu, "he deserves more," continued him as he looked at his sleeping face.

The rest then turned over to look at him, his face showed a blank expression, however, his mind was like a tsunami. He had been through a lot for 8 years old. Near-death experiences were uncommon to Naruto and being treated as if he was not a person could not be described with the 'uncommon' anymore. But this year was the worst for him; he was kidnapped and tortured through the experiments Nobuta initiated on him and seven other children. However, that was not the worst part of the year. The worst part was the reveal of his heritage and his first kill though the latter might be more understandable, enjoyable even.

He felt betrayed. For eight years he was kept in the dark about his parentage.

"They all betrayed me… all of them, even Hokage-Jiji," he thought to himself.

Naruto soon found himself somewhere else, he remembered that he was at that damned laboratory but now he is not there anymore. However, the two places have one similarity, both of them were dark. He began questioning himself about where he is and what had happened. He vividly remembered killing Nobuta but his mind went blank afterward. Did he get kidnapped again? But that could not happen as he somehow heard the voices of anbu and the Hokage digging towards the location where that cursed laboratory had once stood.

Naruto noticed something particular about the where he is, he felt the water and that he was laying down. He got back on his feet and began looking around.

"Is this a sewer?" he questioned himself as he looked around.

Naruto walked around to see if he could recognize anything. As a child, he had been running away from shinobi every time he did a prank on the village and because of that, he knew the sewer like no other. Naruto had to admit that the sewer system is a very good idea when it comes to running away.

After a couple of minutes had passed, Naruto began to wonder if he is even at Konoha; nothing seemed familiar to him despite the hundreds of times he had used the sewer system to run away. He continued to walk around for a couple more minutes until he came face-to-face with metal pillars that look like the opening of a cage with a piece of paper high above the ground at the center of it.

"It seems my jailor has come to meet me," said someone or rather something big. This startled Naruto a bit until he saw two big red eyes with slitted pupils.

"Wh... who...who are you?" asked Naruto scarily.

"I am hatred, hatred flows in me, I am the Kyuubi," said the Kyuubi. As he finished his sentence, he roared. The roar was loud enough to create tsunamis if not for the damned seal. While roaring, the Kyuubi stomped his front legs on the ground and created a mini-earthquake due to the force that was unleashed from the stomp. That was all it took for Naruto to be thrown back to consciousness.

Naruto suddenly woke up with a scream, alerting the four anbu that surrounded him. He then frantically looked around with the face of a terrified kid and cold sweat started to flow out of his body which made him look like a waterfall. The anbu, came to Naruto as they try to calm him down. One of them gave him a warm hug while the rest said soothing words in an attempt to calm him down. Lucky for them, the Hokage and Kakashi arrived shortly after Naruto woke up. The luck was short-lived however as Naruto cried when he saw the Hokage.

"You lied to me!" shrieked Naruto as he cried. He could not stand to look at the man he used to call his grandfather figure, "you lied to me about everything!"

Everyone looked at Naruto in shock. What lie has he discovered? His parentage? His status?

"What are you talking about Naruto?" asked Sarutobi calmly as he tried to calm Naruto down.

"The Fourth… Why did he do this to me?!"

How did he found out about the fourth? That was the question that was in the minds of everyone present at that hospital room. Did the man they found next to Naruto at that laboratory told him everything? If that's the case, how did the man found out about the Fourth Hokage sealing the nine-tailed fox into him?

"He saved the village from Kyuubi, Naruto, he did not do anything to you," stated the Third.

"No! He sealed the Fox to me! To his son! Is that why everyone despises me?!" screamed Naruto with all he had in his lungs. His questions and statements shook everyone in the room.

"Who told you this Naruto?" asked the Third with his serious face.

"The guy I killed at the laboratory," Naruto replied with a sad face, he does not want to recall one year of torment.

"Do you trust him? He kidnapped you, how can you trust a man who kidnapped you?"

Silence came to the room and after a moment, Naruto replied, "I met the Kyuubi."

His words silenced the room even more. Sure they expected that at some point Naruto will have to talk to the fox but they did not expect it to be this soon, at eight years old Naruto had met the Fox.

"So Naruto met the fox. Must be because he used its chakra. There is no point in lying anymore if he knew about the fox," Sarutobi thought to himself and then signaled the anbu to create privacy seals though a weak one at that due to their unfamiliarity with fuuinjustu, "I am sorry I lied and neglected to tell you, I am truly sorry. The Fourth sealed the fox in you the night it attacked. You were his son. The Fourth and your mother sacrificed themselves in the process. You have to understand that they loved you, they could not stop talking about their future with you. Days and days passed and it was your birthdate. Everything went well during that day and you came to the world, though that happiness was soon taken as a man managed to infiltrate one of the most secure and discrete locations in Konoha where your birth took to process and managed to rip the Kyuubi from your mother, your mother was a jinchuuriki like you, which was used by the man to attack Konoha. Your father managed to subdue the link between the Kyuubi with the man but he was a little too late as the Kyuubi was about to destroy Konoha. He teleported the Kyuubi outside of Konoha where your parents sealed the Kyuubi to you. When the sealing process took place, the Kyuubi gathered enough strength to kill you, had it not been for your father and weakened mother to take the blow and stopped his attacked you would have been dead. Your parents gathered the last bit of their strength to finish the sealing and died due to the attack and the sealing. I hope you forgive me for not telling you this, it was for your safety," the Third finally finished his explanation but what came out of Naruto's mouth shocked everyone in the room even more.

"Get out," said Naruto with a cold voice that could freeze the ocean.

"But…" said one of the anbu but Naruto cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

"Get. Out," was all Naruto said.

The Hokage nodded in understanding and called his anbu to go out of the room and stayed outside. The Hokage followed them outside afterward, leaving Naruto alone in the room. Naruto jumped to the bed and laid on his stomach and covered his face with the pillow as he started crying out his anger and disappointment. He let everything out as he cried. Several minutes have passed but Naruto's tears seemed to be from someone who had been crying for hours. He was tired from all the crying and fell asleep slowly. Not long after, he slept and his breathing became relaxed.

(1)Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet

(2)Body Flicker