A/N: Woot! My story is popular…with one review, ooh and an alert and uhm…yea. Hmmm, eh, at least some people like it, and therefore I shall continue for them!

This chapter continues the prologue and is in Naruto's pov. gasp Naruto is accepting things from strangers, bad Naruto! Again, I've altered some character personalities, so be warned for some OOCness. On with the story!

….wait, I forgot, I in no way, shape, or form, own the anime/manga that is Naruto, I'm just 'borrowing' the characters for a little while and making them do my bidding…don't look at me like that, I promise I'll return them mostly unharmed…physically at least anyway.

Edit – 6/5/16

"Spoken word"

'Thoughts'

"Demon speech/speech between host and demon"

'Demon thoughts'

Konoha, (5 years after Kyuubi's attack)

Naruto quickly ducked into a back alley in the Village Hidden in The Leaves poorer districts on one of the coldest nights of the season. Straining his ears, he listened as the crowd of drunken and angry villagers ran past without as much as a pause to check his make-shift hideout. Gasping for breath he allowed himself a moment of peace, until he heard a faint rustling creeping closer to him. The rustling stopped abruptly and Naruto relaxed slightly, when he felt something slithering along his arm and back.

"Child, why do you hide in fear of these drunken idiots?" A voice whispered from the shadows. Naruto stiffened further as he now identified the thing slithering along him as a snake, which had wrapped itself loosely around his neck.

"Do not fear, Rapharsha has already eaten this week, you are merely warm, she will not harm you." The man emerged from the shadows, he had long black hair and yellow eyes that glistened in the moonlight. Naruto could also tell the man was taller than usual. Naruto shivered from the slightly cold glint in the man's eye and the rather large snake, Rapharsha, which continued to coil herself around his warmth. Finally, he found his voice.

"W-who are you?" His chattering teeth causing him to stutter, he unconsciously snuggled into the insulated warmth the huge snake provided. The man considered him for a moment before smiling kindly, although the smile didn't seem to quite fit his face.

"My name is Orochimaru, child, and from the ruckus those villagers were causing, you must be the young Uzumaki boy."

His courage returning with his body heat, Naruto responded boldly, "That's right, Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto suddenly lost his luster, "the most hated child in Konoha."

Orochimaru sat beside Naruto, and Rapharsha slowly wound herself around both her master and Naruto.

"So I was correct, you are Naruto, but I'm afraid you are wrong, little one, because I do not hate you."

"Tch, yeah right, I've heard that before, some villager gives me hope that I'm not completely worthless, and then gets his turn to beat and the village punching bag."

Orochimaru regarded Naruto silently. 'This is perfect, it will be easier than I thought to gain this boy's trust, and his power, this fool village will soon learn its folly.'

"Well then I suppose I was slightly mistaken, Naruto, but you see, I am not a member of this Village, in fact I am a ninja from another village. So you see I am quite capable of not hating you."

Naruto looked at the man closely, and found quickly found Orochimaru's headband…arm band, and it looked nothing like the bands he saw the Konoha shinobi wearing.

"So you really aren't a villager and even though you heard the rumors you don't hate me?"

Orochimaru shook his head. "Far from it, I wish to become your friend, there are so many things I could teach you, I could train you to be a ninja as well, and then you wouldn't have to fear the villagers of this or any other village."

Naruto looked thoughtful, he had never thought of being a ninja, but all the ninja he'd seen looked so cool, and nobody hated them. He quickly made up his mind.

"I'll do it!"

"Excellent, but come, I'm sure you have no home or parents to speak of, I know an abandoned apartment building that will be perfect for you and we can discuss more, those drunken idiots may come back and here us talking."

Naruto nodded and Orochimaru grabbed him. Quickly jumping off to the outskirts of the village, and thus the more abandoned buildings, Orochimaru settled on one of the nicer looking ones and landed on its roof and led Naruto inside.

Rapharsha never left Naruto's shoulder, and Naruto had to sit quickly, unaccustomed to her weight. "Ora-Orta-…argh!"

Orochimaru chuckled as he set up a fire in the fireplace. "That is quite alright, Naruto, you may call me 'Maru'."

"Maru then, what exactly are you going to teach me?"

"Ahh, so inquisitive for one so young, rest now, I will be teaching you all you need to be the greatest ninja you can."

"But, I'm not sleepy!" Naruto was whining now, Rapharsha had already fallen asleep.

"Alright, one question, the rest will be dealt with in the morning."

"Hmmm, what is a good one then…Oh! You said you heard the villagers talking, do you know why they hate me?"

Orochimaru stiffened. 'Should he know, or will that ruin my plans? ...hmmm, he is young yet, I can still influence him, there should be no harm.'

"I will only tell you this for now, they hate you for what you contain, now sleep."

"For what I contain? But, what…" Orochimaru used a mild genjutsu to make Naruto sleep. 'All shall be explained in the morning little one.'

(The next morning)

Naruto yawned and stretched as light filtered through the dirty window, and quickly noticed the absence of Maru and Rapharsha.

"Naruto come to the roof, we have much to discuss."

Naruto scrambled up the stairs to see Rapharsha basking in the sun and Maru staring at the sunrise.

"How'd you know I was awake, and how did you make me sleep last night?"

"Those are simple enough skills you will learn once you are a shinobi, but first you must know why the village hates you so." Orochimaru quickly recounted the tale of Kyuubi's attack, and how it came to be sealed inside of Naruto.

"So…I'm a demon?"

"Not unless you think so, I can train you to use Kyuubi's power, as well as your own, you could become a truly powerful ninja indeed, but not a true demon unless that is what you wish." 'Or until my plans are ready for you.'

"Alright, I'll do it!"

"Good, but first we need to establish a few rules."

"Rules?"

"Yes, first, no one can know I am training you, they would not like that their burden may be able to fight back. Secondly, you must keep your training a secret, no one is to know anything different has happened. Can you keep those two rules before we continue?"

Naruto thought about it, no one cares anyway, and no one will talk to me, I'll just be careful anyway. He nodded.

"Excellent, then here is how your training shall proceed: On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, you are to sneak out of the village during the day and come to me for training. I shall leave you Rapharsha; she will protect you and lead you in and out of the village. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays you will stay here and practice the chakra control techniques I teach you. Every Monday I shall give you an amount of food to last you until the next Monday, how well you do in your training will determine how much and what type of food you get. I will reward hard work and dedication, is that clear?"

It was a lot of information, but Naruto didn't want to disappoint his new teacher already, he nodded, it seemed simple enough and he was sure he could handle it.

Orochimaru nodded, "Then there is food already stashed in the cupboards, you will have Rapharsha for company, try not to make it looked like anything has changed, alright Naruto?"

Naruto ran up and hugged Maru, "You'll see, I'll be the best student ever Maru-sama, you won't be disappointed!"

Orochimaru smiled, "No, I suppose I won't, keep track of the days, today is Tuesday, so I shall see you tomorrow, today shall be a free day for you." And with that Orochimaru disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto walked back downstairs, Rapharsha slithering behind him. 'Finally, someone who acknowledges me, I'll make you proud Maru-sama, just you wait! Hmmm, I wonder what type of food he left.'

(4 years later)

Deep in the forests surrounding Konoha shouting could be heard.

"Naruto! Keep your focus! You mustn't let any extra chakra escape!"

Orochimaru was a tough teacher, he constantly pushed his student farther, and Naruto could tell it was paying off. He could already produce a few clones and transform and walk up trees and on water. However, before his Maru-sama would let him learn anymore jutsus he had to learn more chakra control, specifically how to draw and control the fox's chakra, and it wasn't easy.

"That's enough for today Naruto, go back home and rest, you're getting close I know it."

Gasping for breath Naruto could only nod and turn and started walking back slowly. True to his word, Rapharsha would lead him in and out of the village, taking different routes every time so that they were never followed. Naruto slowly regained his breath and thought about how far he had come. 'With Maru-sama's training the villagers can't catch me anymore, they've pretty much given up, heh, stealth and deception are a ninja's first weapons as Maru-sama says.'

Naruto snuck through the village walls and quickly made his way to his apartment, with Rapharsha wrapped around his shoulders, a comforting weight where she used to be heavy.

"Hey you!"

Naruto froze in his tracks, Rapharsha didn't sense anyone and neither did he, how could he have gotten caught!?

"Yea you with the snake; what's your name? I haven't seen you around before."

Naruto slowly turned around to see a scantily clad woman with a raven haired boy standing beside her looking bored. Naruto quickly put up his guard, this woman was a shinobi, and a powerful one for Rapharsha not to have noticed her. She must be at least a jonin.

"My name is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki; I'm just taking my pet snake here around the village for some air." It was a prepared response that Maru had helped him come up with for such occasions.

"Uzumaki, huh? Good then I finally found you, no one seems to know where you live and I have been trying to find you for days. I'm Anko Mitarashi, and this is Sasuke Uchiha. The Hokage thought it was about time you had a friend, and Sasuke here has been alone since his clan was destroyed."

At this Sasuke scoffed, Anko simple ignored him, "Come on, you're coming to live with me and Sasuke."

Naruto was shocked, what about his training, and Maru-sama, but he couldn't just refuse, resigning himself Naruto turned and followed behind them, thinking about how to let his teacher know.

"Great! Another silent one, I can tell you two will get along great."

Sasuke just scoffed again and looked away, Naruto continued to look down, thinking about what to do, all Anko could do was sigh.

They quickly arrived at Anko's, 'and mine', apartment and Anko showed Naruto to his room. 'Wow, my own room, and a real bed too huh. I'd be more impressed if I wasn't so freaked out.' Naruto had just settled down on the bed with Rapharsha draped around him, when his door was opened, and the Uchiha walked in without regard to privacy.

"Listen up, dobe, I will not let you get in my way, The Hokage may have ordered Anko to take you in as well but you will not slow down my training, I have important matters to finish and you won't stop them, are we clear?"

Naruto just stared at Sasuke like he was an idiot before laughing.

"You- You really think I want anything to do with you or that woman? Do you seriously think I care about what that old geezer in that tower wants? If you do, you are sadly mistaken, teme."

Sasuke growled and turned to walk out, but Naruto stopped him.

"Hey listen, if were gonna be stuck together, don't you think we should at least try to get along? What was Anko saying about your clan being destroyed?"

"You seriously don't know, my older brother Itachi killed my family and fled, he was one of the greatest ninjas The Leaf had, but now, I've sworn to kill him and avenge my clan."

Naruto nodded looking thoughtful, he remembered Maru-sama talking about something similar. He was brought out his thoughts by Sasuke a few minutes later.

"Is that snake trained?"

"Rapharsha? Yeah, she's really tame to those she's comfortable around."

Sasuke looked a little awed and reached to touch her, but Rapharsha coiled herself into a defensive position and Sasuke jumped back. "Is she poisonous?"

"Very, but she only uses it on her prey, otherwise she'll constrict her enemies."

Sasuke nodded and made a note not to get to near to her, just the both boys were called for dinner. Afterwards Naruto was relaxing in his new room, when a idea occurred to him. 'Rapharsha! She can let Maru-sama know what happened!' Naruto quickly wrote a letter to his teacher and sent Rapharsha on her way. 'Find him Rapharsha, I need some advice here.'

A/N: And another one down, I'm gonna alternate between Naruto and Gaara from now on. Alright some last notes:

Edit – 6/5/16

-Anko never worked for Orochimaru, and as such doesn't use a snake style. Orochimaru is still classified as a missing nin, but more on that will come later, we'll just say for now that a kid walking around with a snake is unusual but not uncommon

-Rapharsha is a summon but is acting only on orders for Orochimaru. Yes Naruto will get a summoning contract, no it will not be the snake contract. That's all I'm saying on that point

-The Third Hokage didn't pay attention to Naruto obviously. My feelings are if you're able to set up an allowance or whatever for food and an apartment, you can stop child abuse on the streets. Let's face it, the 3rd did a horrible job protecting Naruto per Minato's wishes for whatever reason. So instead of a half ass job like in the anime, I scrapped the idea altogether. Naruto lived in orphanages up until the point Orochimaru found him, rotating around to never give one place a clear distinction of where to find him as a survival instinct. The abandoned complex on the edge of the village was one of Orochimaru's early bases and as such no one knows it really exists and gives both him and Naruto an easy means of cover from the area's disuse and close proximity to the village walls.

-I would like to think that whatever ulterior motives Maru has, he wouldn't intentionally undermine growth and development in a project unless he was studying the effects. He wants Naruto strong to be a tool for him in the future so the food rationing was to teach self control and also to make sure Naruto had access to adequate nutrition in addition to training him in other aspects.

I think that's all, if not let me know and I'll try to clarify, oh and I need a beta if anyone is interested.