"Kill the Demon!"
A flash of orange and blonde hair could be seen running through the crowded streets of Konohagakure, being chased by a mob of people. This is 5-year-old Naruto Uzumaki, our protagonist and the so called "Demon Child" of Konoha. You see 5 years prior the fearsome Kyubbi had attacked Konoha killing many before the Fourth Hokage had sealed it away into little Naruto not even an hour old. Unfortunately, the civilians didn't understand and so thought that the demon had possessed the child. This led to them ostracizing, shunning, beating, and overpricing poor Naruto, who had no idea why the majority of Konoha hated his guts. Thankfully Naruto was blessed with a few gifts to help him through all of this. Naruto despite the way he acted was extremely intelligent for his age and the ability to heal from almost any wound instantly. This helped him get out of some tight spaces and helped him to avoid some of the beatings. He also had a ridiculous amount of stamina for a five-year-old. These gifts could have made him a child prodigy had the village not believed him to be the Kyubbi. Tonight, was going to be an especially bad night, because tonight was the Kyubbi festival. A night devoted to how the Yondaime sealed the Kyubbi away. Of course, the villagers ignorant as they were, thought that the Yondaime had sealed the demon into a baby allowing them the chance to finish it off. This was not true in the slightest, however neither Naruto nor the villagers knew that.
Naruto ran around the corner of a building and quickly ducked inside an alley. He held his breath as the mob ran past, finally allowing himself to breath once the sounds had gotten distant.
"Man, I really wish I could run on the roofs like the ninjas." Naruto said to himself. Living in a ninja village like he did it was not uncommon to see ninja jumping from roof to roof. Unfortunately for Naruto those were trained ninja and he was a small untrained child.
After taking another look around to ensure that there was no one around, Naruto snuck out of the alley and headed towards the edge of Konoha. Last year when he was running from a mob, he had discovered that they mobs mostly stayed inside the village. As Naruto approached the gates, he saw the guards at the gate. Their names were Izumo and Kotetsu, nicknamed the Eternal Gate Guards by the ninja of Konoha, they always picked gate duty because it was an easy job. They looked to be asleep, so Naruto just walked out of the gate before making a beeline towards the woods. Naruto didn't stop at the entrance however learning from previous years that when the mob couldn't find him, they would look outside of the village for him. After several minutes of running Naruto stopped and took a second to breathe. Hearing a faint rumbling sound in the distance Naruto's curiosity got the better of him and he headed towards the steadily increasing sound. After a couple more minutes of walking he found himself in front of a massive waterfall. He suddenly realized just how thirsty he was and approached the river that snaked its way away from the waterfall. Taking a couple sips from the cool clear water, Naruto sat back on his heels and simply allowed himself to observe the natural beauty of the forest that he found himself in. As his heartrate slowed down and the adrenalin rush dissipated, he relaxed and laid on his back next to the stream he had found. He quickly drifted off to sleep to the sound of nature around him. His last thought before sleep claimed him was 'I hope the Old Man doesn't worry too much.'
Meanwhile back in Konoha
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf sat at his desk glaring at the bane of his existence and his most hated adversary. He had been through all three Great Shinobi Wars and in all his many years, he had never met a foe as inherently evil as this. this great foe was the bane of all Kages all across the Elemental Nations. It was the dreaded PAPERWORK! Eventually Hiruzen had enough and started flashing through hand signs for a small Katon fire jutsu. Finishing his seals, he spit out a small ball of fire that quickly spread and engulfed all of the paperwork on his desk. Hiruzen started cackling madly as the fire burned down to reveal an empty desk.
"I have done it; I have finally defeated you, my most persistent adversary!" He choked out in between wheezes. His relief was short lived however because almost immediately after the fire died down his secretary came in with a cart overflowing with copies of the paperwork he had just burned as well as new sheets that he needed to sign. Hiruzen's cackling abruptly ended and he seemed to teleport to the corner of the room with a small raincloud above his head. From the four corners of the room, you could hear the sound of four palms meeting four faces before the hidden ANBU appeared before the Hokage. The cat masked ANBU was the first to address the Hokage trying to snap him out of the funk he was in.
"Hokage-sama, you need to complete some of this paperwork before you head home."
"Why Cat, why does it always come back no matter how much I do or how many times I burn it always comes back!?" the Hokage wailed. All four ANBU simultaneously gained a sweat drop as a universal thought entered their minds 'This is the strongest shinobi in our village.' Their train of thought was interrupted by a ANBU in a bull mask Shunshining into the office.
"Hokage-sama the demo- um Naruto has gone missing!" Hiruzen was instantly up and giving commands.
"Cat, Dog, Snake" all three of the named ANBU instantly appeared before the Hokage "Go find Naruto-kun, bring him to me when you find him. You have permission to do whatever is necessary to ensure Naruto's safety. Go!" Instantly the three ANBU body-flickered out of the office to search for the little blonde ball of sunshine that meant so much to them. Hiruzen collapsed into his chair and seemed to age a decade.
'How could I have forgotten that today was the Kyubbi festival? Please be okay Naruto.' Hiruzen thought before pulling out his crystal ball and beginning to search for Naruto.