Chapter 2 – Right And Wrong
It was October 10th. Naruto hated October 10th. It was the day of the festival celebrating the defeat of the nine-tailed demon fox. It was also his tenth birthday, his golden birthday at that, and yet he knew that not a single person would even congratulate him, let alone give him a present. If he hadn't looked at the calendar by chance, he would have gone outside, and that would not have ended well. He had learned the hard way that the villagers did not appreciate his presence on this day in particular.
"Man... Just once I'd like to see what this festival thing is all about without having things thrown at me or being threatened with something pointy..." Naruto sighed as he reclined on the ratty old couch in his living room and listened to the villagers mull about as they set up the various decorations for the celebration. He had tried to go to the festival the last two years, but he had been driven almost all the way out of the village by a rather angry mob last time, so this year he vowed to stay inside and spare himself the torment for once.
"Argh! I've only been up for a few hours and I'm already bored out of my mind!" Naruto started pacing back and forth in his living room, trying to find something to ease his boredom. On his eighth trip past his coffee table, he tripped over something and promptly fell crashing to the floor in a pile of ragged clothes and shouts from his downstairs neighbor.
"What the hell?!" Naruto shouted as he held his bruised knee and frantically looked around for what he had tripped over. He finally spotted the offending object sticking out from under his table. It was the first year academy textbook he had finally managed to steal from the storeroom last month after his had mysteriously gone 'missing' a few weeks after starting classes last year.
"Eh... No time like the present I guess..." Naruto shrugged and pulled the book the rest of the way out and began practicing his chakra control exercises. It wasn't that he wasn't good at ninjutsu, quite the opposite really, but he always found it hard to actually learn how to do the techniques. Once he got them down, however, he hardly ever messed them up. Unfortunately, his teacher refused to even acknowledge his presence during class, so he was forced to learn everything from a rather ratty secondhand copy of the textbook that had to be at least fifty years out of date, and needless to say, it was slow going.
Hinata found herself, once again, sitting on the rooftop of a rundown apartment complex, staring across the street into the open window of the apartment across from her. She really hadn't intended on spying on him so much, but somehow she always ended up drawn to him anyway.
She had taken to following him around in her free time ever since she had first seen him on that swing outside of the academy two years ago. He had looked so alone, so isolated, so much like herself. Yet the more she watched, the more she realized what his life was really like. That, despite hardships no one should ever have to bear, he always seemed so strong. It was almost contagious; just being near him made her feel more sure of herself, more confident.
When he began talking to himself, however, Hinata's curiosity got the better of her and she couldn't help but read his lips. "He's never been able to go to the festival because people recognize him?" Hinata mouthed to herself as she stared up at the clouds. Maybe, just maybe, she'd finally be able to work up enough courage to actually talk to him. She smiled softly as a plan began to form in her mind.
Naruto woke to the sound of laughter and fireworks. He quickly looked out his window and realized he must have fallen asleep at some point during his training.
"Ugh... That was so boring I actually fell asleep!" Naruto yawned as he shoved the book back under his table and wandered off into his kitchen in search of something to eat.
Just as he was rummaging around in the back of one of his cabinets, there was a quiet knock on his door. He had remembered to pay this month's rent already, hadn't he? It certainly wasn't one of the random people who occasionally decided to torment him at home, they usually didn't bother to knock, or if they did, they knocked so hard the entire door shook.
"Be right there!" Naruto shouted out to his apparent guest as he quickly pulled his head out of the cabinet and crossed his small apartment to the door.
Hinata fidgeted anxiously with the traditional fox-shaped mask that covered her face. She had tried knocking four times already, but had stopped short each time. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and clutched her gift closer to herself as she worked up the courage for another attempt.
This time she actually managed to make contact with the abused wood of his door. She almost thought that he hadn't heard the tiny sound over the dull roar of the crowd below, but his confirmation from inside proved that he, in fact, had.
Hinata checked her mask once more to ensure it properly hid her features, and waited for the boy to open the door.
The person standing on his doorstep wasnothing at all like what he had expected. His landlord, the Hokage, or even a gang of angry villagers he could handle, but a small girl in a dark blue kimono wearing a fox mask? Now, that was new territory.
"Umm... Hi. Can I help you?" Naruto asked as he tilted his head as he studied the mask the girl was wearing.
The girl nodded and thrust out her hands, shoving a pile of cloth and a mask at him. The porcelain mask looked just like the one she had on, but the artistic decorations were done in a crimson red instead of navy blue like hers.
"For me?" The girl nodded, and Naruto shifted his attention to the bundle of cloth that she had also given him. It was a kimono, similar to the one she was wearing, but it was a deep red, and from the looks of it, in his size too.
"Umm... Thank you. Was there anything else?" Naruto looked curiously back at the girl who still hadn't moved from the spot she had been standing.
The girl nodded her head, sending her short purple-black hair swaying, and pointed at the bundle of clothes and the mask, then back at him, and then finally inside of his apartment.
"You want me to put them on?" The girl nodded enthusiastically.
"Umm... Okay. I'll be right back..." Naruto gave the girl one more curious look before gently closing the door behind him in order to change.
"Well that was strange..." Naruto commented to himself as he changed into the kimono. It was extremely high quality, well beyond what he would ever be able to afford, even if the shopkeepers didn't price gouge him.
"She seemed nice enough though, if a bit quiet, and this sure as hell beats staying inside all night."
Naruto smiled to himself. It looks like someone had remembered his birthday after all, even if it had been by coincidence.
Hinata's breath caught in her chest when the door opened again. She had always found Naruto cute, but seeing him in something other than the same worn clothes he always wore made all the difference in the world. She smiled behind her mask as she burned the image of him standing in his doorway smiling stupidly, his mask sitting crookedly on top of his head, into her memory forever as one of the happiest moments of her life.
"Well? How do I look?" Naruto scratched the back of his head.
Hinata nodded enthusiastically, and reached up to pull his mask down over his face before grabbing his arm and dragging him out of his apartment and towards the festival.
"Alright! Alright! I'm coming! Ya don't have to pull my arm off!" Naruto laughed as he rushed to keep up with the girl.
"So where are we headed?" The girl just tilted her head at him and pointed towards one of the game stands. It was one of those carnival type games where the player had to catch a goldfish with a little paper net.
"Do you want to play?" He asked as the girl nodded her agreement. Naruto reached into the pocket that usually contained his wallet, and what little money he had managed to save, only to realize that he had left it back in his apartment. "Err... Maybe not...."
Hinata shook her head and gently put her arm on his shoulder as she pulled out her own wallet and paid for the both of them.
"You didn't have to pay for me too..." Naruto mumbled as he watched the girl attempt to catch her goldfish, only for the paper screen to break just as she lifted it out of the water.
"Here... Let me try." Naruto squinted behind his mask as he watched the fish swim around.
Naruto slowly dipped the net into the water, and expertly scooped up the small fish.
"Oh ho! We have a winner! Well done!" The man running the game smiled and put the goldfish in a small plastic bag full of water.
"Not for me... for her." Naruto nodded at the girl next to him. The man smiled and handed the fish over to Hinata.
"Well... Where to now?" Naruto asked just as his stomach rumbled. "Eheh... Sorry, I kind of skipped lunch."
Hinata giggled and pointed over his shoulder to a nearby Takoyaki stand.
Naruto turned around noticed the stand she was pointing at and sighed. "You don't have to do that..." He hated charity from people. It always felt so shallow... like he had failed and needed to be bailed out.
"I appreciate it, really I do, but..." Naruto was cut short when the girl shook her head and placed her finger on his lips, or rather where his lips would have been if it weren't for the mask.
"... Alright." If she was really that insistent about it, who was he to argue? It was his birthday after all.
Naruto lost track of how long he had spent wandering around the village with his mysterious, and oddly silent, masked friend. It had to have been at least a few hours as most of the people who had littered the streets earlier had since gone home, leaving them almost alone amongst the brightly colored stalls.
"Hey..." Naruto gently tugged on Hinata's shoulder. "Umm... I... Well... Thank you. This is the best birthday I've ever had. I don't know who you are, or how you knew, but... thank you."
"I... I..." It was his birthday? She didn't know... She could have done more... She should have done more...
"Hinata-sama!" The voice drifted over dull sounds of the night. Hinata's head snapped up, frantically searching for its origin.
"Is something wrong?" Naruto tilted his head at his new friend as she spun around wildly.
Hinata finally spotted the source of the voice. A pair of Hyuuga guards were sprinting down the street... Right towards them.
"I... I'm sorry. Forgive me!" Hinata quickly apologized to before running off as fast as she could.
"Hey! Wait! What's wrong?" Naruto started to run after the girl, only to be shoved aside by a pair of stuffy looking men with long brown hair and milky white eyes. By the time he had managed to untangle himself from the trash he had been pushed into, all three of them were nowhere to be seen.
Naruto's thoughts were a mix of emotions as he walked slowly back to his apartment. The girl had only said four words to him the entire night... and it had been an apology for something he didn't even understand, and yet he couldn't help but replay them over and over in his head as he walked.
As Naruto neared his door, he immediately noticed something was amiss. The door was open, and he always made sure to both close and lock it before he left. Not that a lock was much of a deterrent to the people in the village, but it helped to keep honest people honest at least. A few more cautious steps revealed that not only was it open, it was almost hanging off it's hinges, and was covered top to bottom in graffiti. Everything form obscenities to death threats covered the pealing green paint. Naruto was used to this kind of thing now, it happened from time to time, but this time something caught his attention more than normal. Someone had decided that paint wasn't enough, and had carved their message into the aged wood with a knife.
"... No one wants you, demon." Naruto ran his fingers over the characters that had been gouged into his door as he whispered the words to himself. The Naruto from two years ago would have broken down in tears at the sight, but he was far too used to this kind of thing now, and had long since learned how to handle it.
Naruto schooled his emotions into an impassive mask as he stepped inside his apartment and looked around. It seemed the damage to his door had only been the beginning of the vandalism. Every inch of his walls were covered in threats and profanity. His coffee table was in pieces, its splintered wood strewn about his living room along with the tattered remains of his academy textbook. The entire contents of his kitchen was on the floor, and the lone window in the living room was shattered. His bedroom had fared no better. All of his clothes were either ripped to shreds, or thrown about recklessly, and his futon was hanging out of the only other window in his apartment.
Naruto sighed as he bent down and began trying to salvage his belongings. It was going to be a very long night.
It had been over two years since the night his apartment was trashed, and his thoughts had often drifted back to the mysterious girl who had suddenly shown up on his birthday. At first he had thought he had just imagined the whole encounter, like some sort of loneliness induced hallucination, but that theory had been thrown out the window when the packages started showing up on his doorstep.
He had never told anyone his birthday, well, anyone except her anyway, so Naruto was surprised, to say the least, when he started finding presents outside his apartment on various holidays. It was kind of a surreal experience, knowing someone cared enough about him to get him a gift, but being unable to thank them for it. Thinking back, knowing someone actually cared was probably one of the few things that got him through the past few years.
Naruto forced his thoughts back to the present as the academy building came into view. The next graduation test was coming up, and it would be Naruto's last chance. It hadn't exactly been his fault that he had failed the previous tests. The proctor's always found something to fault him on, no matter how perfect his test scores were. Last year's test was the first time he was even allowed to take the practical exam, and even then they had failed him due to his flawed attempt at a bunshin.
Naruto pushed his worries from his mind, and put on the fake smile he had become so accustomed to hiding behind as he opened the door to the classroom.
"Uzumaki! You're late!" Mizuki shouted as he motioned for Naruto to sit down. In truth, Naruto was actually about five minutes early, but when Mizuki-sensei was teaching, he was always late regardless of the time.
"Sorry, Mizuki-sensei." Naruto deadpanned as he sat down next to Sakura. Naruto had immediately developed a massive crush on the pretty pink-haired girl when he first saw her years ago.
"Hi, Sakura-chan!" Naruto had to force the smile into his voice, but his ruse seemed to be passable as Sakura reacted in the same way she always did... by hitting him.
"Ugh! You idiot! What did I tell you about sitting next to me!" Sakura screeched and shoved Naruto back into the isle, much to the amusement of the rest of the class.
"Eheheh... Sorry about that, Sakura-chan. I kind of forgot." Like Naruto could forget, he remembered every single thing she had ever said to him. Nevertheless, Naruto pulled himself to his feet and took the empty seat two rows further back from her.
"Alright! Time for taijutsu practice! Everyone outside!" Mizuki shouted as he herded the class out into the training area behind the building.
"First up, let's have Sasuke-kun and Uzumaki."
"Hn." Sasuke grunted as he stepped forward into the sand-covered ring.
"Eh?! Why do I always have to fight Sasuke?" Naruto complained as he followed the broody boy into the circle.
"Because I said so, brat. Now start!"
From the second Mizuki's hand fell, Naruto was assaulted with a flurry of blows that his rather basic understanding of the academy taijutsu style just could not keep up with. Within seconds, Naruto was forced to the edge of the ring and had to resort to diving to the side in order to stay inside the circle.
"What's wrong? Can't fight back?" Sasuke drawled as he fell into a defensive stance and watched as Naruto staggered back to his feet.
"You wish!" Naruto retorted as he spit out some blood from a broken lip. Unfortunately, however, his offense faired about as well as his defense had, and he was once again sent crashing to the ground.
"Hn. That's all you've got? You haven't improved at all since last week." Sasuke smirked inwardly as the blond struggled to stand.
Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He would not let Sasuke get under his skin, especially not in public. If it really ended up bothering him, he'd deal with it later when he got home where no one would be able to see. Naruto took a second slow breath, forcing his emotions deep down inside of him. He couldn't explain it, but he suddenly felt calmer, more sure of himself, like there was some greater power welling up inside of him just waiting to be released.
'That's it. Let go.' Naruto heard the words echo around in his mind, but they didn't register with him as he let his body relax. He dropped down into a low stance and unclenched his fists. Unlike the broken academy style he was using before, his new posture positively screamed confidence. He had transformed from a cornered animal, boxed in by a vicious predator, into a fearsome beast himself.
Sasuke's next attack never landed. Naruto gracefully ducked under the blow and behind the raven-haired boy, his open hand striking the small of Sasuke's back and sending him stumbling forward.
"Hmm... Maybe you have gotten a little better. I guess even the dead last can improve eventually." Sasuke smirked as he turned around and made another charge at the blond, sending a quick series of jabs at the boy's chest.
'Relax.' Naruto skipped away from the blows, and slid inside the guard of his opponent with little effort. Naruto's punch slammed into Sasuke's stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs and sending him reeling backwards in shock.
Sasuke coughed heavily before launching himself back towards the blond in a hailstorm of kicks and punches, but he caught nothing but air as Naruto twisted around each strike like some kind of wild animal.
Just as Naruto readied to finish the fight, the strange feeling left him just as quickly as it had come, and he found himself crashing once more into the sand by Sasuke's vicious assault.
"I don't know what that was, but regardless of what you've been hiding, you're still dead last, Dobe." Sasuke grunted as he held his chest and looked down at the battered body of his schoolmate.
"Well done as always, Sasuke-kun!" Mizuki smiled at the Uchiha prodigy before glaring down at Naruto who was just struggling onto his hands and knees.
"Uzumaki! Get out of the way already." Naruto glared at his teacher as he hauled himself up off the ground and staggered over to the nearby wall.
"Hinata. Sakura. You two are up next." Mizuki waved his hand vaguely at the two girls as he made sure Sasuke was alright.
"I-I will not lose to you." Hinata whispered as she stepped into the ring.
"We'll see about that." Sakura smirked.
The two girls clashed in textbook perfect form, but neither was able to gain any specific advantage over the other. As they broke apart after a particularly long clash, a loud yell came from the sidelines.
"Go, Sakura-chan!" Sakura could feel the vein bulging in her forehead as she spun around to verbally assault the blond idiot again.
Hinata's eyes narrowed as she watched the pink-haired girl in front of her threaten to strike Naruto. "Hya!" Hinata shouted, and in the blink of an eye, closed the distance to the other girl. Sakura barely had time to turn around before Hinata was on top of her, closing down her tenketsu with ruthless Hyuuga efficiency.
"D-Do not turn your b-back on me." Hinata glared at the crumpled heap on the ground that was her opponent. For the longest time, Hinata had no issues with the pinkette, but her recent treatment of Naruto had really begun to rub her the wrong way.
"F-Forgive me, Sakura-san." Hinata mumbled as she knelt down next to the prone girl and quickly undid the damage that her strikes had caused.
"It's... It's okay, Hinata-chan. I should have taken the fight more seriously." Sakura tried to smile at the usually timid girl, but she found it extremely hard to make eye contact with the Hyuuga heiress.
"I... I let my emotions take control of me. I am sorry." Hinata bowed formerly before quickly running away and back inside of the academy building.
"Settle down!" Iruka was forced to shout over the roar of his students as they came back inside from lunch. It took him almost ten minutes to finally get the class quiet enough for him to speak.
"As you all know, the graduation exams are coming up soon. While normally they would still be a few months away, the council has decided to push the examination date forward." Iruka sighed at the looks of confusion on his student's faces."The examination date has been set for next week."
"What?! I thought we had three months left to study!"
"Don't worry about it, Sakura-chan! You're the smartest in our class, so you'll pass no problem!" Naruto smiled as he turned around to face the girl in the seat behind him only to get punched in the face.
"Shut up, Naruto!"
"Settle down!" Iruka shouted once again in a desperate attempt to remain in control of his classroom. "I realize that this is unusual, but every last one of you is as ready as you can be for the test." Iruka smiled at his students.
"Regardless of that fact, I do think that we should spend the remainder of our last week together in review, so everyone please turn to page fifty-seven in your text books." The class groaned in unison as Iruka smirked at them; he was certainly going to miss this bunch.
"Sakura-chan! Want to go get some ramen with me!" Naruto yelled as he jumped up from his seat and cut Sakura off from leaving at the end of class.
"Get out of my way idiot!" Sakura shouted as she tried to push past him, but only succeeded in causing both of them to tumble down the stairs and end up in a tangled pile at the bottom.
"Get off of me!" Sakura shoved the blond boy off of herself and looked up just in time to see Sasuke leave the room.
"Damn it, Naruto! You made me miss Sasuke-kun! Again!" Sakura shrieked as she slammed her fist into the top of his head, sending the boy crashing back down to the floor.
"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan..." Naruto mumbled as he got back to his feet and forced his gaze onto the floor. "I just wanted to buy you some ramen..."
"How many times do I have to tell you, Naruto?! I. Hate. Ramen. I do not want to go anywhere with you! I'm in love with Sasuke-kun, not you. I want Sasuke-kun to buy me things, not you. Leave me alone! Don't talk to me. Don't even look at me!" Sakura screamed at him.
"You're stupid. You're clumsy. You're a horrible ninja. Why would I want to go anywhere with a no-talent moron like you when I can ask Sasuke-kun out instead?! NEVER ask me again. Don't even think about ever asking me again. I want NOTHING to do with you, you... you MONSTER!" Sakura screamed the first insult that came into her mind. Honestly, she wasn't sure why 'monster' was at the top of that list, but she had heard other people call him similar things often enough. If she hadn't been so caught up in her verbal assault, she might have noticed the silent tears falling onto the floor at Naruto's feet.
"I... I..." Naruto choked on his own words for a moment before he managed to ruthlessly squash his emotions back down. "I understand. I won't bother you again, H-Haruno-san." Naruto barely managed to get the words out without breaking down again. He had to resort to forcing himself to do breathing exercises just to manage walking out of the room without bursting into tears again.
Hinata crossed the room in a flash, moving far faster than anyone had ever seen her move before, and slammed her fist into the side of Sakura's face. The sheer force of the punch sent the pink-haired girl reeling backwards into a desk and down to the ground.
"How DARE you say that to Naruto-kun! That poor boy has done nothing but be nice to you. He's stood up for you, protected you, and cheered you on with all his heart for years, and THAT is how you treat him?!" Hinata yelled as Sakura slowly staggered back to her feet. Before the pinkette could even respond, Hinata launched back into her tirade.
"Naruto-kun has been fighting for you since before you even knew he existed! Remember all those bullies that used to pick on you? Remember how they all suddenly stopped? That was Naruto. Remember when you got lost and couldn't find your way home, and you found all those arrows drawn in the dirt? That was Naruto. If you had asked, Naruto-kun would have given you everything he had just because you had been the one to ask him for it!" Sakura just stared dumbly as the raging Hyuuga continued.
"He treated you like a princess, and you treated him like dirt! Naruto-kun is not a monster, he's about as far from being one as anyone could possibly be. No, Haruno Sakura, the real monster is YOU." Hinata screamed the last words at the girl before turning around and running after Naruto, praying franticly that she would find him before he did anything desperate.
The second the classroom door clicked closed behind him, Naruto took off running. He didn't care where he was going, or how far he went, only that he continued to run. How could Sakura, of all people, say that to him? Sure, he might have been irritating, annoying even, but he never did anything to deserve that.
"She... She thinks I'm a monster..." Naruto had heard the word used to describe him before, that was nothing new, but to hear it from her was simply too much. His smiling mask had been chipped away at for years, but he always managed to put it back together eventually. When she had said those words to him, however, it was like hitting it with a sledgehammer; there just wasn't enough pieces left to fix.
Night fell down around him as Naruto ran further and further away from the academy, and further away from the pain. By the time he finally stopped, Naruto was on the other side of the village, deep inside one of the more heavily forested training grounds. Naruto slumped down into the massive branches of an ancient oak tree as mental and physical exhaustion finally forced him into a fitful sleep.
Hinata left the academy only a few minutes behind Naruto, but by the time she got outside and activated her Byakugan, he already had a sizable lead on her. It took everything Hinata had just to keep him within the range of her eyes as he shot across the village, and even with her enhanced vision, she managed to lose track of him on more than one occasion.
By the time Hinata finally found him, the sun had long since set and it was starting to drizzle out. Seeing Naruto curled up in a tiny ball, shivering and tossing around in his sleep, she couldn't help but feel bad for him.
"He's going to catch a cold out here like this..." Hinata mumbled to herself as she looked down at the boy. She didn't dare disturb what little sleep he was likely to get after today, so she did the only other thing she could think of; she quickly pulled off her jacket and laid it over him like a blanket. It wasn't much, but at least it would help.
'Boy.' A deep rumbling voice echoed through Naruto's head as he tossed and turned in his sleep. Unlike before, however, he actually registered the fact that someone was talking to him.
'Open your eyes, boy.' There was that voice again. Hesitantly, Naruto opened his eyes, fully expecting some angry ANBU to be standing in front of him, but instead he found himself in what looked like a massive sewer. There were dozens upon dozens of pipes running all over the walls and ceiling, and whatever he was standing in, it didn't look present.
'Over here.' The voice echoed through the passage ways as Naruto slogged through the murky, ankle-deep water towards the source of the sound.
'Good. Good. Only a little further.' The voice boomed as Naruto entered a large chamber that was lined by several passageways along three of the walls. The fourth wall, however, was comprised entirely of a pair of huge iron gates that were sealed shut by a simple piece of paper.
'We meet at last, Namikaze Naruto.' The voice reverberated around the room as a large shadow shifted behind the cage.
"What? Where am I? And my name's Uzumaki Naruto, not Namikaze."
'You've been lied to. They lied to you. You are Namikaze Naruto.' The voice shook the entire chamber as the shadow moved closer to the bars.
"Who's 'they'? And you still haven't told me where I am yet." Naruto squinted to try and see through the almost unnatural darkness behind the bars of the huge gate.
'You wish to know where you are?'
"Uh-huh..." Naruto nodded his head shakily at the question. Based on the monstrous tone of the voice, he was starting to believe that he didn't actually want to hear the answer.
'My prison!' The voice roared as the shadow lunged at the bars, causing Naruto to stumble back in fear. Behind the barrier was an impossibly large fox with nine massive tails and menacing red eyes.
"What... What the hell are you?"
'I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The legendary nine-tailed demon fox. That blasted village sealed me inside of you. That's the reason they hate you. They despise the fact that we continue to survive. That we've managed to live on despite all of the attempts on our lives.' The Kyuubi chuckled at the look of sheer shock and revulsion Naruto's face, causing the entire room to vibrate. 'Did you really think all of those attacks were accidents? Did you really think that your life was supposed to be like this? Did you really expect them to accept you? You Foolish child! No, they were trying to kill you, boy. They were trying to exact revenge for deaths that they brought upon themselves!'
"What... What do you want with me?" Naruto asked, his voice still shaky, but he was standing his ground in front of the massive demon fox.
'I... I want to propose a deal, boy. A partnership if you will. I've had twelve long years to examine the seal that was used to bind me in here, and sadly it is quite impossible for me to regain the freedom that I once had. There is, however, a way that we may be of mutual use to each other...
'You hate that village, don't you? You want to make them pay for how they heaped abuse upon a child that should have been treated as a hero. They ruined your life. They destroyed your hopes and dreams before you even had them! You think you can become Hokage in a village full of people like that? Do not be so idealistic.'
"They... They did this to me?" Naruto's fists were balled up at his sides, his whole body shaking in silent fury.
'Not just anyone, boy, the fourth Hokage. Your own father sacrificed himself, and forfeited any chance for you to have a normal life, for that village, and they treated you like a monster.' The Kyuubi smirked as he watched the rage build even higher behind Naruto's eyes.
"My... My father?"
'Namikaze Minato. Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure. Savior, hero, and the and slayer of the great nine-tailed demon fox!' The Kyuubi's vicious laughter filled the room.
"My father did... My father did this to me?"
'To save his precious village. To protect his beloved family. To rid the world of a monster. If only he knew who the real monsters were...'
"R-Real... monsters?" Naruto's voice cracked, and he could feel the blood flowing between his fingers from the gouges his nails had made in his palms.
'That village... Those people attacked my family! They slaughtered my kin in cold blood. We did NOTHING to warrant their attack. We may have been demons. We may have been monsters. We may have done terrible things in the past, but we... I did not deserve to watch my children burn for crimes they did not commit! No father should be forced to watch their pups die in front of them. No, we may have been demons, but we had HONOR! We had standards! Your... Your village attacked unprovoked, and for reasons I still have yet to hear!'
"But... But... My father..."
'Your father had nothing to do with it. He was a remarkable man, even by my standards. No, the man who was responsible worked from the shadows, manipulating your father and his precious village into destroying everything I held dear.' The giant fox growled, sending ripples through the water on the floor.
"What, exactly, are you offering?"
'I want revenge. I want to watch the people responsible for the deaths of my children choke on their own blood. In exchange, I'm willing pledge my eternal loyalty to you, and your clan should you so choose to revive it, in the most powerful way possible. I am offering to you, Namikaze Naruto, something that has not existed in your world for thousands of years. I wish to exchange the summoning contract of the Fox Clan for your help in eliminating the people who have ruined our lives. Do you accept?'
"Just... Just tell me what I have to do."
A/N:
Yes, more angst... I know, I know, I'm sorry! This is the last chapter that involves Naruto's shitty childhood, and there's one more scene coming up in the next chapter, but after that things start getting better. Now, I know I said Naruto wasn't going to go emo on you, and he won't, but in order for him to become the person he has to be, these kinds of things need to happen. Right cannot exist without wrong.
Also, I know Hinata comes off a little... stalkerish, but well... she kinda is in canon, so you'll just have to deal with it. In regards to her sudden bout of forwardness during the festival scenes, well... anonymity and infatuation can be very powerful motivators. Don't expect her to always be the way she is in this chapter. She's had quite a bit of pent up emotion to drive her lately :P
I hope you enjoy the slightly OOC Kyuubi. Far too many people play him off either as some sort of power figure that decides to pity/train Naruto to ensure his own survival, or as some crazed monster bent on total world domination. The Kyuubi in my story is kind of a middle ground. He's done terrible things (in humanity's eyes), but he's bound by his own code of honor. He's not a complete monster, nor is he completely repentant. Just how he ends up in the end is my little secret for now though :P
Oh, and Warriors of Fate Chapter 6 IS coming... I've just hit a bit of writer's block :/
Translations:
Golden Birthday – One's golden birthday is the birthday when you turn the same age as the date of your birth. For example, Naruto's is when he turns 10 on October 10th.
Kimono – A type of formal wear worn by Japanese people (both men and women contrary to some beliefs :P).
Takoyaki – Octopus dumplings that are commonly served during festivals.
Bunshin no Jutsu – Clone Technique
Tenketsu – Chakra points. These are the areas that are targeted by the Hyuuga's Juken (gentle fist) style.
Byakugan – Literally means 'white eyes' It's also the Hyuuga clan's Kekki-genkai (blood-line limit), which gives them a near 360 degree range of vision and allows them to see chakra and over great distances.