It's been five years since the birth of Naruto Uzumaki. He's never really had a father, he had what he refers to as 'mister'. Minato refused to accept Naruto as his child, even refusing to give the boy his last name. In his eyes, Naruto was the demon who took the life of his beloved wife Kushina, nothing more than a monster.
It was at this age Naruto would finally meet Kurama. Turns out recovering from merging its energy with its jinchūriki is quite a feat. This is when the true bond between Kurama and Naruto formed.
The scrawny little blond boy was chained in the basement after failing to meet Minato's demands yet again. Naruto would often find himself chained and stripped of his clothes in the frigid basement for the simplest of things. All it would take to set Minato off was something as basic as walking too close to him without permission.
Every week Minato would force Naruto to lay topless with his stomach present in the centre of a circle surrounded by a bunch of creepy men that wore white and red cloaks. Naruto could never make out their faces.
On this night something peaked Narutos interest, he heard one of the men speak up and say, "We've been doing this for five years and not once have any of us been able to get the little shit to communicate with it."
"We need to try harder then!" Minato burst out, getting up and sending a swift kick into the little boy's side.
"Ow, Dad, why?" cried out Naruto.
"What did you just call me?" Minato asks while giving the boy another powerful kick.
"Argh! I'm sorry Sir! I didn't mean to!" The terrified little boy sobs while curling his body and clutching his sides where newly formed bruises are already beginning to form.
"Monsters get no rights!" Minato screams, towering over the boy.
"I'm Naruto, I'm not a Monster!" Naruto says through his quivering voice.
"Tell that to the demon inside you that helped you kill my wife!" Screams Minato while heavily pressing his foot down on the side of Narutos head.
"Wh-what demon? I-I'm a boy!" Naruto stutters.
"You are nothing but a filthy good for nothing demon who killed the woman who gave birth to you, had you not been born she would still be alive!" Minato yells while pointing his finger at the boy lying beneath him.
Removing his foot from the boy's head he swings his leg back before delivering one final blow this time to the boy's middle back. The only things that could be heard from the basement were screams and sobs.
'Why me? Why is this my life? I'm sorry I'm such a bad boy' thinks the distressed boy.
"You're a worthless monster, you know what worthless monsters get don't you?" Minato asks, chuckling manically.
"N-no, no please I promise I be a good boy!" the trembling boy sobs trying to sit up.
"Who do you think you're fooling? A good boy? You've ruined my life and the life of everybody here, you're going to learn to listen and let us use you or you're getting chained down here all weekend! And every weekend that follows!" Minato says with detest while shoving the boy back down against the cold hard unfinished flooring of their basement.
"Pl-please sir, I be good!" Naruto pleads through choked cries.
"THAT'S ENOUGH! I've had it with you!" Minato shouts while grabbing the boy tightly around his arm and dragging him against the floor over to the corner of the room, where bolted to the wall were heavy chains that had shackles attached to them.
Shoving the boy into the corner and attaching the terribly painful, modified restraints Minato grabs Naruto by his hair and slams his head against the wall rendering him unconscious.
"Naruto is that you?" calls out a terrifyingly deep voice.
Opening his eyes, Naruto is surrounded by darkness, the only light appears to be shining down directly on top of him.
"Wh-who's there?" stutters Naruto, terrified.
"Wow, you've grown, how old are you now? The strange voice asks while gently chuckling.
The feeling of warmth washes over Naruto, feeling oddly calm and safe he says, "I'm five years old mister, but who are you?"
"Ah, where are my manners? I am Kurama, the nine tailed fox spirit. Though technically I am you and you are me now, but only in the sense that my energy merged with yours at the time of your birth." Kurama responds.
"The what now?" Naruto asks adorably, tilting his head in confusion.
"Here let me just show you," the spirit says.
In the blink of an eye the whole area becomes illuminated, Naruto finds himself standing in a huge room with impossibly tall ceilings. Thirty feet from where Naruto sits is a huge area that looks to be caged off and from that cage appears to be admitting the calmest, most peaceful energy Naruto has ever experienced.
"That's better, now come forth Naruto" Kurama gently requests.
Standing up Naruto immediately realised he isn't feeling the pain he should be feeling after having his regular run in with his father. Taking a quick second to look over his body he realises he has no wounds on his body. 'What the, how?' He thinks to himself, not realising Kurama can still hear him.
"This isn't the human world; this is a world only we can access. You won't hurt here" Kurama responds.
"What? How? Who?" the boy asks, a bit concerned.
Chuckling, Kurama softly says "We share a mind, I can hear your thoughts and you can hear mine should we choose to not block each other out. As for who, this place was designed for my kind, the nine different animal spirits and our jinchūrikis, you and the vessels home to my siblings. Now come forward towards the cage, I would like to show you myself so we can formally meet, but please try not to be scared, I promise I will not hurt you."
Slowly walking up to the massive cage Naruto is not sure what to expect so he keeps his eyes fixed on the ground beneath him. Once arriving he remains fixated on the floor, not daring to look up without permission, this is something Minato has ingrained into his young immature mind.
"Naruto, please look up and step between the bars, you do not need to fear me, for I will never do anything to cause you harm" pleads the spirit.
After contemplating a moment, he slowly continues between the bars and into the cage, he feels an overwhelming happiness he has never felt, feeling a loving presence above him he looks up. Looking down at him with crimson eyes with thin black silted pupils was a huge fifty-foot-tall, flame coloured fox with nine tails.
Narutos eyes widened at what he's seeing "are you the demon he always tells me about?" he asks.
Lowering his head in sorrow Kurama says "Yes, I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused you. I understand you may hate me and be terrified of me, but you being born saved me from my tormented existence, I owe you everything. I would have met you sooner to explain all of this, but I had no way of knowing it would take five years to recover my energy from the merging process."
Walking up to the fox, Naruto rests his face and body into it's mighty paw and says, "You are beautiful, I could never hate you, you know? I don't think you're a demon, I think you're amazing. I know from this feeling of being with you that nothing will change that."
Kumaras eyes widened, never has he ever been called something as kind as beautiful. Smiling lovingly at his jinchūriki, Kurama says, "well that's good because you and I will be together for eternity little one."
"What does that mean?" Naruto asks inquisitively.
"It means you will not grow old and die," Kurama answers.
"WHAT? That's so cool! Wait, won't I get lonely?" the boy asks.
"Don't worry, you have forever and when you find your soul mate you can mark them with a seal that binds them to us allowing them to live out eternity with us." Kurama says.
Looking up at the fox in wonder, Naruto exclaims "so cool!"
During their time in Narutos unconscious mind, Kurama explains everything to Naruto, from the beginning of Divinity, up until the day his mother lost her life. It was a lot of information for a five-year-old to take in, but he was doing remarkably well with it.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, I know you're only five, so how did you get such horrendous injuries? Kurama cautiously asks.
"Well, you see my father, or mister, he hates me for killing mom. He says I'm a monster, a demon. Every week he and these weird creepy men come to our house, they gather around me in the basement and make me show them my tummy because of this mark. They always try to make me do something, but they never tell me what, and when I can't mister and sometimes the men hurt me and chain me in the basement." Naruto answers sadly, looking down and placing his palm over his seal mark.
Letting out a low snarl, startling Naruto a little in the process Kurama says "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, nothing about your mother dying is our fault, if your father wasn't with his group of rats when your mother went into labour she may have survived. There is nothing we can do to change the past, just know that I am sorry for what you are being put through all because of the acts of a coward."
"It's so hard Kurama, he hurts me so much. He's a police officer, everyone thinks he's not nice and they trust him no matter what, but he is not a good man" Naruto says, looking down and fiddling with his fingers.
"One day he won't be able to hurt you anymore, once I've strengthened your body enough you will be able to use my power and nobody can hurt you anymore. You just need to stay strong until then, can you do that for me Naruto?" Kurama solemnly asks.
Looking up at Kurama with his big gleaming cobalt sapphires Naruto exclaims "Of course I can you know! I am Naruto Uzumaki after all!"
Smiling at his boy Kurama lowers his head to gently rest his snout against the boy as a sign of love and respect then says" It's time for you to wake up now, but you need to just talk to me in your mind and I will always be here."
Within seconds the boy's eyes fly open, immediately realising he's now alone, a smile crosses his little round face, forgetting about the excruciating pain he begins to hum to himself thinking about his other half, Kurama.
Almost eleven more years have passed, and it has been anything but easy. Minato's wrath seems to only increase, and the beatings only seemed to get worse the older he got. Minato had even started selling his body on occasion to creepy gross men as a form of punishment after finding out that he has a harmless crush on a boy. Losing his innocence at such a young age turned him colder than any of the beatings ever could. Naruto became sexually active just so he could feel like he was the one in control of his body if even a little bit, he wanted to feel like he was choosing the partners to burn away the gross creepy men's touches.
On his fifteenth birthday he was old enough to get a job which meant Minato stopped providing the minimum type of care he was previously giving which was fine by Naruto. Almost immediately after applying for jobs he got a call back that he got hired to stock shelves at the local supermarket. You wouldn't think a teen would be so stoked for this type of job, but now Naruto was going to be working after school and weekends which means less time around mister and not as much time for him to be condemned to the basement.
It was Monday morning and Naruto was woken up to his alarms, excessive beeping. Reaching over to grab his phone he swipes it, shutting his alarm off.
'Good morning hell' he thinks to himself.
Rolling over then sitting up, he gets out of bed making his way to his bedroom door. Opening his door quietly, he listens carefully. Not a peep was heard.
'Phew, he's already left' Naruto thinks to himself while letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
Between school and work Naruto has had the pleasure of seeing his father or what he refers to him as now, his sperm donor, less and less. Naruto honestly couldn't be happier, the only downside is that when he does see him, everything is a thousand times worse.
Making his way out of his room he heads to the washroom where brushes his teeth ridding his mouth of its foul morning breath, then he quickly relieves himself, he gets undressed and jumps in the shower, turning it on as hot as his skin can possibly handle without melting off. Gently lathering his hair with his vanilla almond shampoo then scrubbing his body from head to toe with his orange nutmeg body wash he proceeds to rise himself off.
Shutting off the shower her reaches for his towel and pats his body dry, wrapping the towel around his waist and picking up his dirty clothes as he makes his way to his bedroom to get dressed. He puts on a pair of silky black boxers, a pair of fox printed sock, black skinny jeans with rips in the thighs just above the knees, his favourite Tool shirt and over top he wore his simple black and red slipknot hoodies with a large barcode spread across it's back. Some say it's a lot of black, but it's what Naruto likes.
Naruto finishes by using his damp towel to finish drying his wet hair then tossing it and his dirty clothes into his hamper. After running his fingers through his hair he deems it good enough. Grabbing his phone, wallet, keys and backpack he makes it out of his room and down the stairs towards the kitchen.
Opening the tiny cabinet Minato allows him to use for his food so he doesn't touch any food that doesn't belong to him he grabs a slice of bread and some peanut butter. Popping the bread in the toaster he waits for it to pop. When the bread finally finishes toasting, he grabs it out of the toaster leading to him burning his fingers.
"Fuck!" he cusses.
'You really think I'd know it would be fucking hot by now' he thinks while scoffing and rolling his eyes at himself.
Deeming the bread cool enough he grabs a knife and spreads the peanut butter evenly over the toast then places the knife in the sink. Opening the cupboard, he gets a short cylindrical cup out for him to poor himself some orange juice.
Taking time to actually sit at the kitchen table to eat in peace for once he quietly enjoys his breakfast. While he is eating a new song idea pops into his head. Placing his plate and cup in the sink he quickly sets to washing his dishes, so Minato doesn't have another reason the fuck him over later.
Looking at his phone he sees it's 7:30, he quickly runs upstairs grabs his song book and brings it down placing it into his bag. Sliding on his black and white converse he makes his way out the front door, using his keys to lock it behind him, he's off to another fun filled day in hell.
Reaching the gates of school at 7:45 he makes his way over to a secluded tree where one of his only true friends notoriously lays. Under a huge, old maple tree lies a short boy with pale skin, eyes the colour of pure cocoa and spiky walnut coloured hair that was tied into a high ponytail.
Opening only one eye he responds with a yawn "Morning Naruto."
Naruto greets "morning Shikamaru."
"Well, are you going to sit or stand there all morning?" inquires the lazy teen.
"I'm actually going to head to class early today, you know try to avoid Kiba and his pack of entitled pricks. Just wanted to come and make sure you weren't going to sleep the whole morning away again" jokes the blond.
"What a drag. Well as you can see, I'm unfortunately awake" Shikamaru lazily replies with a small smirk on his face.
Chuckling ever so lightly, Naruto waves and says, "alright I'll see you in class."
As the blond begins to walk away Shikamaru quickly teases "Who are you kidding? You'll be sleeping through English like always."
Acknowledging the lazy teens teasing, the blond responded with "Yeah, yeah, just blame Kakashi sensei for always being late." Still lightly chuckling he proceeds to walk away.
Entering the school building he's thankful Kiba, an average height teen with short, spiky brunette hair, dark silted eyes, tan skin and two red triangle tattoos of his face, isn't there with his gang of imbeciles to try and start something. Apparently, it's fun to make fun of the tall, tanned, blond, blue-eyed loser who keeps to himself. That's not the real reason Kiba turned the school against him though, they used to be best friends.
Kiba and Naruto have always been on the same basketball team, it's how they grew close and became best friends. Kiba had developed a crush on Naruto, but the feeling wasn't mutual, sure Naruto thought he was attractive, being bisexual, he can appreciate an attractive male he just didn't want to date him.
To celebrate a fantastic start to their basketball season Kiba threw a party for the team to invite whoever they wanted. Naruto being Naruto had no one to invite, his only other friend besides his team would be too lazy to come to a party, so he went alone. After a night of Kiba feeding Naruto drink after drink, he woke up in Kibas bed naked, sticky and a bit sore.
Having not been Narutos first one night stand he normally would have just brushed it off but something didn't sit right with him. He couldn't remember anything after getting to the party and that's not normal for him. In actuality Kiba had drugged Naruto in hopes that sleeping with him would cause the blond to realise his feelings for him. The following week Kiba left History to go to the washroom. Walking into the washroom all he could hear was grunts and slapping of skin. As he rounded the corner there, ramming into an orange haired teen, later identified as Yahiko, was Naruto.
To say Kiba was angry and hurt would be an understatement. Before the teens had a chance to finish Kiba took out his phone and recorded a video of the boys' extracurricular activities. By the end of the day the video had made its way around the school and Kibas rein or terror had begun.
Making his way to class with still ten minutes till the warning bell rings, Naruto decides to take his seat in the back corner beside the window and finish putting the last bits to his song that he figured out this morning. One good thing about being the school freak is no one wants to sit beside him even with assigned seating, sure the whispers get irritating, but it's nothing he's not used to.
Looking over his song he gets an overwhelming sense of pride. Not many things can make him smile, there's Kurama, Shikamaru and music, those are truly the only things that he needs to keep him going. Putting his song book back in his pack he decides to put his hood up and lean his head down on the desk. Kakashi sensei is always at least 10 minutes late and it's easier to ignore whispers when you're sleeping.
As the kids load in the whispers begin to start, luckily Kiba isn't in his English class. Drowning out the kids Naruto manages to drift off to sleep. Next thing he knows he's being hit in the head with a dry erase marker.
"Naruto, wake up!" The aloof teacher scolds.
Naruto scoffs then dismissively waves his hand but still refuses to raise his head.
Hearing Kakashi sensei sigh he knows he's won the battle, but what he hears next catches even his interest.
"Well, you can take your seat now" the teacher tells someone.
"Hn" is all Naruto heard.