Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.


I hear the voices echoing around me
Angered eyes that don't even know who I am
Looking to kill again
As the unknown enemies surround me
Wicked laughter resonates inside my head
And I am filled with dread
What did I do, why do I deserve this?
So we're different, why do I deserve to die now?
Give me a reason why?

- Disturbed, Who Taught You How to Hate


Part One: How It All Began

Chapter One: In-sanity

Uzumaki Naruto was not abused –not in the classical meaning of the word.

He was not locked in a dark room underneath a staircase whenever he misbehaved. He was not beaten whenever his guardians felt he had done something wrong. He was not denied meals whenever someone was angry at him. No, he grew up like any other child.

When he was a baby, his caretakers would –grudgingly– hold him in their arms and feed him with a bottle. When he was old enough to start eating solid food, there was someone holding the spoon and trying to make him eat his meals. His small home was kept clean, his laundry done and ironed. He was taught how to walk, how to speak, how to go potty. He was always cared for.

But 'cared for' does not equal 'loved'.

Some people say that a person can learn to live under even the most difficult circumstances, provided there is nothing to remind them of what they're missing out on. Naruto had plenty of reminders.

The last time he was held with what resembled –in passing– motherly affection was so long ago, he sometimes thought he might have dreamt it. He was not tucked in bed and told stories about brave ninja going on fantastic adventures. He was not escorted to the playground or told to be careful. He was not included in the games the other children played. He had no-one to walk home with him when the sun went down.

He was always alone. He didn't know why; neither did the other children, who were just told to stay away from the blond boy with the whisker marks on his cheeks. But the adults knew.

Uzumaki Naruto carried a heavy burden, one that had been entrusted to him on the day he'd been born. It was neither his choice nor his fault, even though everyone acted as if it was. The ninja thought he was unsafe, unstable, that the demon sealed inside him would escape at the slightest provocation. The civilians thought he was the reincarnation of that demon, having donned the visage of a small, innocent child to get them to lower their guards around him.

But they couldn't drive away or kill the village's most powerful weapon, since the boy was under the protection of the Hokage. Therefore, they did what they thought best in order to keep the demon away. They ignored him. They pretended not to see him when he walked past them, not to notice when he spoke. Both groups kept their children away from the whiskered blond boy, telling them that he was dangerous.

And so, Uzumaki Naruto had been isolated, an outcast in his home village.

The boy hadn't let the resentment of the world keep him down, however. He had tried to connect with others many times, either by harassing the other children until they gave in and agreed to play with him, or by talking nonstop to his caretakers, hoping they'd answer him. Last night, before he'd gone to sleep, he'd made another such attempt.

The blond boy was sitting on his bed, hugging his knees close to his chest and holding a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. His mind was racing with unfamiliar thoughts.

What was his purpose in this existence?

Why was he alive?

-XOXO-

Kurama woke up from his nap when a quake shook his living prison and groaned. It sounded like the brat was having another sobfest.

Great. Just great. Curse the Yondaime for sealing him inside this brat.

The Fox's cage, which had been a blank space when the boy had been born, had slowly turned into what could best be described as a sewer. It was a dimly lit, almost claustrophobic room with a shallow pool of water covering the floor and leaky pipes running along the walls. Kurama didn't like it one bit, but at least he wasn't chained down here. He could put up with less than acceptable surroundings as long as he was free to move his tails around.

It still stung, though. To think that a puny human had managed to devise a seal powerful enough to imprison him, the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, the most powerful of all the Tailed Beasts, inside a whiny, sniveling brat…

As Kurama cursed the Yondaime Hokage –not for the first time and definitely not for the last– in highly descriptive and increasingly creative terms, another quake shook the shallow lake and made the pipes groan.

Kurama stopped muttering to himself and flicked his ears, finally deigning to open his eyes.

The Fox's first impression of the brat's mind was: 'damaged'. A section of the wall began to crumble right before his eyes. As the cracks extended upwards, a pipe broke in two, releasing a spray of water.

Something was really wrong. The runt was only four years old –far too young for his mind to be falling apart like that. What the hell had happened while he'd been napping?

A piece of the ceiling fell as the fracture extended even further and broke off into numerous branches.

No, screw the reason why; it was of secondary importance. What mattered right now was stopping this… whatever it was… before the boy's mindscape was torn apart completely. Kurama had lived for decades chained down, but at least both Mito and Kushina had been sane –well, as sane as Uzumaki women can be. However, the Fox refused to live inside a fractured mind; he still had standards. Not to mention that being directly in contact with an unhinged child was likely to ruin his sanity as well.

And so, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox did what he never thought he would end up doing, not even if the Moon suddenly fell to the Earth. He voluntarily reached out to his jailor, not to tempt him with promises of power, but to help him.

Somewhere out there, a tanuki must be laughing his ass off; Kurama was certain of that.

"What's the matter, little brat?"

Kurama felt the brat tense and saw him look around his small room, trying to find the owner of the voice. "Hello? Is someone there?"

Ugh. Humans. "I'm in here, runt." The brat kept looking around. "Inside your head."

"Inside my head?" The brat shook his head. "No, can't be. I'm just hearing voices."

"For the first and last time," Kurama said, feeling his patience fading rapidly, "I'm as real as you are. Now, answer me. What happened to you while I was sleeping?"

The runt shrugged and apparently decided not to question the rude, demanding voice inside his head. "She crumpled the drawing and threw it in the trash."

Okay, that was some progress. "What drawing? And who is 'she'?"

"The lady who watches over me while I sleep. I left a drawing under her handbag last night." The boy hugged his knees closer to his body. "I've seen many kids give pictures to adults, so I thought…"

"You thought that she was going to keep the drawing, call you 'son', and love you like your mother would." There probably was a more delicate way to phrase this, but Kurama wasn't inclined to act politely –not when his prison was crumbling around him as he was speaking.

"Yes," the boy whispered, sounding completely dejected. "But she threw it away. I found it in the trash this morning."

The Fox bared his fangs and growled low in his throat. Disgusting. And his siblings said that Kurama was unduly hateful towards humans. Che. Humans were the only creatures in the world willing to treat their own kind like garbage.

"Is that what she thinks of me? That I'm trash? Is that what everyone else think of me?"

The mindscape shook again, and a second fracture opened on another wall. This was really, really bad. Kurama had to do something –and fast.

He opened his mouth to say that there were people who cared about the boy, but the words never came out. Because the truth was that no-one cared about Uzumaki Naruto –and the boy knew it.

The only person who regularly visited the boy was the Sandaime Hokage, but he didn't do it out of kindness. Sarutobi Hiruzen was quite adept at hiding his true intentions, but Kurama wasn't fooled. He might not be able to freely use his chakra inside his living prison, but he could still gauge the emotions of others with unerring accuracy. The Fox could see the resentment in the old man's eyes, even though the brat couldn't yet. The Hokage's visits were not those of a loving grandfather calling in on his treasured grandson; they were those a military leader paid to inspect a valuable asset.

"What is my purpose in this life? Why go on living?"

Crap. Crap. If Kurama ever got his claws on the Yondaime, he'd eviscerate that bastard for putting him through this, just like he should have done four years ago.

"Your purpose?" Kurama stalled, trying to come up with ideas. "I don't know that. But I do know that if you give up on life, then your parents are going to be furious with you."

"My parents?" The boy had lifted his head; the surprise in his voice was palpable.

"Yes." Just as he'd expected, that little bit of information had gotten the runt's attention. "Did you think you spawned from a log, runt? Everyone has parents."

"Who were they?" The desperation in the boy's voice made the Fox sick once again. Humans really were the most wretched creatures on this planet. To deny a kit his skulk…

Kurama shook his massive head to rid himself of any traces of sympathy for the runt.

"Your father was..." 'An idealistic fool who somehow managed to defeat me and seal me inside a pathetic little brat like you.' "… a powerful shinobi. His name was Namikaze Minato."

It physically hurt the Fox to praise the damnable blond bastard, even as faintly as that, but there was no other choice if he wanted to fix the damage in the boy's mind.

"And your mother, she was..." 'An insufferable woman who kept me imprisoned for nearly two decades.' "… a kunoichi named Uzumaki Kushina."

Kurama noticed that the runt was no longer talking –or crying, for that matter. The mindscape was no longer tearing itself apart and the existing fractures had stopped expanding. 'Good.' Now that he knew –more or less– what he had to say to stabilize the brat, things would be easier.

The situation also presented Kurama with a unique opportunity. Since he had taken the effort to forge the link between the runt's mind and his own, he could go all the way and start corrupting the brat in order to weaken the Eight Trigram Seal. But, to do that, Kurama had to make the boy believe he was his friend. Being only four years old, the runt was gullible and his mental defenses were practically non-existent –and those that had been in place were now severely damaged. It would be tedious and time-consuming, but it wasn't as if the Fox had any pressing appointments to attend.

Yes, it could be done. If he was careful, Kurama could gain his freedom much sooner than he'd expected.

"I have my mom's name," the brat said after a very long pause.

That wasn't what Kurama had expected would be the first thing to come out of the runt's mouth. "...Yes."

"All the other kids have their dads' names. Why– "

Oh, no. Kurama was not going to go into that. Enough was enough.

"I don't know, runt," he said, cutting off the brat. "You just do. Also, stop talking to me out loud. I'm not out there. I'm inside your head. Just think what you want to say and I'll hear it."

'You mean, like this?'

"Better," the Fox grunted.

'Can you tell me anything more about my parents?' The brat asked hopefully.

"I can tell you everything you want to know about them, along with a few things you probably don't want to ever learn."

'What does that mean?'

"Pray that you never find out, little brat," the Fox said with a wicked chuckle. As fun as it would be to describe some of his parents' more... private... moments to the brat just for the hell of it, it wasn't worth the risk. Maybe in a few years, when the runt would be old enough to know where babies came from.

'So...' the brat began hesitantly. 'Will you tell me about them?'

"Don't worry, I will," Kurama promised. "Before I do that, though, we have to fix all that devastation."

'What 'devastation'?' The runt asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm talking about this mess inside your..." Except that the brat had never been inside their shared mindscape; one more thing Kurama had to take care of once everything was back to normal. "Never mind. All you need to know is that you have to do something before your mind gets torn apart."

'Is that a bad thing?'

"Yes," Kurama said, rolling his eyes, "It's a very bad thing."

So, how to accomplish that...

The root of this evil was that old lady. What better way to fix this mess than by turning the tables on the hag who had thrown a child's affection back at his face? Plus, it would allow the runt to get a measure of vengeance against the loathsome old woman.

"You know, runt, one of your mother's hobbies was pulling pranks..."

-XOXO-

Naruto watched as the old lady opened her front door and walked inside her house.

A few moments later, a shrill scream echoed across the crowded street, effortlessly reaching Naruto's hiding place.

"Sounds like the hag saw the new paint job you gave to her house," Kurama snickered.

Naruto laughed, a cold sound with a harsh edge that would have alarmed any adults, should they suddenly decide to start paying attention to the boy. The old lady had hurt him, so he'd hurt her back. And it felt good. It was a sensation of freedom the boy had never experienced before.

Naruto decided he wanted to feel that way more often.

'Can we pull another prank tomorrow?'

"No. If you do that kind of thing every day, then it loses its bite. Besides, you need time to properly plan out a decent prank. However," Kurama said with a smile that showed an impressive number of teeth, "that only gives us time to think of something appropriate for that shopkeeper who chased you out of his restaurant last week."

Yes, that mean old man who had refused to serve the 'demon'. But there were many others like him. The baker on the main street. The owner of the candy store. The owner of the grocery store. Another baker… The list was almost endless.

It didn't matter, though. He'd get them all soon enough.

Naruto laughed again.

-XOXO-

"And this," Kurama said, projecting an image in the boy's mind, "is the letter 'ta'."

Naruto dutifully copied the syllabic letter in his notebook. As soon as the Fox was done showing him each kana, the five-year-old boy would then start practicing how to write them in order to memorize them. It would be slow, mind-numbing work, but it wasn't like Kurama was going anywhere in the foreseeable future; he might as well find a way to pass the time.

Thankfully, the mindscape was back to normal now, looking more stable than ever –although the Fox wished he could do something about the décor.

'Why do I have to do this again?' Naruto grumbled as he put down his pencil and rubbed his wrist.

"Because most knowledge about ninjutsu is kept in books and scrolls, and I'm not going to read them out to you," Kurama said for the millionth time. "Also, you should be able to recognize words like 'danger' and 'flammable' before trying anything like that again."

If Kurama hadn't reacted so quickly during the runt's last stunt, then the boy would be talking to his parents in person right now and the Fox would be stuck in limbo waiting to reform. That wasn't something Kurama wanted to have a repeat of ever again.

The boy pouted. 'But it's so boring.'

"So are many other things. Get used to it, runt," Kurama said, feeling a measure of glee at the boy's sullen expression. "Now, this is the letter 'na'."

Kurama gave an almost evil laugh as Naruto groaned and picked up his pencil again.

-XOXO-

Naruto tried to concentrate on the scroll he was reading instead of the massive tails swishing behind him.

The six-year-old preferred to retreat inside his mind when he was in his home, so that he could physically… mentally… actually be in Kurama's presence. Even though the Fox acted like he was a pest at times, there was something comforting in being around the only person –other that the Hokage– who talked to him willingly.

After a while, the noise became too much even for the hyperactive boy. "Will you stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"Swishing your tails around like that and hitting the walls. You're distracting me!"

"Oh, that." The massive tails stopped moving and coiled themselves around the Fox. "I was just bored. It's too quiet in here."

"But… But you're the one who told me to sit down and read this scroll in the first place!" Naruto yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at the Fox. "You said that I have to learn this stuff before moving on to the more advanced scrolls about chakra!"

"Yes, I did," Kurama admitted sheepishly. "But it's taking you forever."

"Then go back to sleep and let me work in peace!"

Kurama rested his massive head on top of his folded forepaws. "I'm too bored to nap."

Naruto's mouth was moving, but the boy couldn't get any words out.

Suddenly, Kurama's head shot up. "Shogi!"

And now the blond boy had absolutely no idea what was going on anymore. "Sho-what?"

"Shogi," Kurama repeated with unusual enthusiasm. "It's a board game one can play to pass the time."

"Oh, no," Naruto protested, guessing what the Fox was about to suggest. "I have to read this."

Kurama's eyes lit up and he smiled; Naruto tensed, sensing a sales pitch. "Shogi is more than just a game. It tests the cunning of the players, pushing the limits of their creativity. If you master this, then you'll learn how to be a better strategist – and very few will be able to see through your ploys."

Okay, that actually sounded interesting. The Military Police were getting better at tracking him down after his pranks.

"Fine," the blond huffed. "So how do you play this 'Shogi'?"

Kurama closed his eyes and, after a moment, an oversized table with a board materialized between the bars of the Fox's cage. Naruto moved closer, carefully sticking to 'his side' of the room; Kurama was very particular about personal space and had warned the boy many times not to enter his cage. Examining the board, the boy saw that the fist-sized pieces on top of it were marked with kanji. Great –he couldn't read those yet.

He sat on one end of the board while the Fox moved closer to the other.

"The goal of this game is to capture your opponent's king. The real trick is devising a strategy to do that while preventing your opponent from capturing your king. The rules are very simple."

The Fox pointed a clawed finger towards a number of pieces which had the same kanji on them. "These are the pawns. They can move only one square forward…"

Naruto nodded and payed close attention as Kurama explained how each piece moved.

-XOXO-

"What a bitch," Kurama said, moving his silver general diagonally forward. Holding the small –as far as he was concerned– pieces with his claws was a delicate and bothersome task, but he'd gotten used to it.

"Sakura-chan is not a bitch!" Naruto protested, moving a pawn to counter the general's advance.

Once again, Naruto was inside their shared mindscape. In fact, ever since the sever-year-old had started attending classes at the Academy a few months ago, this was becoming an increasingly regular occurrence. The boy spent his time training in the forest or cooped up in his home playing a 'boring' game with the Fox. He no longer sought out other children of his own kind to play something that appealed more to his energetic nature.

Not that Kurama was worried about the runt. Because he wasn't –not one bit. He was the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, not a nursemaid. The only reason he was being so friendly with the boy was because he was still trying to manipulate him into breaking the seal. It was a long term plan. Not to mention that it was in his own best interest to make sure that the boy stayed sane until that day came.

That's all there was to his interest.

And if he entertained himself by teaching Naruto a few things, where was the harm in that? He had time to spare until his plan came to fruition.

"Are we talking about the same girl here? Pink hair, shrieks like a banshee?" The Fox moved his bishop to reinforce his left flank. "Punched your lights out for talking to her while she was mooning over her 'Sasuke-kun'?"

And, of course, the little Uchiha brat had said nothing when the harpy had hit his classmate hard enough to send anyone without the healing powers of a Tailed Beast at their disposal to the hospital. But what else could one expect from the kin of that accursed Madara? Not that any of the other kids had cared about Naruto getting punched in the face, but the Uchiha spawn was different in the Fox's eyes.

"Well, yeah…" the boy admitted reluctantly. "But–"

Kurama cut through whatever petty excuse the blond would find to defend the pink-haired banshee. "Why are you so interested in her, anyway?"

"She's the most popular girl in the class," the boy replied absently, studying the board, "so if I become her friend, then the others will have to notice me."

The Fox snorted. "If that's the reason why, then you'd be better off trying to become friends with the Uchiha." The black-haired boy really wasn't all that bad, compared to some of his clan Kurama had met over the decades. He had the trademark arrogance, but not the darkness. Perhaps him and Naruto being friends wouldn't be so terrible.

It was Naruto's turn to snort. "He won't even talk to me," the blond said, moving his rook. Kurama gave a short growl as his bishop was taken out of the game. "He probably thinks he's too good to associate himself with a lowly non-Uchiha like me."

Perhaps Kurama had spent a little too much time harping about the Uchiha clan, but it really couldn't be helped. Naruto and the Uchiha-controlled Konoha Military Police Force had been in a trench war for almost three years regarding the boy's 'hobby', so the topic came up often enough.

"True," the Fox grunted in agreement, moving a lance forward to support his silver general. "And what's the real reason you keep talking to the Haruno girl?"

The boy fidgeted self-consciously. "She's the only girl who has hair like mom's."

Ah, so that was it. Kurama could certainly understand why Naruto would choose to latch on to a girl he could pretend was family.

Well, he had to nip that in the bud while there was still time.

"There was more to Kushina than her red hair." He locked eyes with the boy, forgetting all about the game for the moment. "She was a loud-mouthed, prank-loving tomboy, but she was also caring and compassionate. She wouldn't hesitate to beat up anyone who angered her, but it had always been after the morons had insulted her in some way, never just because they annoyed her."

The boy was looking at him enraptured, craving to hear more about the mother he had never met.

"She was your father's pillar during the most difficult times in his life. She may have terrified Minato with her angry outbursts," Kurama chuckled as he remembered the numerous instances the fearsome Yellow Flash had cowered in fear of his girlfriend-turned-wife's temper, "but she never hurt him.

"This Sakura girl may have hair like Kushina's, but that's all she has in common with your mother. Kushina never turned away anyone who wanted to be her friend."

Maybe in a few years the harpy would grow up to become a decent person, but right now she was the worst kind of human the boy could cling to: someone who rejected him repeatedly because she didn't think he was good enough to be her friend.

The blond had been staring the board silently for so long, Kurama wondered whether he might have fallen asleep.

"You're right," the boy said quietly. "She isn't worth it. None of them are."

Crap. Where had that come from? Kurama was trying to get Naruto to stop being a masochist, not to abandon his efforts to make some friends.

"Just because the Haruno girl doesn't want to be friends with you doesn't mean the other kids feel the same way," the Fox said, desperately trying to fix this mess.

"Do you know any of my classmates who'd want to be friends with me?" the boy scoffed. "Because I don't."

Kurama kept his mouth firmly shut. He had noticed that the Nara, the Akimichi, the Aburame, and the Hyuuga kids never made fun of the blond for being second best to the Uchiha brat in every lesson, but they weren't eager to approach him either. Maybe they wouldn't mind being Naruto's friends –or maybe they really were that indifferent about him. Without sensing their emotions, he couldn't be certain. Either way, it would be a terrible idea to tell the boy about them. If the Fox was wrong and they disliked Naruto just as much as the others, then the blond really would go insane from the rejection this time.

Kurama hadn't spent three years caring for the boy only to have four brats ruin everything.

The Fox would have to teach the boy how to sense emotions soon. Hopefully, that would help him find a friend among his own kind.

-XOXO-

"Do you remember everything, kit?"

'Yeah, yeah, I remember,' Naruto said impatiently. The eight-year-old couldn't wait to finally try out his new sensory abilities.

"Pay attention, little brat," Kurama growled. "This is far more advanced than the stuff those fools at the Academy teach you."

Naruto rolled his eyes. The Fox had been grumbling about the ninja Academy's tutors and their uselessness from day one. Not that the blond was any fonder of them. Iruka simply didn't care about him, and Mizuki, the chuunin who occasionally helped the ponytailed tutor with teaching the class, had this I'm-your-best-friend-in-the-entire-world act going that creeped out the blond. The only positive thing that had happened to Naruto during his first year in the Academy was Kurama praising him for being observant enough to see through Mizuki's ploy.

Naruto found a secluded spot near the playground and sat cross-legged on the ground, making sure he was hidden by the bushes. Closing his eyes, he dove into his mindscape, an action that had become as easy as breathing to the boy.

In less than a heartbeat, he found himself in front of Kurama's cage.

"Now then," the Fox said, swishing one of his giant tails, "let's go over this one more time. I'm going to give you a bit of my chakra. It will be different from your normal, human chakra, but don't let this frighten you. I want you to hold on to the red chakra and let it flow through you. Once you get that part down, I'll guide you through the next steps."

"Will I always need your help to do this?"

"Not always," Kurama said. He pointed the end of the swishing tail at the blond. "Your father made this seal to allow a small amount of my chakra to naturally mix with yours, boosting your own considerable reserves. However, the seal imposes a limit on how much you can draw out on your own; likewise, it prevents me from forcing my chakra onto you. Therefore, if you need to use a great amount of my power, then we must come to an agreement.

"But for something as insignificant as this, all you need to do is draw out a little more than the seal already does. It should be a trivial matter, once you get the hang of it."

"What's the maximum amount of your chakra you can offer me?"

"About one tail's worth," Kurama said, placing the tail between them. "It's a laughable amount compared to my full power, but it's more than most humans will ever come to possess."

Naruto only had a vague idea of the Fox's full power, and Kurama had said that each tail increased a Tailed Beast's power exponentially ("That means 'it gets multiplied', you ignorant runt!"), but, even so, he could tell that one tail was a lot of chakra.

"Alright, enough explanations. We can talk about the technicalities after you've mastered this. Get ready, kit." With that, a thread of red chakra leaked out of the Fox's tail and moved towards the boy. Naruto forced himself to stay still as the red chakra approached him and wrapped itself around him. Kurama wasn't kidding; this was scary.

He left his mindscape, but kept his eyes closed.

"Good. Now, reach out and try to feel everyone around you. Use your chakra to locate and connect to theirs. This is just another one of your senses. Extend yourself and search for the flare of others' life-force."

Naruto tried to do as the Fox instructed.

No, it wasn't working; he could feel nothing besides himself, Kurama, and two children on the other side of the bushes. He was about to say that it was useless when he realized that he could feel two children's presence.

"It looks like you can finally sense others, kit," Kurama said, sounding proud.

Naruto grinned from ear to ear and reached out even further, trying to feel more of the kids he'd seen at the playground.

It took a few minutes before he felt the flicker of another's chakra. One by one, more candle flames were added to the first two; he counted twenty-eight of them. Compared to his own, they were nothing more than fireflies. Compared to Kurama's, they were specks of dust in the wind.

'They're so... puny.' Was he really so much more powerful than them?

"Yes, they are," Kurama laughed. "Now, focus your senses on them. Try to tell me what they're feeling."

'I can do that?' The Fox hadn't mentioned that when he'd first explained this sensory ability.

"It's one of my powers. As my vessel, you are going to be able to use it, too. Useful, wouldn't you agree?"

'Definitely.' The boy could think of a lot of uses for such an ability.

Naruto found the tiny flares of chakra again and focused on one of them. Slowly, he began to discover some things about the person this chakra belonged to – like the fact that this person was a boy. The other boy was angry about something. Near that boy was an equally angry girl. Near the two of them was a woman who appeared to be annoyed with both kids.

Naruto giggled. This was great! He could sense what everyone was feeling!

"Did you hear that?" one of the kids behind the bushes said.

"Yeah!" the other kid answered him.

Naruto was too focused on his task to pay any attention to the other children.

The brushes hiding the blond boy were pushed aside by a brown-haired boy around Naruto's age. "Hey, look! There's someone here!"

Again, the blond didn't realize someone was talking about him.

"Enough for today, Naruto," Kurama said, sounding worried for some reason. "We'll practice again tomorrow."

'Give me a minute; I've almost got it.'

"Now, Naruto." Okay, something was definitely wrong; the Fox never panicked. "You need to stop right now!"

There was a gaggle of children around Naruto now.

"It's that kid. The one my mom and dad never let me talk to."

"Yeah, the kid nobody likes."

This time, Naruto heard them. He could also feel their dislike for him; from so close, it was like a slap to the face. He opened his eyes to glare at them and tell them to go away, but before he could get even one word out, one of the girls screamed.

"Mommy! His eyes are red and scary!"

In the blink of an eye, half a dozen adults had rushed to the screaming girl's side.

"NARUTO! CUT OFF THE FLOW OF YOUR CHAKRA!"

Naruto could hear Kurama shouting inside his head, but he was unable to do anything. Like a man on a beach staring at the giant tidal wave that would soon carry him away, he was paralyzed by what he was sensing from the crowd that had gathered around him.

Resentment. Anger. Hatred.

The adults were all reeking with this stuff – and so were the kids. Every single one of them had this jumble of emotions, this... darkness, inside them. And it was all directed at him.

"Look at him! He really is a demon!"

"I knew Hokage-sama should have killed it years ago."

'Killed'? 'It'? Were they talking about him?

Yes, they were. He could feel it as clearly as he could feel his heart beating madly against his ribs. They wanted to kill him. The darkness changed inside them and he realized that they were really going to kill him. If he stayed here, he was going to die.

He didn't want to die!

"Move, kit! Get up and RUN!"

Kurama's voice broke him out of his daze. He scrambled back and ran for his life.

"Turn left and keep going!If we kill these cretins, then they're going to kill you!"

Naruto was short of breath from running so fast, and his mind was still reeling from the fear of death, but he managed to notice something odd in what Kurama had just said. 'Who's going to–'

"The elders, boy!" the Fox snarled. "I told you before, didn't I? Your father may have sealed me inside you to ensure your safety by giving you a new power, but, to the masses, you're Konoha's greatest weapon. What do you think happens when a weapon turns against the people he's supposed to protect?"

Naruto's foot hit a loose stone and he stumbled, but managed to keep running. Soon, he'd arrived at the marketplace. He ducked behind some crates and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no-one was looking towards his hiding spot.

Wanting to make sure that no-one had followed him in his mad dash from the playground to this place, he drew a fraction of the Fox's chakra and tried to find the darkness he'd felt back there.

"NO! Don't do that here!"

It was too late.

What Naruto had failed to take into account was that even though no-one could see him now, everyone had noticed him when he'd ran past them – and they were talking about him. Therefore, when the blond boy extended his senses to find any traces of resentment, anger, and hatred, he'd succeeded almost immediately. Except that this time, the feeling wasn't coming from a mere dozen people.

The darkness was everywhere around him; a taint that seemed to pollute the very air he was breathing. The grocers, the bakers, the bookseller, the women doing their shopping… Everyone had this foul thing inside them.

Naruto couldn't bear it anymore; he screamed.

-XOXO-

Sarutobi Hiruzen's brows were drawn together in deep thought as he studied the report from the chief medic of Konoha's General Hospital.

Uzumaki Naruto had been rushed to the hospital after he'd collapsed screaming in the busiest part of Konoha's marketplace. Even though the medics couldn't find anything wrong with him, the boy was completely unresponsive to all stimuli. The only abnormality were the faint traces of foreign chakra which was in perfect sync with the boy's own.

According to the reports of those present in the playground, Naruto's features had been… altered, somehow, mere minutes before he had collapsed. The boy's eyes had been red instead of his normal light blue, with vertical slits instead of pupils; additionally, the whisker marks on the boy's face had been thicker than normal.

Everything led to a sole conclusion: the demon had tried to take over the boy's body today and was responsible for his comatose state. But the real question was: had the Kyuubi succeeded?

If it had, then the boy could not be allowed to wake up.

The boy's death would be regrettable, but necessary. The Kyuubi was cunning, capable of passing itself off as a human until it was ready to break the seal.

A sharp knock on the door derailed the Hokage's train of thought. No matter. The person requesting an audience was just the one Hiruzen wanted to consult.

"Enter."

The door opened, revealing a dark-haired man with bandages covering his right eye, his right hand in a sling, and a walking stick in his other hand. The cane clacked against the floor as Shimura Danzou, the Hokage's most trusted advisor and friend-turned-rival-turned-friend-again entered the office.

"I was just about to summon you, Danzou," the Hokage said, motioning for the deceptively feeble old man to take a seat.

"I suspected as much," the dark-haired old man said, sitting carefully on the wooden chair. "You are worried about the Kyuubi breaking free –as am I."

"It had been a distinct possibility even before today's incident. The boy has been isolated nearly all his life, and his behavior is borderline bipolar. He either roams Konoha, making a nuisance of himself and playing pranks on everyone in sight, or stays locked up in his house, doing who knows what."

"He has been allowed to run wild for far too long."

The Hokage narrowed his eyes at the thinly veiled admonishment. "You know as well as I do that if I had allowed you to train him when you asked, then his mental balance would be even more precarious than it is right now. Mito-sama's writings clearly state that the only way for a jinchuuriki to control their Bijuu is to create bonds with others."

"As I recall, we had agreed that this was to be your task. And what a remarkable job you have done, old friend." This time, Danzou didn't even try to hide the sarcasm from his voice.

"I've tried more times than I can count to act as the surrogate father figure you expect I should be to the boy," Hiruzen said, clasping his hands together. "But every time I talk to him, I see the faces of those who died that night. The boy might be blameless for the Kyuubi incident, but his entire existence is the reason Kushina's seal had weakened to the point the unidentified person who managed to slip past our security and kill those present during the birth was able to break it completely."

"I see," Danzou muttered to himself. "After all these years, you're still not over Biwako's death."

Hiruzen slammed his fist on the desk. "Not another word about this! There are more important matters to deal with in the present."

"Very well."

"Your thoughts on today's incident?" Hiruzen asked tersely.

"Wait for the boy to wake up," Danzou said with the authority of a man who had commanded Konoha's Black Ops division for decades. "We cannot allow any misjudgments to deprive Konoha of its greatest weapon – not after the near extinction of the Uchiha."

"Then perhaps you shouldn't have been so hasty to order their extermination, old friend," Hiruzen said sternly.

"Perhaps," Danzou admitted. "But you weren't rushing to their rescue, either."

"They plotted to stage a coup and plunge Konoha into civil war," Hiruzen stated with dismissive hand wave. "Then, there's their involvement in the Kyuubi incident eight years ago. No-one but an Uchiha could have controlled the Kyuubi like that. They are responsible for everything that happened that night, either through direct participation or through their inability to keep track of those much vaunted eyes of theirs. Regardless, they brought their fate on their heads."

"Once, not so long ago, this would be something I would say," Danzou pointed out. "And you would try to make me change my mind and show mercy."

"People change," the Hokage replied.

"Indeed. And you used to tell me that emotions were not a weakness, old friend."

The Hokage wasn't going to dignify that with a response. "Be on alert; I will send for you once the boy wakes up. We'll test him together."

"Very well," Danzou said, bowing his head fractionally. "Are you going to visit him in the meantime?"

"What would be the point in that? He won't know I'm there."

"I see. I was just curious."

"And now that your curiosity has been sated, you're dismissed." The Hokage's acerbic tone left no doubt that this conversation was over.

"Very well, Hokage-sama." Danzou stood up, picked up his cane and left the office.

Hiruzen went back to his paperwork.

-XOXO-

Monster!

Why won't you die?

Disappear!

"Go away! Leave me alone!" Naruto's shouts had no effect on the crowd of faceless people yelling at him.

Breathing hard, the boy took a few steps back and tried once again to find a place to hide. It was pointless. This entire space, whatever it was, was completely empty –just as it had been for the past... Naruto didn't know how long he'd been trapped in here. Days? Months?

It didn't matter; it might as well have been centuries. He wasn't getting out of here.

The space turned white once again, making the boy sigh in relief; white meant safe. He wouldn't be harassed by the faceless men for a while. Taking the opportunity to rest and organize his thoughts, he sat down –at least, he assumed there was a floor because the unseen surface allowed him to stand up without plummeting into the endless white.

How had he come here? Where was this 'here'? And how could he get back to the real world?

"Wait. Why do I want to go back again?"

There was nothing for him there. He'd felt it. Everyone around him was so full of resentment and hatred and anger and darkness. They hated him. They would have killed him, if he'd given them the opportunity.

Naruto clenched his fists.

He'd known he wasn't wanted by anyone. He wasn't dumb; he had seen the cold looks, heard the muttered threats. He knew that no-one would miss him if he suddenly vanished from the face of the earth. But never before in his entire life had he seriously considered that they would really want to kill him.

"Why? Why do they hate me so much?"

"...ruto..."

"What did I ever do to all of them?"

"...Naruto..."

"AND WHY DO I HAVE TO JUST SIT BACK AND TAKE IT?"

"…Naruto!"

"WHAT DO YOU WANT, KURAMA?" Rational thought took a moment to reassert itself. "Kurama! You're here!"

"Yes, I'm here. And you'd better show a little more gratitude than that, brat, considering all the trouble I went through to find you again," the Fox growled.

The boy didn't let Kurama's irritable tone get to him. Right now, the Fox could call him a 'puny human' all day long and he wouldn't say a word of protest. He was just glad to hear a friendly voice again –even if that friend was a little bit cranky.

"I'm so glad to see you, Kurama!" He looked around the white space again. "Er, hear you, anyway. Where are you?"

"Where I always am: inside my cell."

"Then... where am I?"

"In some kami-forsaken corner of your mind," Kurama said, sounding a little less crabby. "It took me three days just to find you and quite a few hours to make myself heard to you. In case you haven't already figured it out, none of this was easy. If you were alone, you'd already be dead, little brat."

"Dead?" Naruto squawked. "Was I hurt that badly?"

"Physically? No, you don't have a scratch on you. Mentally? That's a whole other story."

"What does that mean?"

"You're in a coma, kit."

"What?!"

"We messed up. I didn't notice what you were planning to do until it was too late."

"The marketplace..." Naruto mumbled.

"Yes. You weren't ready for that kind of feedback. Your body shut itself down to protect your mind, but the damage had already been done." Even though he couldn't see the Fox, Naruto could feel Kurama's piercing gaze. "You've been seeing them these past three days, haven't you?"

"Yes. They're... everywhere." Naruto responded, shuddering. "They won't leave me alone. I try to close my eyes and they appear, telling me to go away or die… And when I managed to drive them off, another group appears. It never ends." Tears stared falling from the blond's eyes. "Why is this happening, Kurama? Why do they all hate me so much?"

The Fox sighed. "It's because of me, kit. I've told you what happened on the night you were born, haven't I?"

Naruto nodded.

"The whole thing lasted only a few minutes, but the fear lingers. And, since I'm beyond their reach, they turned against the only available target."

"Me."

"You," Kurama agreed. "They're trying to get revenge against me by hurting you."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Naruto yelled forcefully. "How can they think like that? I am not you! I am Uzumaki Naruto! I'm a human being, not a kitsune."

"Yes, well..."

"And even if I were you," Naruto pressed on as if the Fox hadn't spoken, "that's still no excuse. You were forced to attack Konoha!"

"But they don't know that," Kurama pointed out.

"Because they don't care!" Naruto exploded. "They see you as this big, scary demon and don't even think that you might be nice to them!"

"'Nice'? I AM NOT 'NICE'!" Kurama roared. "I AM HATRED MADE FLESH!"

"BULLSHIT!" If there ever was a time to use the forbidden grown-up word, this was it. "You're a better person than all of them combined!" The silence that followed Naruto's outburst was almost audible. "You're the first who saw me for who I am and treated me like a real person!"

"Everyone makes mistakes," Kurama grumbled.

The blond boy smiled broadly; despite the Fox's dismissive tone, it was clear that the boy's words had made him very happy.

Kurama heaved a put-upon sigh, making the boy's grin even broader. "Rest now, kit. You need to recover your strength and return to your body."

Naruto's grin fell. "But the faceless men–"

"You don't need to worry about them. They won't bother you while I'm here."

A tendril or red chakra wrapped itself around the boy, the same way a fox would curl its tail around itself before falling asleep. Naruto sighed in contentment at the warm feeling, closed his eyes, and soon drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

Somewhere out there, his friend was watching over him.

-XOXO-

Through the boy's eyes, Kurama watched the nurse warily as she checked Naruto's vitals and served him a much-needed breakfast.

The boy had woken up last afternoon, after spending nearly a week in a coma. Since then, he'd been recovering at an amazing pace, thanks to the Fox's chakra enhancing the boy's naturally high recovery rate, much to the befuddlement of the medical staff. Naruto would be out of the hospital soon.

Inside the boy's mind, the Fox hissed in irritation.

'Soon' was not nearly soon enough, as far as Kurama was concerned. Having Naruto incapacitated in a place where everyone carried sharp tools and knew at least a dozen potent poisons wasn't the Fox's idea of 'safe'.

Then, there was the matter of everyone's attitude towards the boy. None of the medics tried to hide their distaste when they looked at Naruto, making Kurama wonder what kind of rumors had been circulating these past few days. 'Nothing good, that's for sure.' It only served to rub more salt in the wound.

To complicate matters, ever since the day he'd helped Naruto return to himself, he'd repeatedly found the boy sleeping curled up on his forepaw. Inside the Fox's prison. Truly, the kid must have been damaged in some way to willingly walk into the Kyuubi's den, especially since Kurama had expressly forbidden such a thing on numerous occasions. Not because he cared about the boy's safety, of course. That was a ridiculous notion only a sentimental fool would entertain. He simply didn't want to spent his time trying to resist the temptation to eat the boy's soul before the seal was weakened enough for him to break free.

Yes, that was exactly it. It was for the Fox's comfort.

That was what he kept telling himself.

-XOXO-

Naruto's head snapped to the door when he heard it open.

"Good afternoon, Naruto." The Hokage said as he entered the boy's room; with him was a one-eyed old man with a walking stick.

"Good afternoon, Hokage-sama," the boy replied, trying to hide his surprise. He wasn't expecting anyone to visit him here. His eyes darted to the scarred old man, before settling firmly on the elderly Hokage.

"This is Shimura Danzou," the Hokage said, following the boy's gaze. "He's the leader of the ANBU and one of my most trusted advisors. You can speak freely in front of him."

"Yes, sir. Good to meet you, Danzou-sama." There was no doubt in the boy's mind that he should use the 'etiquette' thing right now.

"Good to meet you too, Naruto." The elder replied with a short but polite nod.

"How are you feeling, child?" The Hokage asked after a few awkward moments of staring at each other.

"Fine, sir. I'm almost completely healed. I'm ready to get out of here!" The boy remembered who he was talking to. "If the doctors agree, of course."

"Of course," the old Hokage said with a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Naruto, Danzou and I wanted to ask you a few question about what happened the other day on the playground and, later, in the marketplace."

"Not good, kit," Kurama said before the boy could answer. "You can't tell them about the Negative Emotions Sensing bit. Just trust me on this one," he added when Naruto tried to protest. "Tell them about using my chakra, but say it was just an experiment and that you're fine now."

'...Okay.'

"What do you want to know, Hokage-sama, Danzou-sama?" The boy asked out loud.

"What did you do that day, Naruto?" The old man in the white and red robes asked.

"I was curious about the chakra of the Fox, Hokage-sama, so I tried–"

"Wait," the Hokage said sharply. "You know about the Kyuubi?"

Naruto flinched at the venom in the old man's voice when he spoke about the Fox. "Yes, sir. I've known for a long time."

Danzou raised his only visible eyebrow. "Why did you keep it a secret, Naruto?"

"I didn't, Danzou-sama." Naruto forced his sweating hands not to clench the bedsheet, feeling profoundly grateful that they weren't trembling. "I just never thought it was important. I mean," the boy added with a nervous laugh, "the Fox has always been there."

"Yes, it would be something you're used to," Danzou said, nodding.

"You said you tried something the other day?"

"Yes, sir." Naruto gulped; he was going to have to lie a lot to get out of this mess without angering the old men. "I tried to use the Fox's chakra. It's part of me, right? So, after the Academy's lessons on chakra manipulation, I figured that I could use it as easily as my own."

"Did you succeed?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Could you give us a demonstration of the harnessed Kyuubi chakra, Naruto?" Danzou asked; the gleam in his eye unnerved the boy.

Naruto nodded and concentrated; he felt Kurama's chakra and drew a small amount of it.

"Be careful now, kit."

Immediately, the world changed. The boy's sight became clearer, his sense of smell sharper. The scent of hospital was now filling his nostrils, making him sneeze and lose his hold on the red chakra.

"Something wrong, Naruto?"

"The scent of the medicine tickled my nose."

The Hokage's eyes widened. "You can smell that?"

"Yes, sir." Naruto closed his eyes and focused again. This time, he was ready for the sharp tang of the antiseptic. What he was not prepared for, however, was the darkness inside this room.

Both old men were surrounded by it. On Danzou, it was hazy, covering him like a blanket but not directed towards anything specific; it was just there, ever present and menacing. On the Hokage, however, it was sharp and clear and directed towards a specific target: him.

Naruto opened his eyes and stared at the Hokage in horror. He'd never been particularly close to the old man, but he knew that if he wanted anything, he only had to ask. The Hokage was one of the few people the boy could count on.

"Interesting." Danzou examined the boy closely. "So, your eyes turn red and the whisker marks become more pronounced when you're using the Kyuubi's chakra. Very interesting," he added, humming thoughtfully.

"Is there a reason you're crying, Naruto?"

"Using this chakra, it..." 'It allows me to sense the evil in others.' "...It hurts, Hokage-sama. It hurts so much." The boy bit his lip, trying to make the tears stop.

"It's alright, Naruto," the Hokage said with another one of his fake smiles that never reached his eyes –or his heart, as the boy could now sense. "You can let go of it now."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," the boy added, wiping his tears. Unseen to him, his eyes had turned back to their normal sky-blue hue and the whisker marks were once again thin lines.

"Does using the Kyuubi's chakra give you any benefits, Naruto?" Danzou asked after the boy had composed himself again.

"Yes, Danzou-sama. It makes my senses more acute. I can see, hear, and smell better than normal." What the boy 'forgot' to mention was that his senses were already keener than the average human's; Kurama's chakra only amplified the effect.

"And are you in control of this power or does the Kyuubi fight you while you use its chakra?"

"I'm in control, sir. The chakra is mine to use however I want."

"Very interesting," the one-eyed old man repeated. "This ability of yours has a lot of potential, Naruto."

Inside the boy's head, Kurama growled and bared his fangs.

"We'll discuss this in length another time," the Hokage said, cutting off whatever Danzou was about to say. "For now, we'll leave you to rest and recover. Good day to you, Naruto."

"Good day to you as well, Hokage-sama, Danzou-sama."

The two old men left the room as silently as they had entered.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Naruto retreated to the safety of his inner world; Kurama wrapped two of his tails protectively around the boy. "I'm sorry you had to find it out this way, kit."

Naruto reached out and wrapped his hands around one of the Fox's tails, grabbing fistfuls of fur. "So there really isn't anyone out there who cares about me."

"That ramen chef and his daughter are always glad to see you."

"Are they?" He was going to have to confirm that.

Naruto idly wondered what he would feel if he used his new sensory ability to examine his classmates. More resentment, probably. Was it even worth trying?

...No, it wasn't. He already had a friend; he didn't need anyone else.

-XOXO-

Kakashi stopped in his tracks when he heard people shouting and cursing from somewhere on his right. Curious, he jumped on the nearest rooftop and looked around.

It didn't take him long to find the source of the commotion.

For a moment, Kakashi wondered if someone had spiked his morning tea with something not strictly legal as payback for his perpetual tardiness, because the sight if front of him shouldn't be possible without the aid of some kind of hallucinogenic. Every shop on the village's busiest street had been painted in various eye-searingly bright color. While neon orange and electric blue managed to look… intriguing, other combinations, like bubblegum pink and lime green, looked less than savory.

Just as he was about to leave and let someone else deal with this mess, he heard a cold, harsh laughter from somewhere on his right.

His head snapped around. When he found the source of the sound, his eyes –both the visible and the hidden one– widened in horrified disbelief.

Naruto was sitting on top of a nearby rooftop. The nine-year-old was examining the chaos beneath his feet with a smile that made Kakashi's hair stand on edge. It was not the bright, innocent grin of child; it was the calculating, vindictive smirk of a jaded adult who had just managed to thoroughly defeat his enemies and achieve revenge. His blue eyes seemed to glow with excitement – and did they have vertical slits instead of pupils?

Kakashi drew a sharp breath, forgetting all his training at the sight.

Naruto turned his head to look at him; the boy's smirk widened. "Catch me if you can!"

The blond gave that cold, cackling laugh again and took off in the direction of the Academy faster than a pre-genin should be able to. It wouldn't have mattered if he'd been walking at the pace of a snail, though; Kakashi was not able to move from this spot.

What the hell had happened to his sensei's son?

-XOXO-

"It can't go on like this, Hokage-sama!"

Kakashi was pacing the Hokage's office, waving his hand for emphasis as he spoke, trying to make the old man understand. In the days following Naruto's latest prank, he'd done a little sniffing around. What he'd found had left him... 'Disturbed' would not be enough to describe how he was feeling right now.

Naruto was out of control. In the span of one year, he'd gone from a solitary, rather introverted boy who pulled the occasional recreational prank as a means of acknowledgement, to a troublemaking punk who terrorized the entire population of Konoha –even the ANBU!– with his creative and borderline dangerous traps. What was more worrisome, however, was that his scores at the Academy hadn't been affected by his descend to anarchy. Quite the opposite, in fact; the boy's grades had never been higher. He excelled at the shinobi arts, tying with the Last Uchiha for the spot at the top of the class.

Kakashi hadn't been able to find what had caused this radical change, but he was beginning to suspect that it was somehow connected to the incident at the marketplace one year ago.

"Naruto is turning into a psychopath. He's punishing those who belittle him –I know he calls them 'pranks', but they're clearly acts of revenge. He's training himself into the ground every day. He has no friends! As soon as he graduates from the Academy –probably at the top of his class– he's going to be a menace to everyone. This had to stop!"

Seeing as the old man didn't say anything, Kakashi kept talking. "Let me take him as an apprentice., Hokage-sama. I'll try to reverse whatever damage has been done to him, though–"

"Alright, Kakashi."

Kakashi paused mid-rant and blinked at the Hokage, completely thrown off track by the old man's almost immediate acceptance. Somehow, he'd figured he'd need to be a lot more persuasive than that to achieve his goal.

"You have my permission to train Uzumaki Naruto," the Hokage said gravely. "He's yours. Do your best to turn the unruly boy into a shinobi worthy of the Leaf."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said with a small bow. "I'll talk to Naruto about this tomorrow morning."

'I won't let you down again, sensei.'


Author's Notes:

Fun fact: I first heard 'Who taught You How to Hate' after I started writing this chapter. Naturally, I thought it fit like a glove (seriously, the lyrics seem to be made for this story). It actually prompted me to rewrite parts of it and make it darker.

-X-

Dialogue:

"speech": normal (human) speech

"speech": Kurama speaking to Naruto when the boy is outside the mindscape

"speech": Kurama speaking to Naruto when the boy is inside the mindscape (since they're in each other's presence)

'thought': normal (human) thoughts

'thought': Kurama's thoughts

-X-

Kurama: He might seem to be a bit OOC as the years go by, but that's only because he's becoming friends with Naruto much sooner than in canon.

During the War, we see that the Fox is a tsundere with a wicked sense of humor, who isn't above laughing at Naruto when he does something stupid (charging Obito without Sage Mode comes to mind). In Naruto Gaiden, we see that Kurama is bored out of his mind after so many years of having nothing to do because of the peace between the Elemental Nations; he practically jumps at the opportunity to let loose and pummel someone.

-X-

The Negative Emotions Sensing training: Allow me to point out that none of the adults –or the kids, for that matter– made a move against Naruto. Naruto simply felt their desire to kill him and fled before they did anything other than stand there and call him names, wishing they didn't have to suffer his presence.

As for Naruto's 'exaggerated' reaction: He's not sixteen years old, having fought many tough enemies, and discovering this ability in the middle of a War. He's an eight-year-old boy with no combat experience. This is the first time his life has been threatened, and it's not during a mission; it's in the heart of his home, the only place a ninja is supposed to be safe. (Reminder: when Naruto encountered the Demon Brothers in canon, he froze up out of fear.)

In canon, Naruto gained the ability to sense negative emotions after he defeated Kurama and took some of the Fox's chakra for his personal use. Here, that's not necessary, since Kurama offers his power voluntarily. Naruto can use the Fox's chakra any time he wants, not only under extreme duress. In short, he has the control he had during the Fourth Shinobi World War, but with the seal's limitations still in place.

-X-

Sarutobi Biwako: The Third Hokage's wife was a medical ninja. She and her disciple, Taji, were the midwives who helped deliver Naruto. Tobi killed both of them before kidnapping Kushina and releasing the Kyuubi.

-X-

Naruto doing well in the Academy: Unlike canon, this time the boy has someone to help him: Kurama. The Fox may not be able to teach Naruto directly, but he assigns homework to the boy and gives him pointers when he messes up. It might not seem much, but a simple 'you're throwing that kunai wrong, try it again with a different angle' and 'study this scroll about chakra control' is a pretty big deal.

-X-

Iruka not caring about Naruto (yet): In canon, it was the Third Hokage who told Iruka to try to connect with the boy. However, Sarutobi is not so concerned about Naruto's wellbeing here.

Likewise, Kiba isn't in Kurama's mental list of kids who might want to be Naruto's friends because he's too loud-mouthed and antagonistic towards the blond. It's just who Kiba is, but Kurama doesn't care about such distinctions.

-X-

Kana: They are syllabic Japanese scripts, a part of the Japanese writing system contrasted with the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji. The modern, commonly used kana scripts are: cursive hiragana (ひらがな), and angular katakana (カタカナ). Each kana character (syllabogram) corresponds to one sound in the Japanese language. This is always CV (consonant onset with vowel nucleus), such as ka, ki, etc., or V (vowel), such as a, i, etc., with the sole exception of the C grapheme for nasal codas usually romanised as n.

-X-

Bipolar Disorder: It's a mental disorder characterized by periods of elevated mood (mania) and periods of depression.

Now, obviously, Naruto isn't bipolar. However, to someone who doesn't know that Naruto spends his free time talking to Kurama inside his head, the time he spends in his home doing nothing could be considered the 'depressed' period, while the time he runs around training and pulling pranks is the 'manic' period. It's a perfectly valid misdiagnosis.

-X-

Who taught the infamously rude Naruto (some) manners: The Sandaime, of course. You can imagine the conversation, can't you? 'Hello, jii-chan!' 'No, Naruto, you can't call me that. I'm the Hokage, you have to address me with the proper respect.'

Before you protest, Naruto is rude. The only ones of the heroes ruder than him are Sasuke and Shikamaru. Sasuke uses the same pronouns as Naruto ('Ore' for 'I', 'Omae' for casual 'you', 'Temee' for rude 'you', 'Anta' for polite 'you') and even forgoes the honorifics, which Naruto doesn't (he just uses overly familiar ones). Trivia: Sasuke has never added the honorific 'sensei' to Kakashi's name (in the manga); not even once. Shikamaru, while not prone to using 'temee' even half as much as the other two, drawls and contracts everything; needless to say, that is considered very rude, in addition to lazy.


Thank you for reading! Please, review and share your thoughts.


Edit: 29 April 2016 – Fixed some spelling mistakes.